Review: Penny Dreadful: City of Angels Season Premiere “Santa Muerte” – Powerful and Intricate Start to the New Chapter

Penny Dreadful - City of Angels key art - Showtime

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, Season Premiere/Episode 1 – “Santa Muerte”

Air Date: Sunday, April 26, 2020 on Showtime

Reviewer Rating: 4 Stars ★★★★★

“Te llevas nuestro corazón tomamos el tuyo.” – “You take our heart, we take yours.”

The statement above is written in blood along a concrete wall of the Los Angeles river. The scene of a gruesome quadruple murder — a father, mother, and their two adolescent teenage children — sets the stage for numerous complex storylines in the new installment of Showtime’s Penny Dreadful series – Penny Dreadful: City of Angels.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels_401_0350_R — Daniel Zovatto as Tiago Vega in PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, “Santa Muerte”. Photo Credit: Justin Lubin/SHOWTIME.

Set in Los Angeles circa 1938, alternating back and forth to earlier times, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels is full of intriguing story arcs that will intersect at some point throughout the season. If you are easily sensitive to racial slurs, racial inequality, or squeamish, this may be a difficult series for you to watch on a weekly basis. For rest of you, it’s worth watching. Penny Dreadful: City of Angels is a powerful, dynamic, and intricately woven series created and written by the brilliant John Logan. This series will have you questioning what’s real, what’s right and wrong, and what you believe in.

The premiere episode is aptly titled “Santa Muerte” because of the heavy references to the Mexican/Mexican-American folklore of a female deity known as ‘Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte’ (Our Lady of Holy Death), shortened to ‘Santa Muerte.’ Symbolized as a feminine skeleton clad in a robe, Santa Muerte is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to heaven for those who faithfully believe.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels_401_5723_R — (L-R): Lorenza Izzo as Santa Muerte and Natalie Dormer as Magda in PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, “Santa Muerte”. Photo Credit: Justin Lubin/SHOWTIME.

The slower pacing of “Sante Muerte” is thoughtful and methodical in its purpose to introduce key characters immediately and with specific deliberation. In the beginning of the episode, Santa Muerte (Lorenza Izzo) and her dark sister Magda (Natalie Dormer) are in the middle of a farm where many migrant workers are tending the fields. The conversation is the start of what’s to come this season.

Santa Muerte: “That boy, you leave him be.”

Magda: “Why trouble yourself with him, hmm? With any of them? What are they but frightened animals in the mud, scratching for more mud, fully unworthy of your devotion and care? I’ll prove it to you, just wait.”

Santa Muerte: “How will you do that?”

Magda: “By letting them be who they are by making all their dreams come true and whispering to them. All mankind needs to be the monster he truly is, is being told – he can. Will you try to stop me?”

Santa Muerte: “I have no heart for the living.”

Magda: “For anything; now open your arms, Sister; I’ll give you many souls today.”

As Magda unleashes her fiery power over the crops, many migrant farmers perish in the blaze. A young boy runs to his dying father who lies in the arms of Santa Muerte. The young boy hurtles towards the dying man only to be stopped by Santa Muerte’s outstretched hand, leaving a mark that will stay with him forever.

There is obvious tension between the whites and Mexicans because of the proposed freeway construction through a heavily populated Hispanic neighborhood that will undoubtedly be exacerbated by the gruesome murder of an affluent Caucasian family. As police are called to the scene of a horrific homicide, the victims have been stripped naked and brutally carved. They are all painted with traditional calavera (Dia De Los Muertos) makeup. And if that’s not enough, there are Nazis in L.A.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels_401_0414_R — (L-R): Daniel Zovatto as Tiago Vega and Nathan Lane as Lewis Michener in PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, “Santa Muerte”. Photo Credit: Justin Lubin/SHOWTIME.

Santiago “Tiago” Vega (Daniel Zovatto) is the first “Chicano” police detective in Los Angeles. He may have earned the badge, but he is far from respected by his peers, apart from his partner, veteran police detective Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane). Tiago sets himself apart by not hiding who he is, which sometimes rubs his partner the wrong way. When Michener asks, “Why don’t you wear a hat?” Tiago replies, “Because I want everyone to know I’m Chicano.” Zovatto does a wonderful job of portraying Tiago as a young man, scarred from his traumatic past to becoming the first Chicano detective in the LAPD.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels_401_0957_R — (L-R): Jessica Garza as Josefina Vega, Johnathan Nieves as Mateo Vega, Daniel Zovatto as Tiago Vega, Adriana Barraza as Maria Vega and Adam Rodriguez as Raul Vega in PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, “Santa Muerte”. Photo Credit: Justin Lubin/SHOWTIME.

Despite some tension with his older brother Raul (Adam Rodriguez) regarding how different each of their individual lives have turned out, Tiago must navigate dealing with the rest of his family, including his mother Maria (Adriana Barraza), and his two younger siblings – brother Mateo (Johnathan Nieves) and sister Josefina (Jessica Garza), while trying to honor his badge and not lose himself as a proud “Chicano.”

Natalie Dormer is tremendous as she plays multiple roles in Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. A chameleon, Dormer transforms into a variety of characters in just the first episode. From Magda (aka the woman in black), a beautiful and tragic wife and mother, to a manipulative secretary to a scandalous city councilman, Dormer’s phenomenal talent is showcased fully without being overwhelming.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels_401_5527_R — (L-R): Lorenza Izzo as Santa Muerte and Natalie Dormer as Magda in PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, “Santa Muerte”. Photo Credit: Justin Lubin/SHOWTIME.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels_401_4780_R — (L-R): Lorenza Izzo as Santa Muerte and Natalie Dormer as Magda in PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, “Santa Muerte”. Photo Credit: Justin Lubin/SHOWTIME.

The entire cast is wildly talented, and veteran Penny Dreadful alum Rory Kinnear returns in a much different role. Kinnear plays German immigrant Dr. Peter Craft who seems desperate to envelope himself in the customs and patriotism of his newfound home country of America. Yet, when he and his fellow German comrades, all of whom wear traditional militant gear looking very much like Nazi soldiers, parade around Los Angeles touting “peace” and for American citizens to not get involved in other countries affairs, it’s unclear exactly where Peter Craft’s loyalties lie.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels_401_00587_R — Rory Kinnear as Peter Craft in PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, “Santa Muerte”. Photo Credit: Justin Lubin/SHOWTIME.

Throughout the premiere episode, we learn a lot about each of the characters, including Tiago’s mother Maria. She’s a “bruja” which roughly translate to a witch. She’s a firm believer in Santa Muerte and prays to the deity often. Maria works as a housekeeper in the Craft household. She senses an evil lurking and prays to Santa Muerte.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels_401_1850_R — (L-R): Adriana Barraza as Maria Vega and Lorenza Izzo as Santa Muerte in PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, “Santa Muerte”. Photo Credit: Justin Lubin/SHOWTIME.

Maria: “I need your help. There is evil walking now, I can feel it.”

Santa Muerte: “There is a prophecy, a time will come when nation will battle nation, when race will devour race, when brother will kill brother, until not a soul is left.”

At the end of “Santa Muerte,” there is a confrontation among the Los Angeles Police Department and the residents of Belvedere Heights, the site of the new motorway. It doesn’t end well, and lives will be forever changed in the aftermath.

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Judy Manning

Dream chaser extraordinaire! Judy tends to be a tad sarcastic and kind of goofy! She is an avid admirer of all things supernatural, paranormal, celestial and mystical. She loves to read, write, and watches way too much TV. She enjoys many genres of film and music (and let's be honest, most music from the 80s). She also has a wicked sweet tooth. Cupcakes beware.