'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' Preview: Race politics and supernatural elements haunt 1930s LA
'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' is rightly being called a spin-off of the earlier installment starring Eva Green. Except keeping the supernatural element of the previous 'Penny Dreadful', this time the show moves to 1938 Los Angeles, with a whole new cast and storyline. So this is a perfect time for new viewers to jump feet first into the franchise.
At the center of the story is Detective Tiago Vega (Daniel Zovatto), LAPD's first Chicano officer, torn between his duties as a police officer and his loyalty to his own community. One of the teaser trailers shows that Detective Vega and his partner Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane) are called in to solve a grisly murder spree that looks like a "ritual" that draws from Mexican folklore around Santa Muerte's "Day of the Dead" traditions.
Their boss emphasizes the need to solve the case because it is a "white family murdered in some kind of voodoo ritual. If this gets out, we are looking at a damn race war."
1938 LA is a time and place that is rife with social and political tension. The show interweaves the history of LA when the city's first freeways were being built in the storyline. The show also includes how the city saw the rise of dangerous espionage action of the Third Reich and radio evangelism during the time as important elements of the story.
Race politics enter into the story with Detective Vega's brother, Raul (Adam Rodriguez), who is battling Councilman Charlton Townsend (Michael Gladisover), the head of the City Council’s Transportation Committee. Raul is trying to stop the plans for building California's first freeway because it threatens to uproot the Mexican community settled in the area through which the freeway will pass.
Nathan Lane's character comments on how "the City Hall and the Church are sitting down with the Third Reich" as Townsend threatens the community "will be moved" if they don't leave willingly. The grisly murders which look like a "Santa Muerte ritual" make matters worse for the Mexican-American community which is being faced with eviction and police brutality. It is a powder keg waiting to go off.
The one to spark the fire is Magda (Natalie Dormer), a supernatural demon who starts a "great battle" with Santa Muerta (Lorenza Izzo) for the souls of humanity. As the supernatural antagonist of the show, Magda manifests as many different people, egging people on and managing situations from the background, to make people do their worst. As Magda tells Santa Muerta, who represents the "good" supernatural force, that "the only thing mankind really needs to be the monsters he truly is being told he can."
As she sets about to prove this, she transforms into three different women. The first one is blonde and ethereal-looking "Elsa", who an unhappily married German refugee, seduces her son’s pediatrician (Rory Kinnear). Then there is mousy and spectacled "Alex", the middle-aged assistant to Councilman Charlton Townsend and Rio, the bisexual ringleader of the "pachucos", a Chicano gang that may be connected to the brutal murders.
The Vega family is drawn into this supernatural and race war since Maria Vega (Adriana Barraza), Detective Vega's mother is a devotee of Santa Muerta and Detective Vega himself is "touched" by Santa Muerta when he was a child -- making him her champion in her war against Magda, as Maria tells him.
'Penny Dreadful: City on Angels' premieres on Sunday, April 26 on Showtime at 10/9c.
