Penny Dreadful
SHOWTIME | SYA | Release Date: May 11, 2014
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 60 Critic Reviews
Positive:
50
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyMay 4, 2015
Season 2 Review: It’s a show rife with bad decisions, though only people who can take several steps back are likely to find the humor. The characters themselves rarely run into much occasion for merriment. Read full review
60
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen GrayMay 9, 2014
Season 1 Review: A Victorian monster mash-up that swirls the stories of Frankenstein, Dracula, Dorian Gray and Jack the Ripper into an unsavory, intermittently intriguing stew. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyMay 8, 2014
Season 1 Review: If you enjoy the challenge of doing complex jigsaw puzzles in low light, Penny Dreadful will be your cup of tea. Just make sure it really is tea in the cup. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMay 9, 2014
Season 1 Review: Penny Dreadful is too neat, too tasteful and narcotizing, for a work that's full of diseases and serial killers and classist atrocity; not a single monster, lantern, fog cloud, cobblestone, corset or candle is out of place. This kitsch leaves no marks. Read full review
50
SlateWilla PaskinMay 9, 2014
Season 1 Review: The results are scattershot. A few of the storylines work beautifully.... But Dorian Gray’s tryst with a tubercular prostitute (Billie Piper) reaches no such heights, delivering the nudity that pay cable customers apparently require, but not much else. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushMay 9, 2014
Season 1 Review: Atmospheric and overheated, it's often as lurid and messy as American Horror Story and almost as indulgent and incoherent, with characters from Dracula, Frankenstein, The Picture of Dorian Gray and assorted other legends of yore intersecting in an occultist brew. Read full review
50
Washington PostHank StueverMay 9, 2014
Season 1 Review: It’s rare to see a show get its style so right and its story so backwards. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesLori RacklMay 5, 2014
Season 1 Review: The series is artfully shot, superbly acted by Eva Green (“Casino Royale”) and boasts an impressive pedigree (producer Sam Mendes of “Skyfall” and “American Beauty”), but it lacks the compelling quality of the pulpy fiction that spawned its pejorative name. Read full review
42
The Detroit NewsTom LongMay 9, 2014
Season 1 Review: For those who crave monsters and gore at any cost, this may do. All others beware. Read full review
40
Under The RadarLily MoayeriMay 9, 2014
Season 1 Review: Overall, it took Once Upon a Time a season to fall flat; Penny Dreadful does that immediately. Read full review
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