Showtime's gothic drama 'Penny Dreadful' kicks off its second season with a stronger villain and once again oozing atmosphere

Showtime debuts a horror drama featuring greats of Gothic literature; broadcast networks prepare for upfronts as cable nets renew series.

A gripping, over-arching story line was missing from last night's episode

Several new cast members take on prominent roles in 'Penny Dreadful,' which launches its third Showtime season at 10 p.m. Sunday, May 1.

Showtime's stylish, sensual and imaginative horror series, "Penny Dreadful," returns with a second season of daring and disturbing plot twists.

Critic David Bianculli reviews the two new TV programs in the horror genre competing for viewers and attention: NBC's modern-day remake of Rosemary's Baby and Showtime's Victorian Penny Dreadful.

Based on the pulp stories of Victorian England as well as literary classics of the era, the new Showtime series is bloody good

NBC’s remake of "Rosemary’s Baby" and Showtime’s new weekly adventure series "Penny Dreadful." One is awful and it’s not the one with a synonym for the word in its title.

The late-19th century window around the Jack the Ripper murders has been an inordinately fertile and florid one for drama, which has included creative revisionism drawing on the literature of the day.

The beautiful pulp fiction that is Penny Dreadful returns for a third season on Showtime Sunday night. It comes back with a broader canvas (the American West as well as London, Zanzibar, and other exotic locales), an expanded cast (Wes Studi makes a terrific entrance as a Native American who’s been tracking one of the show’s main characters), and more figures from Gothic literature (I thought I was sick of vampires until I saw the way Dreadful introduces Dracula). For all this, the series remains centered on the fantastic Eva Green’s Vanessa Ives, who starts season three a quivering nervous wreck who can’t bear to face a sunny day.