As a horror fan, I consider myself spoiled by the wealth of television series that are giving the genre its due attention. Two of the most intriguing upcoming projects are Showtime’s literary mash-up Penny Dreadful and Fox’s small town thriller Wayward Pines, created by M. Night Shyamalan and Chad Hodge. Intriguing doesn’t necessarily mean good, mind you, but there’s certainly less clear expectations going into these series than those that came attached to Hannibal and Dracula. While we’ve gotten a look at a few teasers from Penny Dreadful, the series’ first still has been released, along with the first ever look at Wayward Pines.
If you were hoping these images, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly via BloodyDisgusting, would give us any insight into the show’s secrets, you’re as out of luck as I am. But if you were wondering what Timothy Dalton looked like in a dapper top hat and long jacket, you’re in luck. The Penny Dreadful shot above features stars Josh Hartnett, Harry Treadaway, Eva Green and Dalton all standing around a body on a “Bring out your dead!” cart. It’s unclear who is on the cart, but I have a pretty good guess.
The period drama will bring together such ghoulishly classic literary characters as Victor Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s Creature, Count Dracula and Dorian Gray. Perhaps the cart body is one of the corpses used to bring the Creature’s body together. Or maybe it’s a body whose blood has been completely drained. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s a regular ass corpse. Maybe I didn’t have such a good guess. The series, which also stars Helen McRory, Rory Kinnear, Billie Piper and Reeve Carney, will debut later this year. Here’s the latest vague teaser Showtime released.
Now, onto Wayward Pines, based on the bestselling novel by Blake Crouch. In the style of eccentric series as Twin Peaks, the series will follow Secret Service Agent Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon) as he descends upon the town to find two missing federal agents named Kate and Bill, and immediately gets into a car accident that totally upends his life. He can’t communicate with the outside world and seems to lose everything that proves his identity other than his memory. Ethan’s wife Theresa (Shannyn Sossamon) and son Ben (Charlie Tahan) go on their own search for the missing Ethan. Also starring Terrance Howard, Melissa Leo and Greta Lee, Wayward Pines is the kind of city that provides more questions than answers, but we can only hope that at least the writers understand what the answers will be. If they try and introduce a lighthouse of mirrors and a watery temple, I’m going to lose my mind.
And here’s that first still, which is a plain Jane shot of Dillon talking to Leo while Siobhan Fallon looks on in the background. I guess it’s worth noting that it’s 8:25, just in case this is also a town where clocks don’t work.
Audiences will have to wait until July to catch Wayward Pines' premiere on Fox. No twist.
