Penny Dreadful: City of Angels — Series 1 Episode 4 — Josefina and the Holy Spirit — A Review

17th May, 2020.

It’s got to be said, it’s Sunday night: and I think I’m getting into something of a habit.

Earlier this year?

I managed to the twelfth series of Dr Who: that pile of reviews is on YouTube, if you’re interested.

And, with Sunday night’s free, at the moment … ?

I’m catching up with more TV!

Whilst listening to Revolution 9 …  

And listening to Cabaret Voltaire’s Chance Versus Causality.

Which are both amazing … but not necessarily amazing as what I’ve been watching on TV.

Yes: I’ve caught another episode of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels first series.

~≈ß≈~

Episode 4 — Josefina and the Holy Spirit — opens with the traditional summary of last week’s episode … 

Then shows us Santa Muerte* (Lorenza Izzo) in an unnamed Mexican village: where two Jewish American travellers stop to rest … 

And who are murdered by an unnamed group, along side a local family: leaving Muerte to do her job, as she must.

The scene shifts: to the Precinct house base of Tiago Vega (Daniel Zovatto), summoned to a meeting with Captain Vanderhoff (Brent Spiner) … who’s is frustrated by the lack of progress on the Hazlett case, and wants more investigation of Sister Molly (Kerry Bishé).

Including no-holds-barred investigating of the beach house she spends he time in.

Meanwhile … ?

Meanwhile, Dr Craft (Rory Kinnear) is getting dangerously close to Elsa (Natalie Dormer) at his son’s birthday party … 

And Detective Michener (Nathan Lane)?

Is having his own oh-so-Faustian dealings with mobster, Benny Berman‡ (Brad Garrett^).

As for Matteo and Josefina (Johnathan Nieves and Jessica Garza), Tiago’s younger brother and sister?

They have another set of demons to deal with …

Demons with uniforms.

As Madga, Natalie Dormer’s character in episode one, says?

“All mankind needs to be the monster he truly is … is being told he can.”

Episode Four is showing us monsters, all right …

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Now … what did I make of episode four, of Josefina and the Holy Spirit?

Put simply?   Showtime have served up another blinding episode of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels.

Fro the very little I’ve seen, some folks have their doubts about the show: feeling it doesn’t necessarily live up to the original show’s roots in the eponymous Victorian magazines.

I think I’d beg to differ, there.

In making Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, I think Showtime, and show runner, John Logan, have made a series that — in part — is a detective story based, in part on the old pulps: the US equivalent of the old Dreadfuls.

Ans places where Louis L’Amour, Earle Stanley Gardnerª and H. P. Lovecraft got a start, as much as Charles Dickensº.

Either way?

I think the two series have the same roots: just in different soils.

It’s showing us the supernatural, all: working through humans, rather than witches or vampires.

~≈ß≈~

Then there’s the cast and the writing … 

Thus far?   Thus far I think John Logan and co are playing blinders on the writing front: yes, Josefina and the Holy Spirit opens with the Angel of Death doing her job, whist the devil (Natalie Dormer as Alex, Elsa and Rio) … and are ratcheting the plot forwards in ways you only see coming, once they’ve gone past.

Elsa is causing trouble with the German American Bund front by Dr Craft, and in the good doctor’s marriage.

Rio … ?   Egging on Mateo to gain revenge for what’s happened to Josefina.

Alex … ?   Is possibly the nastiest political character since Sir Humphrey Appleby.

And that is just a small part of an ensemble piece that is both watchable, riveting … and horrifying in parts.

What happened to Josefina is the heart-break at the heart of this episode: and something I suspect will have repercussions.

Did you ever see an old Buffy: The Vampire Slayer episode called The Body?   The episode where Buffy’s mother, Joyce, dies of a stroke?

I feel The Body is quite possibly the best bit of TV ever made.

I feel the scene of how Josefina is assaulted, how she reacts to it, how her family don’t notice her suffering, being more focused on Mateo?

Are;

• Beautiful.
• On a par with The Body.

OK.   One of the stars of the show, as ever, is Nathan Lane: he’s putting in a performance on a par with Michelle Hurd in Star Trek Picard.

But Josefina’s scenes?

Make this episode of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels not only powerful, but watchable.

Let’s hope they carry this on, next week!

*        The headscarf Izzo†’s wearing as Santa Muerte is close to being a Spanish mantilla: although Old Peculiar regular, Olga, informs us the comb is more like a Russian Kokoshnik, than a traditional Spanish peineta.   (It has to be said, my iMac’s autocorrection software thinks I’m trying to say ‘peanut’!)

†        I have to give Lorenza Izzo credit for using her face well in that scene.   Muerte doesn’t like what she’s seen, not one bit.   She’s saddened and angered.   But she can’t do anything to interfere.   It’s not her job.   (I suspect her job is much like Death’s in Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels.   His job’s not to make people die, or prevent their death.   Merely to take them where they’re supposed to go, once they’ve died …)

‡        Berman is fictional: but works for the real world Meyer Lansky: the head of Murder, Inc, the alliance of Jewish American and Italian American mobsters.

^        Who is 6’9” … !   Compared to the 5’6” Nathan Lane, Garrett is big.   Personally?   I’m 5’2”: and used to people being bigger than me.    But it’s still something to see Lane leaning backwards to play a scene with Garrett.

ª        I know the Old Peculiar’s other regular, Debbi, is a fan of Gardner’s work: and the hard-boiled genre of detective novels.   From what I can seen, it’s what inspired her — in part — to write in The genre.

º        I don’t think Dickens’ work featured in the Dreadfuls: but were in the slightly more up market magazines aimed at the middle classes.   Marks and Spencers, as opposed to Lidl.