Proteus penny dreadful series#

Perhaps the sГ©ance would have overshadowed the episode if it hadnвЂ™t been for the closing moments. In fact, itвЂ™s so good it nearly overshadows the rest of the proceedings and it certainly eclipses Helen McCroryвЂ™s Madame Kali (though I am looking forward to seeing more of her in future). Coupled with VanessaвЂ™s possession and the constantly shifting perspective, the scene is highly unpredictable and as a result, wholly captivating. Bayona produces something very unsettling in the way he shoots Green, opting for high and low angle shots and range of close-ups, cutting quickly around her performance. Eva GreenвЂ™s performance in this scene was simply astonishing, combining some excellent vocal and physical work into a chilling, almost heart-stopping scene.

The sГ©ance is a breakdown of these boundaries where life and death collide to torment the living. His scene with Brona suggested a fascination with death and, if he is true to his literary counterpart, he has also discovered a way in which to prolong life, a motivation which is shared amongst various characters existing within that boundary between the two.ДЄll of these themes clash spectacularly at one mesmerising point in the episode. He observes other characters and deduces from their appearance and even tastes them at one point. Art surrounds him in his home and he actively engages in creating it with photography. Reeve Carney is every bit the louche aesthete, but he stands opposite to the other characters in that he appears to be the one consuming rather than the other way around. In a wonderful reference to his literary counterpart, Gray is first seen positioned within a frame of a portrait behind him. For Frankenstein, there is a physical representation of this in Proteus, but the final scenes reveal that Frankenstein too has something else that threatens him.ДЄlongside this is the introduction of the enigmatic Dorian Gray. Each character is being consumed by something from within, a monster they have to keep hidden. There is clearly something from his past that Chandler is running away from whilst Vanessa is consumed wholly by another entity during this episode.

Murray is consumed by his grief and it is influencing his every decision. Each character is tied to death in some way or pursuing the prolonging of life.ДЄnother emerging theme is that of consumption, literally in the case of Brona who bloodily coughs and splutters her way through scenes both risquГ© and tame. This theme of life and death was established swiftly with FrankensteinвЂ™s speech to Murray in the first episode and further emerges as an important strand here. For example, the poem Frankenstein and Vanessa quote is WordsworthвЂ™s Lines Written In Early Spring, a time between the death of winter and the burgeoning life of spring. The episode makes much of the idea that these characters exist on the borders of this world from broader strokes like VanessaвЂ™s communion with the dead to little textual references scattered throughout the charactersвЂ™ interactions. The colour scheme also reflects the murky society that the characters reside in as well as the fact that each of them appears to be hiding something, caught in the middle between shadows and light. Each shot is an image of two halves, filmed half in shadow and half in light. Like all good credit sequences, it perfectly establishes the dark atmosphere of the show, but it is also carefully constructed to reflect some of the wider themes that are emerging in the first episodes.

Proteus penny dreadful series#

ItвЂ™s hinted at towards in the excellent opening credits, a series of images that clearly relate to plot developments. The series is setting itself up to explore some of these intriguing binaries and the spaces in between.