TV Review Catch Up 4

The last review catch up post until I again have a ridiculous backlog. Or rather until sometime after I have a ridiculous backlog probably.

1. Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels

Penny Dreadful was a supernatural Victorian-set show in which a team of previously existing fictional characters (plus a couple of originals) are brought together to fight vampires, following which they follow their own interests which cause more trouble than the vampires (and in the second season, witches). Meanwhile the true horror is the (real) Victorian mental health “system”.

That’s not quite the format of this spin-off in 1938 Los Angeles. Rather than use the fictional period heroes (probably trademarked and copyrighted) it uses fictional versions of real people, places and events, more like a standard period piece. Although some characters are aware of supernatural shenanigans, no one actually realises that there’s a single woman, the sister of Santa Muerta (who gives people easy deaths) behind most of the events. In the prologue she kills the father of the Vega family, who are the other pole of the story. The mother works for the head of the German-American Bund, who want to keep America out of European war, though some of them want to embrace Nazism. One son is the first Chicano detective in the LA police, paired with a grizzled Jewish veteran who is spying on the Nazis. Another son is involved with Pachanco criminals, another big in his union until he’s shot, and the daughter drifts away from the (already-weirdly Santa Muerta centred) Catholicism of the family to the temple run by sister Molly. Who is involved somehow in the Aztec-ritual themed murder that kicks off the plot.

This has some excellent set-pieces, and the episode where they interrogate a guy accused of killing a cop is dense with lies, secrets and unexpected turn abouts in a way that too many such scenes fail at. The motorway, which would in most 30s-set shows follow the noir trope of being a corrupt land deal, is here instead an attempt to destroy the Chicano community, raising racial tensions to benefit a political figure and also the Nazi agenda. A little unsubtle sometimes, though subtlety was not exactly the original Penny Dreadful’s selling point either.

It ends on something of a downer, and a cliffhanger too. Unfortunately it does not seem to have been renewed so we’re left with a riot-torn Los Angeles, being dragged towards destruction by Nazis, evangelicals and ambitious politicians with amysterious supernatural figure urging them on.

Watch This: For some 30s supernatural noir adventure whose true horror is rooted in history
Don’t Watch This: If you want any kind of happy ending

2. Miracleworkers: The Dark Ages

The same cast as Miracleworkers but playing different characters (from a story by the same guy who wrote the story Miracleworkers was based on). In the medieval village of Lower Mirkwood, Alexandra Shitshoveler wants to do something other than join the family business (shitshovelling). Prince Chauncely, up at the castle, is okay with princing in general, but is a wimp and something of an intellectual while his father is a stoic war-monger, who is constantly disappointed in him. The two keep crossing paths.

The show isn’t interested in actual medieval life, however broadly drawn, which is a pity as that might have been cleverer and more interesting. It’s at its best when it takes a modern occurrence and translates it into a ridiculous new/old mish-mash. For example Shit-Con where all the shitshovelers meet and a Steve Jobs-esque figure reveals his new invention – a hole for shitting in.

Watch This: For a broad, cartoonish medieval-flavoured comedy that is a little interested in relationships and family
Don’t Watch This: For innovative or interesting history jokes

3. Perry Mason

It turns out that not only did we need a Perry Mason reboot, we needed a 30s California Noir Perry Mason Origin Story. I’m sorry I didn’t predict this.

Mason starts as a PI, and in between doing work for veteran lawyer E B Jonathan he blackmails movie studios by selling them photos of their stars breaking their morals clauses. As the story gets going a kidnapping goes wrong and the baby is killed and first the father and then the mother are arrested and accused. The plot weaves in and out of the Temple of the Radiant Assembly of God and through a corrupt cop, leading the DA to pull out all the dirty tricks to convict Emily Dodson, the mother.

The show is cast and plotted with masterful craftsmanship. Everyone has secrets and a dark past, with Perry haunted by his experiences of the Great War and suffering from his divorce. Which explains but does not excuse his attempts to hurt his friends when things are going wrong. Most interesting might be Sister Alice, the heart of the Radiant Assembly, who causes a schism when she promises a miracle. And this is what was most exciting about the show; this is a new version of Perry Mason. We don’t know what that means. Can she deliver on the miracle? If so is the crime not what it appears? Is there a way out of this? Or is it a trick?

[SPOILERS]

Of course it’s a trick, this is Perry Mason, there’s no way out but through the courtroom. Yet Della Street has a trick after E B Jonathan is removed as a lawyer, and it’s a trick that is close to a miracle. And although Sister Alice makes the claim that the reason one of her miracles didn’t stick is because of a lack of faith, that’s not what the conclusion says. Mason has a last trick to play, but in fact he’s performed a miracle. Despite not having faith.

Watch This: For a really first rate period noir mystery with strong courtroom scenes
Don’t Watch This: If a dead baby and near constant betrayals and dark secrets will turn you off
There Are A Number Of Parallels: Between this and Penny Dreadful:City Of Angels, most notably both having versions of the real evangelical preacher of the period, Sister Aimee Semple McPherson. Both draw from 1930s California Noir, and at the moment when Penny Dreadful was at it's most grounded and political, Perry Mason was flirting with Sister Alice performing miracles. They make good companion pieces.