If you’ve seen the first season of this Showtime original series, then you are likely just as excited as I am about the return of “Penny Dreadful” which begins its second season tonight.

Premise: Penny Dreadful is a British-American psychosexual horror television series created and written by John Logan, who serves as executive producer along with Sam Mendes and Pippa Harris. The title refers to the penny dreadfuls, a type of 19th-century cheap British fiction publication with lurid and sensational subject matter. The series draws upon many public domain characters from 19th-century Irish and British fiction, including Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Mina Harker and Abraham Van Helsing from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Victor Frankenstein and his monster from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The series premiered on Showtime on May 11, 2014.

Main and Recurring Cast:
Reeve Carney as Dorian Gray, a confident, entrancing, yet lonely, self-isolating man who cannot die.
Timothy Dalton as Sir Malcolm Murray, a hardened explorer of the African continent, on a deeply personal quest to find his kidnapped daughter Mina.
Eva Green as Vanessa Ives, an enigmatic, composed, driven heroine who ignores zeitgeist and proves herself a force to be reckoned with.
Josh Hartnett as Ethan Chandler, a charming, brash, daring American man of action with uncanny marksmanship, who detests violence and is more complicated than he likes to admit.
Rory Kinnear as Caliban, a reanimated corpse brought to life and abandoned by Frankenstein who tracks down his creator and demands that Frankenstein create a mate for him.
Billie Piper as Brona Croft, an Irish immigrant seeking to escape her brutal past.
Danny Sapani as Sembene, a long-time ally of Sir Malcolm with a mysterious persona.
Harry Treadaway as Victor Frankenstein,[16] an arrogant young man whose whole life revolves around his research.
Helen McCrory as Madame Kali, a spiritualist. (season 2, recurring season 1)
Simon Russell Beale as Ferdinand Lyle, an eccentric Egyptologist. (season 2, recurring season 1)
Olivia Llewellyn as Mina Harker, Sir Malcolm’s daughter and Vanessa’s childhood friend who has been abducted.
Fern Deacon as the young Mina Harker, Sir Malcolm’s daughter and Vanessa’s childhood friend who has been abducted
Hannah Tointon as Maud Gunneson, an actress and the object of Caliban’s affection.
Gavin Fowler as Simon, Maud’s partner who mistreats Caliban.
Olly Alexander as Fenton, a minion of vampires.
Alun Armstrong as Vincent Brand, the leader of a troupe of actors in residence at the Grand Guignol.
Alex Price as Proteus, a second creation of Frankenstein’s.
David Warner as Abraham Van Helsing, a doctor and a colleague of Frankenstein.
Robert Nairne as The Vampire, an ancient, deadly and unfathomably evil creature who leads a cabal of lesser undead and has abducted Mina Harker.

PiercingMetal Thoughts: Simply put I loved this show and it was a breathe of fresh horror air to me especially after the lackluster final season of “True Blood”. It was great to see so many historically based Horror figures in one series and in a sense this reminded me of the great “League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen” comic series. Not the movie since that was horrendous. I have been looking forward to this premier and to the return of “The Strain” since that one kept you on the edge of your seat. Have you watched “Penny Dreadful” yet? I mean I realize that you need Showtime to enjoy it unless you purchase the DVD boxed set but if you have let me know what you think about its upcoming spookiness. Make sure you set your DVR if you go out a lot.

Official Show Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Dreadful_%28TV_series%29