The monster is not in my face, but in my soul.

(Image Credit: KryptonRadio)

OK. I literally saw signage everywhere around Comic Con. They did it. They got their message across. So, naturally, I decided to binge watch the first season of Penny Dreadful this weekend. The first thing that drew me to the show was Josh Hartnett. Now, I fell in love with his face when he was in The Faculty and Halloween H20. For some reason, I thought he was in way more prepubescent teenage movies movies but... He wasn't. Either way, I knew I had to give it a shot.

Hit the more button to check the review. 

I found myself saying, "What the hell am I watching?" during almost every episode. It's twisted but then you get hooked on wanting to know more. It's not your typical series where things unravel throughout each episode. Things are sporadic and you find out the story about one character way later which makes you understand what was going on in the first place. Okay. That was a HORRIBLE explanation. 

The show stars Josh Hartnett (Ethan Chandler), Timothy Dalton (Sir Malcolm Murray), Eva Green (Vanessa Ives), Reeve Carney (Dorian Gray), Danny Sapani (Sembene), Harry Treadaway (Victor Frankenstein) and Rory Kinnear (The Creature). There are more, but I would just be naming off the whole cast. 

Let me give you the rundown and try to sell you on the show because Lord knows I was confused just by watching the trailer: 

There are about three or four stories intertwined within the series. It starts off with a brutal, graphic murder who people believe is Jack the Ripper who is coming back to torture the town. However, no one knows for certain it is him. Meanwhile, Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) is set on finding his kidnapped daughter, Mina. Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) recruits Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett) to aide Sir Malcolm with this task only to find out they're trickling into the supernatural. 

Then, there's a side story with Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) who dedicates his life to science and creates his very own... "Frankenstein." Twice. His first "Frankenstein" appears back in his life only to demand a mate. 

Yes. It's another supernatural show. It's twisted and there are so many story lines you have to pay attention to but isn't that just like any other show? It deals with religion, romance and exorcism. So, if exorcism and spiders scare you, you might have goosebumps like I did near the end of the season. There's only eight episodes and it's recently been renewed for season two so you still have time to catch up like I did. 

Here are some reasons to watch it: 

1. It's dark. It's twisted. It's legitimately scary. This is no Blair Witch Project.
2. Eva Green can seriously act. I mean, this is some out of the world, pushing the boundaries type of acting. If you don't care for the rest of the cast, at least admire Green's work. 
3. If you're a fan of mysteries, this is a good choice. Each episode gives you bits and pieces of how to track down Mina and who the real killer is from the first episode. Nothing actually clicks until the very last episode, naturally. 
4. Underneath (almost) every story, the outcome always has to do with love. WHY?
5. You don't know what you get into when you first start the show. When I saw the signage, I thought, "Oh, cool. It's about journalism." When I saw the trailer, I thought, "Okay. It's about vampires!" When I watched the show, I thought, "Okay, what the f---?" But that's the best part! It really is! Because you find out it doesn't have to do with journalism. It doesn't have to do with vampires (Okay, not entirely). It's not what you imagined at all. The trailer didn't tell me anything other than that it's about freaky people.