Penny Dreadful - The Complete First Season

The Showtime network offered up a compelling original series in the winter of 2014 in the form of "Penny Dreadful - The Complete First Season". A tease of a season (only eight episodes) appears here on a 3-disc set and brings the look and feel of 19th century Victorian times to life.

Creator John Logan inventively brings to life classic literature characters all in the same show and includes Victor Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, and Dracula. He weaves together origin stories of said characters amidst the backdrop of London in the 1800s. The show's influence is based on the "penny dreadful" pulp fiction stories that were popular in the 19th century.

Because there are so few episodes, each character is only touched upon, creating a large sense of mystery and intrigue for the viewer. Penny Dreadful stories were lurid for their time, and Showtime's series features copious amounts of sex, nudity, and graphic violence. Dorian Gray gets most of the action, and he and actor Josh Hartnett embrace in a much-talked about passionate love scene.

And for the huge Hartnett fans out there, "Penny Dreadful" features the sexy actor in various stages of undress. His bare arse alone almost justifies the purchase of the Blu-ray.

But what of the actual "Penny Dreadful" Blu-ray features? A whopping nine of them are prominently listed on the back Blu-ray cover. Sounds like an overabundance of bonus material, eh? Not quite. Each of these behind-the-scenes run two to three minutes and appears to be promo shots filmed at the time of the show's release.

The title of the feature "What is a Penny Dreadful?" speaks for itself, "Literary Roots" briefly looks at the show's characters, and "Coming Together" takes a look at the shows filming location of Ireland. A fascinating look at how London's Grand Theatre was recreated is shown in "The Grand Guignol" and "The Artisans" (split into two parts) examines London in the Victorian age. For the big fanatics of Showtime's "Ray Donovan" show, the first two episodes from season one can be viewed on disc 3.

At a retail cost of almost $50, eight episodes and 20-minutes of special features (save for the "Ray Donovan" episodes) seems a bit hefty. But if you're a huge enough fan of this renewed Showtime show, then by all means give in and purchase this old-fashioned horror psychosexual drama.

"Penny Dreadful"
Blu-ray
$48.99
www.Sho.com