Is mankind a monster worth of forgiveness?

First of all I want to thank my amazing friend Shendel who had been so incredibly helpful when it came to editing and adding some context. I couldn't have done it without her help and the late night encouragement when I wanted to abandon this piece. 

    (courtesy of Showtime)

Imagine living in a city deeply divided by the aftermath of an economic recession allowing corruption, racial tensions, and police brutality to slowly take over as well as the rise of fascist ideas driven by Nazi Germany and the resurrection of radical evangelism reaching a bigger audience via radio broadcasting. Given the current situation around the world, it should not be that surprising, history is always bound to repeat itself as they say so, is it not really surprising that our current television market is making a show that reflects these issues and conflicts while simultaneously diving into mankind’s weaknesses and faults.

Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels is the forefront of these issues and ideas. Set 40 years after the original which was played out in the Victorian Era during immense power shifts in the 1890’s as demonstrated by the talent of Eva Green and Josh Hartnett. It begins in 1938 during the rapid rise of Hitler’s Nazi Germany and his ideologies as well as the increasing growth of the Mexican immigrant families finding asylum in states like California, Arizona, and Texas. Both of these historical occurrences are the forefront of this show specifically, using Los Angeles, hence the title as the primary location for the historical background into the Mexican American neighborhoods and the main locations of characters as well as the usage of the some of the most famous buildings that not only reflect Chicano culture but, also reflect the art déco architecture and the wealthy, timeless vibe of LA present in buildings such as City Hall, The Wiltern, and The James Oviatt Building to name a few.

Before we get to the general overview on the most dreadful of things happening in the show, let us take a look back on how things played out in the social and political spectrum during the late 1930’s and early 40’s Just like many other cities, Los Angeles underwent a lot of changes ranging from infrastructure to societal norms due to the rapid evolvement and transitional period from the 19th to the 20th century. At the time, California, like many other states such as Texas and Arizona had a huge influx of Mexican immigrants who worked agricultural jobs including, but not limited to farming and produce selection of non-agricultural jobs that paid very little or almost none causing many to remain below the poverty line.

After The Great Depression, between 500 thousand and 2 million of these immigrants were deported back to Mexico which became known as the Mexican Repatriation and occurred during the years of 1929 and 1936. Unfortunately, official data on exactly how many Mexicans were actually deported by the City of Los Angeles and surrounding areas could not be found in adequate city records today. But the Census of 1930 lists “Mexicans'' as a racial category making them subpar to the rest of society which, at this time is predominantly white with Mexican American immigrants making up between 100,000 to 200,000 of the total population of Los Angeles which is about 2 million. In the late thirties, LA had the highest concentration of ethnic Mexican immigrants then any other city in the West causing the community to be one one of the biggest targets of racism and discrimination therefore, allowing these issues to continually plague them in the workforce.

