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Manhattan (WGA America)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veG28euSbMA
The show is set against the backdrop of the infamous Manhattan Project, however it looks that the show is going to focus more on the scientists and their families who must all live together while it is being completed. I think the result is going to be a very interesting Mad Men-esque series that is going to make for some wonderful character drama.

Extant (July 9; CBS)

Halley Berry returns from a solo space mission to find herself pregnant… enough said. This is a show that has been shrouded in so much mystery, which could be a good and bad thing. However, the fact that CBS gave the series a straight to series order is a good sign. I’m interested in seeing how the show maintains its main storyline if it gets past a first season. The secondary story lines involving their son and the conspiracy surrounding her immaculate conception may be enough, but it will take a lot of work. However, with Steven Spielberg as an executive producer I can see this series becoming a great summer series for CBS.

The Strain (FX)

Amazing science fiction director. Check. Phenomenal source material. Check. Charismatic and talented lead. Check. FX’s new series is looking to be one of the best entries in both the vampire and zombie craze. The series tells the story of mysterious zombie like virus that turns victims into zombies. I’m not even going to say more because if basically speaks for itself.

The Leftovers (HBO)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shn1mPejr_4
I’m obsessed with this show and it hasn’t even premiered yet. It is based off of the novel of the same name in which a “rapture-like” event which causes 2% of the world population to mysteriously disappear. It’s not some catastrophic event, but it’s still a post-apocolyptic world in which the people who are left over (get the title now?) must suffer. It makes for so many storytelling options and character dramas. I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS SHOW!

Legends (August 13; TNT)

Have we finally found a project that Sean Bean won’t die in? I honestly don’t know what to think of this series. However, it looks damn compelling. Sean Bean stars as an FBI agent who is a deep cover operative in several missions, or at least I think. This series is holding back so much, but my first impression looks like a mix of The Bourne Identity and something different entirely. Either way, the trailer was enough to get me interested.

What show are you excited for this summer? Sound off below!

SPOILER ALERT! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM LAST NIGHT’S EPISODE OF PENNY DREADFUL. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

I’ve given a lot of praise to this show thus far (you can check out our other reviews here), but last night’s episode “Possession” has brought the show to an entirely new level.

I’ve never seen an episode of television like this in my entire life, and that is not an exaggeration. If you took the episode “Seance” and merged it with this episode, with some slight editing you would have a phenomenal indie horror flick. It confounds me how far this show has come in just 7 episodes.

It all seemed so simple from the beginning. Vanessa was suffering from her strongest episode of possession yet and it was the job of our monster hunters to try to save her. Of course, halfway through the episode one of the biggest curveballs of the episode was thrown. Just as Vanessa is urging to Ethan to kill her if anything goes wrong, it is revealed that she was not talking to Ethan but the devil himself disguised as Ethan. It was a wonderful callback to “Closer than Sisters” when the devil appeared as Sir Malcolm. However, this time Vanessa was able to resist her erotic temptation, however he still asks her to become the “mother of Evil.”

However, the most brilliant part of the episode was this beautiful montage of the team simply waiting and taking care of Vanessa. For the first time in the series the feel as if they were in over their heads.

Throughout the entire episode was this underlying theme of the afterlife and the belief of God. Being faced by the imminent death of Vanessa seemed to have thrust this thinking into our character’s heads. The doctor wish he could believe in it and Ethan does (we’ll get to that later). However, these were not the only developments on out characters. Demon-Vanessa pretty much let the beans spill on every single character’s past and some reveals were brought out by the characters themselves. We learned of the doctor’s virginity and morphine addiction, that Malcolm forced Peter to have sex with natives on their trip to Africa and that he buried a frail Peter and left him, and Brona’s sexual encounter with Dorian.

Vanessa’s possession allowed all this information to be divulged without the same clunky expositional dialogue that a less show would have to utilize, but it was also necessary to set Sir Malcolm up as the “villain” of the show. We knew from the beginning that Sir Malcolm was a man on a shaky moral ground, but this episode confirmed that he is willing to let any one of them die if it means finding Mina. Even worse, Ethan was able to deduce that Malcolm simply wanted to keep Vanessa alive to help him in his quest.

The final ten minutes of the episode played out like any possession film, but the twist came in when Ethan pushed Vanessa up against the wall and started babbling off in Latin in a last ditch exorcism. He then simply walked out.

Other show would have been afraid to do an episode like “Possession” or even “Closer than Sisters,” especially in their first season. The series’ momentum was propelled by this mission to find Mina, so most shows would shy away from breaking that momentum. What makes Penny Dreadful so compelling is that it instead uses the characters as its momentum. Their mysteries, secrets, and fatal flaws are what keep us watching.

My biggest criticism of last week’s episode of Penny Dreadful was the lack of explanation despite it being the mid point of the season. Somehow the people over on Showtime read it, wrote, filmed, and aired an episode in retaliation. I just needed a few answers. Instead they gave an entire backstory to the show’s most enigmatic character: Vanessa Ives. Saying she’s the most mysterious character on a show that thrives on mystery is saying something, so for the writers to unravel her first was surprising and refreshing. The result was the best episode of the season so far and an Emmy-worthy performance by Eva Green.

