WiC Watches—Penny Dreadful: City of Angels season 1
By Dan Selcke
(L-R): Kerry Bishe as Sister Molly and Daniel Zovatto as Tiago Vega in PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, “Dead People Lie Down”. Photo Credit: Justin Lubin/SHOWTIME.
Episode 2: “Dead People Lie Down”
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels continues to be dense, dark and compelling in its second installment. The first episode wasn’t a fluke. We have liftoff.
You’ve gotta feel for Tiago. He shot his brother, who is now clinging to life in a hospital, on a respirator. And I get why he did it: under Magda’s influence, Raul was killing cops left and right during last week’s riot, and Tiago is police officer. But obviously that’s not going to matter to Mateo, who was there and saw what went down, and who knows how Maria will react when she hears what exactly happened between her sons?
I almost feel like Penny Dreadful is pulling its punches by letting Raul live — I’m pretty sure that’s what was implied by the ending when Santa Muerte shows up at the hospital, apparently taking an interest in human life despite what she said about maintaining a distance in the premiere. And he’s conscious in the preview for the next episode, so this isn’t a spoiler. Leaving him dead would have left the family shattered. Letting him live could let Tiago off the hook a bit.
But the situation is still brutal. And that’s on top of all the casual (and not so casual) racism the family faces throughout the episode. Easily the most terrifying incident comes when a cop pins Mateo against a vending machine and starts to bore his eye out — the guy’s partner lost an eye in the riot, and apparently Mateo is going to pay for that. Only the intervention of Fly Rico (Sebastian Chacon), who obviously has a history with the police, saves him. I think we can all see that Mateo is going to be drawn into the world of Mexican street gangs, and it’s impossible to blame him after that.
Other moments wear on the family. There’s the doctor who coldly tells Tiago that they’ll have to remove his brother’s respirator in a day, no doubt so a cop can use it. A nurse says that Maria shouldn’t pray on the floor next to her son’s sickbed because it’s “unsanitary.” (The first shot of the episode is of Maria preparing her knees for a long day of kneeling; it’s a great little touch.) Tiago and Lewis’ captain (Brent Spiner) tells them point-blank to find a Mexican scapegoat for the brutal murder of the white Hazlett family, lest Los Angeles explode in facial conflict. With all of this, I was completely with Tiago when he went into the hospital stairwell and freaked out for a second. Wouldn’t you?
This show is just drenched in high emotion like that. I’m also trying to watch the new season of Westworld over on HBO, which puts a slick sheen over everything. This is the perfect tonic.
(L-R): Daniel Zovatto as Tiago Vega and Nathan Lane as Detective Lewis Michener in PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, “Dead People Lie Down.” Photo Credit: Warrick Page/SHOWTIME.
Despite everything, Tiago still keeps his head down and does his job with admirable clear-headedness. A lot of the episode is given over to Lewis and Tiago’s investigation of the Joyful Voices Ministry, where James Hazlett kept books, before he and his wife and children were horribly killed. Adelaide Finnister (Amy Madigan), who’s high up in the church, stonewalls them with barely concealed contempt, and it’s not just because she’s an our-and-proud bigot; as Lewis points out, she’s obviously hiding something.
Lewis is great, by the way. I’ve never seen Nathan Lane is this kind of tough-as-nails role before, but it totally works. I love how he fires off film noir bon mots all night. (Tiago: “You think she’s a fraud?” Lewis: “I think everyone’s a fraud.”) I love his crew of elderly Jewish Nazi hunters — no one told me Richard King was in this show. A shame he was killed at the end of the episode. His friend told him he was following the car too close. But Lewis and Dottie (Lin Shaye) survive, and they’re a team I can get behind.
The show is setting Lewis up as a mirror of Tiago; most of the police force is unthinkingly racist, but they’re both outsiders, both members of marginalized groups that will be put in all the more danger if nationalism and hatred of the kind Magda is trying to fan takes ahold of the city.
Anyway, back to the investigation, Finnister’s daughter Molly (Kerry Bishé) is far more cooperative than her mother. Molly is a televangelist, but her act looks more like a vaudeville routine. In front of thousands of parishioners, she sings “I Can’t Get Started,” which is a nice song but it’s hardly a hymn. What kind of church is this?
Well, apparently it’s more like a cult, because when their famous star isn’t rolling them in the aisles, the church has Molly backstage washing dishes. That’s where Tiago finds her. He’s there to question her about James Hazlett’s death, but they really open up to each other about their pain. For a child star who’s racist mother may or may be involved in a multiple murder, Molly seems remarkably well-adjusted, and there’s a definite spark between the two of them. (Molly: “Have you been saved, detective?” Tiago: “Are you offering?”) Is this the start of something real, or is Molly a sheep in wolf’s clothing? We’re in the world of film noir, remember: you have to consider these things.
Finally, Magda is still doing her thing, manipulating Councilman Charlton Townsend (Michael Gladis) into using the riot over the building of what will become the Arroyo Seco Parkway to raise his public profile, and continuing her seduction of Doctor Craft. As the put-upon German mother Elsa, Magda “runs into” Craft on the beach, fans the flames of his nationalism, and lets her creepy not-son play with his kids. Later, there’s a spooky What Lies Beneath moment where Craft is having sex with his wife and she turns into Elsa, inflaming his passion and “embarrassing” his wife. It’s awkward to watch, but it wouldn’t be Penny Dreadful if it didn’t go for the grand gesture.
That’s what I’m enjoying most about this show so far: the operatic excess of it. I also like that it’s distinguishing itself so thoroughly from the first Penny Dreadful. There, the heroes were fighting against the supernatural monsters, and had supernatural powers themselves. Here, I somehow doubt the season will end in a literal standoff with Magda. She’s more of a metaphor, and the humans are going to have to sort out their problems themselves, which is much harder.