Penny Dreadful is being talked about quite a bit lately despite the fact it ended several years ago. Showtime is now working on a sequel series titled Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. The new series will take place in a new time period and setting but some of the same actors will be returning to play new characters.
The original Penny Dreadful is still thought of as an excellent gothic horror series. Unfortunately, it was cancelled suddenly during its third season and left many plotlines and story ideas unresolved.
Brona and Ethan
Ethan and Brona were never a super popular pairing. They were always overshadowed by Ethan and Vanessa who many fans believed were the superior couple as they were easily the most popular romance on the show, despite their tragic end.
However, the show spent a fair amount of time on the relationship between Brona and Ethan. Eventually, Brona dies and is eventually reanimated by Victor. But Ethan never sees her again, even after she becomes Lily Frankenstein. It seems like sloppy writing to not at least have Ethan find out Lily/Brona is alive again. We should have ultimately seen them together once more for a degree of closure.
No one knew what Victor was doing
To tie in with the above plotline about Lily/Brona being reanimated never being revealed to Ethan, most of Victor’s experiments were happening in a completely separate plotline.
Considering how many bodies he was experimenting on, you would think more characters would be aware and potentially have their own opinions about Victor’s sick fantasies and indulgences. Instead, he was pretty much free to do what he wanted without anyone getting in his way.
Dr. Jekyll/Hyde
What a waste of a major character! Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde is one of the most notable literary characters of all time. Like Dorian Gray and Dracula, he has his own place in the classic echelon of literature, and yet he is wasted on Penny Dreadful.
Not once do we see Jekyll make the legendary transformation into Hyde. He merely changes his name to “Lord Hyde,” as a shoutout to the novel. It would have been nice if the series had actually explored his story more rather than letting him disappear into the background. Even if they wanted to put a twist on his classic narrative, it should have been more than a simple name change.
Dracula
Most fans would agree that Dracula wound up being something of a letdown. Many were excited to see the series introduce such a legendary character only to find his storyline was rather poorly executed and only served to rehash much of the same story beats we already saw in season two. Even more upsetting is the fact that Dracula is at fault for Vanessa’s death, yet the end of the series doesn’t do anything with his character.
He’s free to walk off into the sunset, so to speak. Dracula is not killed off, for some reason. He basically gets a happy ending despite being the worst big bad of the show. After all that, we’re supposed to be content with him going free and getting away with everything?
Vanessa’s death
Vanessa’s death is perhaps the hottest point of contention among Penny Dreadful fans. Some believe the ending was fitting for her character who had suffered so much over these three seasons that she deserved to go in peace. While many others were extremely angry at the fact Vanessa was never allowed to be happy and had to live with the weight of the world on her shoulders.
It didn’t help that with the show’s sudden cancellation her death scene felt somewhat rushed and came out of nowhere. Especially because she asks Ethan to ultimately kill her. It’s a tragic end to the romance, and the taste becomes even more bitter after the writers decided to foist a season-long separation on the pair. Vanessa’s death simply doesn’t ring true for her character or the overall plot.
Wolf of God
We know that Ethan is a bloodthirsty werewolf but he is also referred to as the “Wolf of God,” which is meant to be that he is not your ordinary werewolf. But the show doesn’t really do much with this.
It introduces the idea that Ethan is a powerful being and is capable of mass destruction, as we see evidenced by the massacres and atrocities he commits in his wolf form, but ultimately the fact he has this label doesn’t play a big part in the story. However, like many of the other plot points on this list, there is a chance this idea would have been explored further in a fourth season had the show continued onwards.
Ethan and Vanessa’s separation
We briefly mentioned this above but after an intense and well-written development of the Ethan and Vanessa relationship in the first two seasons of the series, the two are forced apart in season three. Ethan is sent to America in a storyline many fans detested and Vanessa was left to contend with Dracula.
All of this is made even stranger since we know that technically Ethan is supposed to be Vanessa’s protector, even if them being together could cause destruction. The series deciding to separate them for its final run only to have Ethan kill her in the end doesn’t sit right with many fans.
Dorian Gray’s character
Dorian was built up to be a big bad on the series. He appeared to be headed towards becoming a potential serious threat and antagonist. The first two seasons of the show had his character going in interesting directions story-wise, but sadly, the series seemed to forget about him or decide they didn’t know what they wanted to do with the character.
After receiving a heavy spotlight early on, he basically fades into the background come season three and has little to do. For a notable character like Dorian Gray, it was disappointing to see him ultimately not have much purpose.
Sembene’s lack of development
Sembene was the only central non-white character on the show and he became a popular fan-favorite. He was a known confidant to Malcolm in addition to being his long-time butler.
Most fans agree that Sembene deserved better as his character was often shafted and underutilized. Even more disappointing is the fact he was ultimately brutally murdered.
The waste of Mina Murray
Mina Murray is another character who was severely underutilized on the show. The first season followed Malcolm on his mission to track her down as she was his daughter. When they ultimately find Mina, she has been turned into a vampire and must be killed to protect Vanessa. But Mina had a colorful history with Vanessa from when they were young and she was a big part of the Dracula story.
But we never get to see her interact with other characters from the Dracula world on the show. She dies off fast and it feels like it was pointless for the series to name her Mina when they could have given her a regular name and brought the real Mina in the show during the third season.