The episodes is framed by a letter that Vanessa is writing to the already gone Nina. She addresses it to her as if she is actually going to receive it, which is heartbreaking in itself, however it is nothing compared to the episode that was to follow. We track all the way back to Vanessa’s childhood growing up next door to Mina. The two girls were inseparable, however it seemed that Vanessa saw the world in such a different way. However, there was a dark side to her. Well, I suppose, a darkness in her that was festering, waiting to make finally make itself known. She described it as something “behind my back, waiting for me to turn around.” What is more terrifying is that it has always been there, but never manifests itself until she sees her mother and Sir Malcolm having sex in the maze. Much of the episode refers back to her dialogue during the seance in episode 2 (see our review here). Everything from Peter’s death, to seeing Sir Malcolm with a woman was covered.

However, the most disturbing part of the episode is that we never find out when or how the demon took root. When she is speaking directly to it, it mentions that she could of stopped it at any moment, by she chose not to. This free will makes us question who Vanessa really is as a person. Following a saucy tryst with Mina’s soon to be husband (when I mean soon, I mean the night before), it seems that the Demon takes full hold. Her parents send her to a mental asylum where she alternates between a cationic state and a full manic possession. Then, the doctors begin their “treatment” with ice baths, and sprays with a fire hose, before finally drilling into her brain. It’s quite dreadful. After seeing Peter before he leaves for his fatal trip to Africa she has a discussion with the demon in the form of Sir Malcolm. “Something whispered. I Listened.”

Although we got a lot of answers from the episode, the question of what haunts Vanessa still remains. In one of the more shocking and terrifying images of the episode, Vanessa has sex with an unseen entity. All we know now is that her and Malcolm weren’t at the best of terms when they began their adventure to find Mina, but it was refreshing to get some light on this character. I always try to inject some humor (as bad as it can be) into these reviews.

So many critics are dry with their delivery, but I feel the need to be ernest here. This episode of Penny Dreadful was one of the most painfully beautiful episodes of television this year. They have proved that they are more than the horror drama that they are defined as. Despite the episodes clear supernatural undertone, there is still the heartbreak and commentary on the way that we treated and still treat those with mental disorders. Maybe because it’s a cause that I am personally invested in, but more than that the show pulling back the curtain on one of their finest characters to reveal even further complexity was thrilling, captivating, and fantastic. *I’m giving this episode a 9.8 out of 10. This is the highest score of any episode of any show I have reviewed on this site so far. However, it’s not without reason. I’ve always tried to be reasonable with grades, but this was truly a masterpiece. WATCH THIS SHOW!

It was announced yesterday that the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul was renewed for a second season! Before the first season was even done filming. This is pretty much unheard of. It’s not uncommon for a show to be renewed before the series premieres, but for it to not even be done filming or even fully casting the project is unheard of. The first season is going to consist of 10 episodes and is going to premiere in early 2015. The newly commissioned second season will consist of 13 episodes.

The reason I found it necessary to do a reaction shot to this is because there has to be a high amount of confidence in the project if (a) AMC doesn’t need to see the entire final product and (b) they don’t need to see the viewer’s response. Even Vince Gilligan has expressed a fear that the audience will not take to the show. However, I had the thought that maybe that’s because he’s nervous that he’s not going to have the opportunity to give this series a proper run-through if the audiences don’t catch on and AMC has the cancel the series. I’m seeing this early renewal as a confidence in Vince Gilligan rather than in Better Call Saul itself.

However, I still have a lot of trepidation about the project. Anyone who has watched Breaking Bad knows that Saul Goodman was the only character to give a spin-off. I’m not about to sit down to watch Jesse Pinkman takes Alaska… actually that sounds amazing. Anyway, I think the concept of making it a dramedy that skews more comedy and what looks to me like a more procedural type aspect to the show is smart, but it’s not going to have the magic of Breaking Bad. As beautifully show, smartly plotted, and wonderfully acted Breaking Bad was, so much of its success was perched on Bryan Cranston’s shoulders and Walter White’s metamorphosis. He is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, characters of the history of television.

My issue with Better Call Saul is that even if this is a show depicting Saul’s rise to become Albuquerque’s best CRIMINAL lawyer, the end product is not nearly as compelling as the Heisenberg character. I think that this show is going to make for some fantastic singular episodes, but the series as a whole isn’t going to live up to the careful story that Breaking Bad was. This second season renewal eased my mind a bit on the subject. If AMC is willing to invest the time to tell a complete story, as I have a feeling is their motive, then there must be something up Gilligan’s sleeve.

It’s just about halfway through the year, so it seems appropriate to star bringing out the best of lists. First, we’re going to start off with the Top 5 Drama Episodes of 2014. All the episodes on this list aired in the 2014 calendar year, not the 2013-14 television series. My one rule for this list was that a show cannot appear on this list more than once. I did it last year for my top 10 episodes of 2013 mostly because of Breaking Bad, but either way it makes for an even playing field. Also, these are in no particular order. So, enjoy!

