Penny Dreadful: "Night Work"

It is London in the year 1891. Some unseen monster is stalking the streets, murdering and mutilating women. American gunslinger Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett) is hired by a mysterious woman (Eva Green) to join a late night raid on an opium den - which turns out to be a nest of vampires. The woman's employer, Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) is hunting for his kidnapped daughter Mina. Meanwhile coroner Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) brings a dead body to life.

That's essentially what happens in the first episode of Penny Dreadful, a television series created by screenwriter John Logan (Gladiator) and produced by noted director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall). The series is a mash-up of 19th century literature, including Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Future episodes will bring in elements of Stephenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Penny Dreadful seems perfectly pitched it terms of tone, casting and visuals, but fails to actually put any sort of original plot or driving narrative behind it. In terms of narrative structure this first episode is peculiarly unsatisfying.