https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WqFMwMiF3I
Santa Muerte (Lorenza Izzo) and a shapeshifting demon (Natalie Dormier) meet in a field as Hispanic workers complete the back breaking work of picking. The song “La Llorona” plays in the background, filling the air with a beautiful but heartbreaking melody. Within minutes, the field is on fire, and a child has witnessed the death of his father. Now all grown up in 1930’s Los Angeles, Detective Vega (Daniel Zovatto) has just been promoted in the Los Angeles Police as the first Chicano detective on the force. The problem is, so far, no one wants him as a partner. Vega’s mother is preparing to loser her home to bulldozers in the name of a new motorway, and all attempts to stop the build have fallen on the deaf ears of a corrupt city council member. Though his first day is Monday, early Sunday morning Detective Vega is called in to see a rather horrifying murder case. The crime scene has been made to look like it has been committed by members of the Chicago community, but Detective Vega and his partner Detective Mitchner (Nathan Lane) aren’t so sure. With racial tensions extremely high, it only takes one bullet to start a war.
Natalie Dormier is (and did you really doubt) perfectly cast as a shapeshifting demon. She is sexy, manipulative, and often able to merge into characters that may take you a couple minutes to realize she’s actually portraying. Brent Spiner was a delightful surprise. The acting is wonderful, even as you feel pretty grossed out by actors and actresses playing racist Angelinos in the 1930’s. Part of me wonders if people from London felt the same way about the original as I feel about Los Angeles. While you’re absolutely in love, there are moments you go…but wait, that’s not actually how that area works…you know what, I”ll just go with it. For those who don’t know, most of the original Penny Dreadful was filmed in Ireland. The Santa Muerte mythos in the beginning of the episode feels at best spotty, and then you get hit in the face with it.
The most important thing to understand is that this is not The Penny Dreadful from 2016; this is something very different, but under the same realm. Be prepared to be hit repeatedly in emotional gut. Be prepared to spent at least twenty minutes trying to figure out how to get a latex look that still billows in the breeze. The first episode of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels is available a little early.
And well, friends, the first one is free:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwKVX4vp0mA