As demonstrated in the show through various promotional attempts such as trailers and social media. Tiago Vega, the protagonist is hired to work for the LAPD as a detective while also, showing the audience the small but significant amount of racism and plot driven tension due to the fact that he is the first Mexican American immigrant family in his family to have such a high ranking job. Most members of the community had no chances of working such ranking jobs due to language barriers and education issues since, most jobs required a degree of some kind eventually leading most of the community to live below the poverty line and receiving no help from the city or the government due to their own racist ideas and segregated lifestyle. Meanwhile, local newspapers spread racist propaganda claiming conflicts with high crime rates and juvenile delinquency. As if, the community wasn’t belittled and pressured enough, they were also confronted with expansion plans that were drafted and executed poorly. The City Councilman and future mayor Frank L. Shaw faced accusations of corruption due to a lot of contracts being given to favored contractors without any competitive bids which allowed the city to draft an expansion plan completely disregarding the Mexican community that lived on this land..This caused massive disruption in communal and family gatherings which, in Mexican culture was due to the strong usage of Catholicism in most familiar settings. Therefore, causing the immediate destruction of homes, places of social significance and in hindsight, a loss of identity for the Mexican community or some might say a watered down version of ethnic cleansing as per Nazi Germany ideologies. Similarly, there were plans for Nazi Germany to infiltrate the region and recruit sympathetic US citizens and German Americans to support their cause. After electing Hitler in 1933, agents of the Reich were sent overseas to recruit for the Friends of New Germany (FNG) to promote a favorable view of Nazi ideologies and fascism . The FNG was renamed the German American Bund in 1936 after criticism the old name would be too unpatriotic. The goal of the Nazi government was to encourage German citizens living in the United States to form “active cells wherever insufficient numbers of National Socialists can be gathered into proselytizing units.” Southern California was of special interest to the Nazis, Los Angeles specifically because approximately one-third of disabled veterans had found a home there and the region had about 50 German-American pro Nazi organizations with about 150,000 members, attempting to reach their ultimate goal of uniting all these small groups into one so, in turn, Nazi Germany would become stronger and later, more lethal. They could also use LA to their advantage because The Port of Los Angeles was mostly unguarded which allowed them to send and receive propaganda to spread without being caught by city officials or local law enforcement such as the LAPD. Apart from the South, Southern California was the strongest operational area for the Klu Klux Klan and would become another advantage for Nazi Germany because of the significance of Hollywood known to be used as one of the biggest propaganda machines due to the constant production of movies and television shows which could be easily infiltrated. But their plans of carrying out Anti-Semitic violence and to slowly overthrow the government, was observed with worry by Leon L. Lewis who created a network of spies to uncover and stop them. Leon L. Lewis was a Jewish lawyer and WWI veteran and founded the Anti-Defamation League. He tracked the rise of fascism in Europe throughout the 1920s and 30’s. but, he didn't only do it for the organization but also for himself when he realized the Nazis' efforts in the United States were becoming stronger and more prevalent. He knew it was time to act and act quickly, creating a ring of spies on his own focusing on the same, small, group of people the Nazis had set their hopes on. German-American veterans gutted by cuts to their veteran benefits during the Depression. Therefore, Lewis continued his spy ring even throughout WW2 because he found an alarming rise of Antisemitism when larger groups of citizens blamed the Jews for pushing the nation into war.

The overall situation in which the show is set is already very tense and dire and it will only take a spark to ignite chaos. But, contrary to the first Penny Dreadful we aren't confronted with classic characters like vampires, werewolves, monsters, and subhuman good looking characters such as Dorian Gray that ignite problems immediately. Instead, we are shown the inner “demons” of mankind through the situations that the show presents itself in and how every human has a monster within themselves and how mankind is far from being angelic or saint like. So far, from what has been released, we have the possible annihilation of a community with increasing racial tensions between immigrants and US citizens as well as the societal differences between those parties and how it affects society. Meanwhile, in the same setting, we also have the continued rise of the fascist movement and the implementation of Hitler’s ideologies within the US, especially here in LA.

I wish I could give details on the plot and how plot lines intersect and how the characters relate with one another. However, my friends and I already developed a lot of theories which we could strictly base on historical facts but I don't want to put out a synopsis which will turn out to be wrong. Based on the trailers and a frequent activity of the show's social media accounts there are some things we can be sure of that mentioned earlier in my analysis.

Tiago Vega played by Daniel Zavatto and his partner Lewis Michener expertly played by Hollywood legend Nathan Lane, are sent to the LA River to investigate a gruesome crime in which the victims are killed and then marked with the Mexican religious symbol of sugar skulls which signify Dia de Los Muertos or Day of the Dead. Additionally, LAPD faces racial resentment from colleagues because Tiago is of Mexican descent just as the racial conflicts with the city and the council begin to unfold at the hand of City Councilman Charlton Townsend. Meanwhile the influence of Nazi Germany begins to rise as they try to gain influence to their German- American sympathizers through the use of propaganda and radio evangelism spreading their rather conservative and apocalyptic message. The tension might not only tear the City of Angels apart but also, threaten the loyalties of the Vega family who is deeply interwoven with several of the plot lines and finds themselves on different sides of the story.

