Brief Statement Regarding Penny Dreadful

There is a new show by Showtime called Penny Dreadful. The name comes from cheap, sensational novels. The show is dramatic enough to earn the name, but has a great deal of historical and literary references to pique the interest of historians of science and medicine.

 Within the first episode, resurrection men, vampires, egyptologists, tarot readers, and Victor Frankenstein and his empathy-worthy recreation appear. Justice is done to all in some sense: The resurrection men are working in squalid and secretive conditions, the major vampires are very much like their early literary counterparts, the Egyptian scholar is set at the British Museum (fairly enough), and Mr. Frankenstein names his lovely little project "Adam" as a sort of nod to Mary Shelley's so-called monster who was obliquely, and of his own accord, given that title. 

Viewers will also get to see characters from The Picture of Dorian Gray and Dracula imbedded into the plot. I only wonder how many historians were on the budget...