Showtime Cancels ‘Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels’

“Penny Dreadful is one of those iconic series that fans have always told us ended too soon. Well, happily for them and us, it is back,” crowed Gary Levine, President of Entertainment for Showtime Networks at the 2020 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, California. “But this time John Logan has brought the horror much closer to home, with all new characters and storylines set in Los Angeles in the turbulent 1930s.”

Airing for three seasons, from 2014 to 2016, Penny Dreadful was set in the dark corners of Victorian England and explored the origin stories of classic literary characters like Dr. Frankenstein and Dorian Gray. Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, which starred Natalie Dormer, Nathan Lane, Daniel Zovatto, Adriana Barraza and Rory Kinnear, focused on topics like immigration, family, racism, religion, murder, love, sex, greed, Nazis and Hollywood.

The storyline, more specifically: When a grisly murder shocked the city, Daniel Zovatto as Detective Tiago Vega and his partner Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane) became embroiled in a story that showcased the rich history of Los Angeles: from the building of the city’s first freeways and its deep traditions of Mexican-American folklore, to the dangerous espionage actions of the Third Reich and the rise of radio evangelism. Before long, Tiago and his family are grappling with powerful forces that threaten to tear them apart.

“Looking over the world landscape now, I’m struck by parallels to the late ’30s and what’s going on now, particularly the rise of extremist political hatred, of a sort of racist demagoguery that is taken for granted, by the pernicious influence in the danger of a foreign power in our electoral process, in our communication, and particularly by the marginalization and victimization of an ethnic community,” said series creator John Logan. “As the son of immigrants myself, this is a story that I wanted to tell.”

Unfortunately, lack of audience interest (even during the pandemic, when overall TV usage was on the rise) has led to the demise of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels.

“Showtime has decided not to move forward with another season of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels,” the cable network said in a statement. “We would like to thank executive producers John Logan, Michael Aguilar and the entire cast and crew for their outstanding work on this project.”

The now final episode of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels aired on June 28 after 10 episodes.