But what would Penny Dreadful be without the crucial supernatural element that both John Logan and his writers as well as the fans cling to week after week season after season. Luckily for you, this version not only has that element but gives it to you with a bang. Due to the heavy influence of Catholicism within many Mexican communities, the very first supernatural element is the Angel Of Death herself, Santa Muerte. Although, Santa Muerte is the personification of death and her skull - like appearance is associated with Dia De Los Muertos, she is also associated with healing, and protection against several kinds of violence such as gun violence, assault, and murderous death to name a few while, providing souls with safe passage to the afterlife as told in centuries old Mexican Folklore. This beloved deity has a deep connection to the Vega family as we see the matriarchal figure call upon her during religious prayer or practice as shown in the trailers and who we are going to follow throughout the series. Although I'm not sure at this point if the show features LGBTQ+ representation, it is worth mentioning that some religious groups or cults in Mexican culture look to Santa Muerte and that most of her followers or those who are extremely faithful to her tend to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community according to research and other credible sources which, is not surprising due to LA’s highly populated LGBTQ+ community that keeps growing every day and is a huge part of the life in Los Angeles. This may sound odd at first because Santa Muerte is connected to death and the afterlife in heaven meanwhile, in some parts of catholic religion homosexuality is banned But death is an occurrence in life where it does not judge you regardless of our race, gender, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or political views and it happens to everyone no matter who you are which, is a theme that this show will hopefully put at the forefront for their future audience. In context, Santa Muerte can be seen as the ultimate symbol of equality even if this only happens at the end of our journey here on earth and our truly equality happens in the afterlife. Additionally, given that the show is set in a time in which minorities are already targeted, it would be interesting to see how this could affect possible LGBTQ+ characters and their place in a society where differences were undervalued and the times were not as progressive and accepting as they are today.

Every show has a balance of both good and evil and if this show already tests the evil of mankind then, I'm sure it could not get any more hell driven than this, and even though, we have racism, bigotry, and violent authority figures, Penny Dreadful fans thrive on this idea of supernaturalism. This supernatural figure really spirals things out of control from iconic one liners to burning fields, to transforming into different people to manipulate our variety of characters. Magda, portrayed by the effortlessly talented Natalie Dormer is this show’s main character/antagonistic force that will likely test the waters. From manipulation to transforming herself into forms to feed off of the insecurities and weaknesses of our key players therefore, starting a war with her polar opposite sister Santa Muerte to show her and the audience the worst of mankind using as much violence, disruption, as well as a variety of methods to show us that mankind cannot be saved no matter how hard one tries. Plus, I believe it adds a nice conflict to the continuity of the family dynamic/theme of the show from the Vegas to our two deities fighting each other for the better or worse of mankind. As Magda says in the trailer “All mankind needs to be the monster he truly is, is... being told he can.” Whether it’s getting to witness the most monstrous sides of mankind in form of authority figures such as Councilman Townsend increasing racial tensions with his expansion decisions or the Nazis making shady business dealings and using any means necessary to get their propaganda across even, if it means asking a bodyguard or two to pull the trigger.

This show is so relevant in today’s financial, economical, and societal spectrum. It uses old historical contexts and vintage approaches to model a world much similar to ours. It shows that even though mankind has evolved, we still tend to go back to our old ways within our communities, political parties, elections and laws. Even though, it is set 82 years before our time, it seems we might be doomed to repeat history and if we don’t make changes know, we will continue to repeat it and no matter how much change we truly attempt to make. Over the past few years we have seen how racism, antisemitism and systematic discrimination against minorities have found its way to become socially acceptable and how fascist leaning regimes gained power and have taken over countries. We are gasping in shock when we witnessed a rise in police brutality and when fascist groups decide to march through our cities with the same hateful rhetoric of more than 80 years ago. We shake our heads in incomprehension when we listen to religious zealots who preach radical religious beliefs asking ourselves how anyone would believe such inhumanity. History has provided us with a lot of examples to what levels of destruction we are capable of. Yet, we find ourselves repeating and falling into the same traps they used 80 years ago because everyone realizes that even though we are different, we are all exactly the same.

Some may call Penny Dreadful: City of Angels a “woke nightmare” but I'd say it's a chance to observe ourselves and our own moral code through a looking glass into the past. The negative impulses which enable hate, racism, bigotry and violence are and always will be a part of the human condition. But, it's up to us and our ability to evolve to overcome the monstrosities of our past. However, apart from being a reminder how easily mankind can be corrupted and undermined by evil deeds, it will 100 percent bring entertainment and a sense of distraction to their audience leaving them on the edge of their seats week after week even, in this uncertain and dire time for which we all should be grateful.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels starts airing on April 26th at 10 pm ET/PT on Showtime and available for streaming on ShowtimeAnytime.