Some of literature's most terrifying characters, including Dr. Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, and iconic figures from the novel Dracula are lurking in the darkest corners of Victorian London. Penny Dreadful is a frightening psychological thriller that weaves together these classic horror origin stories into a new adult drama.
This tv show contains 59 potentially triggering events.
[SPOILERS FOR ALL SEASONS!!!]
- When Vanessa is possessed, she channels Sir Malcolm's son Peter, who died on a journey to Africa with his dad. While it's later revealed he was a grown man, some viewers may initially take him to have been a child who died because of Vanessa's voice when she channels him.
- When John Clare goes sailing with a group of strangers (with a child onboard), the ship crashes in a frozen wasteland where most of the sailors have frozen to death. The captain says the child has only a few days to live, so John Clare mercy kills him by snapping his neck.
- Brona/Lily had a baby named Sarah, and froze to death when Brona had to leave for s*x work one night. While Sarah is not shown on screen, we do see her grave and Lily explains the story in-depth to Victor.
- John Clare's son dies of an illness. While Marjorie suggests that John should take him to Victor to be revived, he refuses since he doesn't want to put his son through the same pain he did. He puts his son to rest at sea instead.
The same character uses needles to inject serum into people he deems "mentally ill", with the intention of removing their trauma and tendencies towards violence.
A large part of Vanessa's backstory takes place in an asylum, and there's episodes that go into full-depth about this. There's several other episodes that take place at Bedlam, which was a real asylum, known for abusing neurodivergent people.
Dorian offhandedly says Angelique isn't female (for context, Angelique calls herself a "defenseless female" while Dorian jokingly says she's neither), but he otherwise accepts Angelique for being a trans woman and never misgenders her.
there is ableism typical of the time period the show is set in. there is violence against people with mental disorders (such as Vanessa, who is locked in a padded room for months and subject to several cruel medical treatments), and John Clare is ostracized because of his deformed appearance. there is also a brief use of the r-slur, but it had a completely different context in Victorian England and back then, was used as a medical term.
Victor refers to Lily, his love interest, as his cousin, but they are not actually related. in the time period the show was set in, romantic relationships between cousins was seen as normal.