NOTE: Considering these all aired relatively recently, all the comments are SPOILER FREE!

“Chapter 14” | House of Cards | Season 2, Episode 1
I think House of Cards is great entertaining television. It doesn’t make us think or feel deeply, it simply is meant to hold our attention and make us beg for more. Well, that’s exactly what “Chapter 14” did. The world that the show inhabits isn’t one that exists. I think politicians tread more closely to the characters on Veep rather than the ones here, but this episode so adroitly reintroduces the world we’re in and the lengths each character will go to assist their own mischievous ends. Frank sums up the episode in two words: “welcome back.”

“Who Goes There” | True Detective | Season 1, Episode 4
True Detective caused quite a ruckus when it first premiered. It almost seemed like it was the second coming of Christ. I was a bit underwhelmed, but the craft involved in “Who Goes There” cannot go unmentioned. While so many people focus on the magnificent 10-minute single shot finale to the episode, some forget that preceding is a carefully written build that gives Matthew McConaughey and Woodey Harrelson great material to work with before letting the sh!t hit the fan.

“The Last Call” | The Good Wife | Season 5, Episode 16
I don’t think the second half of this season reached the heights that the first half achieved, but it had its bright spots like “The Last Call.” It may not have been as good as previous “grief” episodes like Friday Night Lights’ “The Son” and Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s “The Body”, but it was able to allow each character their room to grieve and progress the story as they try to recover from this huge loss. The entire cast is at the top of their game and the entire episode is a testament to The Good Wife‘s marvelous storytelling.

“The Watchers on the Wall” | Game of Thrones | Season 4, Episode 9
We haven’t had a huge battle on the show since “Blackwater,” so as the wildlings marched on the wall there was so much anticipation for what was to come. Well, it came and it delivered. The episode offered beautiful visuals, heart pounding action and heartbreaking emotion that gave the episode both an epic and human look at the realizations of battle.

I dare you to find me a show that balances its larger than life premise with genuine human emotion and perspective better than Penny Dreadful. While this episode drew back on the spooks and shocks, it provided a well brought out development of some of our key characters. Although it didn’t reach the heights of last week’s masterpiece (check out our review here), it sets up what is to be an insane, creepy, and dreadful final two episodes.

“Do you know the word ‘Vampire’?”
It happened. The show finally utilized the term “vampire” thanks to Professor Van Helsing. Doctor Frankenstein and the Professor spend most of the day together. He speaks about stakes to the heart, beheadings, and even echolocation. Van Helsing teaches Victor about life outside of his work, which is a nice calming moment in the sea of troubles that is Penny Dreadful. Of course, it all comes crumbling down when Caliban kills the Professor in the shadows and demands again that Frankenstein make his bride. What makes this storyline more intriguing is that throughout the episode Caliban becomes enamored with a young actress who isn’t afraid of him and actually embraces his disfigurement. A possible candidate for his new bride? The storyline offered for some wonderful perspective on life and death and the nature of the character of Frankenstein. It also allowed Harry Treadaway a great opportunity to show off his acting skills.

Dracula and Banshees?
The post Penny Dreadful-esque storyline in this episode was Ethan and Sir Malcolm’s venture into the plague ship without Vanessa. It is clear that Sir Malcolm no longer trusts her and because of last week’s episode there is somewhat of an understanding. However, in the end Ethan urges he include Vanessa because she is one of the few they can trust. On the plague ship the trio (Ethan, Malcolm, and Sembene) encounter a group of banshee-esque vampire women. After their struggle, they see Mina with who we are brought to assume is Dracula. She screams for her father, but they are unable to get to her. How many more close encounters until we finally get somewhere on this storyline?

Fifty Shades of Vanessa
We’ve gotten to know a lot about Vanessa in the past few episodes. Last week, we delved further into this force that has been tormenting her for years. This week that entity comes out in full force. Vanessa continues to be enamored in with Mr. Gray and the two finally make it to the sheets. Both characters have been enigma’s from the start, but what we learn this episode is that they like it rough. Vanessa scratches, hits, and cuts Dorian much to his liking. It’s terrifying because we quickly learn that Vanessa loves sex and whatever is possessing he loves sex and whenever she has sex, that entity is released. The first thing it does? It seeks out Sir Malcolm and levitates in front of him in what was one of the most terrifying displays on the show thus far. Dorian is confused, but unfazed by her sudden departure. He simply goes to his famous portrait (which we have yet to see). However, there we get a glimpse of the healing of his wounds from his and Vanessa’s tryst. The void just gets deeper this him.

What this episode means for Penny Dreadful as a series
I wasn’t sure what to make of this show when it first premiered. Was it a gothic Victorian tale of horror or a campy Hollywood response to American Horror Story? To be honest, I’m not sure yet. They are holding too many cards to their chest. I have no clue what direction this season is going in or where they’re going in the future. I found the brilliance of the series in its mystery, but I’m becoming nervous that John Logan is relying too much on this mystery for forward momentum. If these last two episodes bring enough story lines to a close, then I’ll bow down and agree that this show has legs. However, I’m not seeing any indication that this series has legs past their main mysteries. I really hope I’m wrong.