"We won't stop the magic at all".
Well, that great former M-Net slogan couldn't be a more apt truism: M-Net just grabbed and added the spectacular looking, brand-new, supernatural adult horror series Penny Dreadful.
The big-buzz Penny Dreadful will start this Sunday in America and then a mere 5 days later in South Africa on M-Net (DStv 101) on Friday 16 May at 22:30.
The title comes from the 19th century term "Penny Dreadful" which was used to denote the pulpy "dreadful" newspaper-like publications with lurid, scary stories that was published weekly and which cost a penny - a cross between what would be tabloid magazines and comic books today ("Attack - of the killer Octopus Baby").
Penny Dreadful - of which the early international reviews are anything but "dreadful" - follows a group of Victorian Era characters working together to stop a big, evil horror - while fighting against weekly villainous and scary creatures and ... things.
With Timothy Dalton, Eva Green and Josh Harnett in the cast, playing a motley group of characters ranging from a clairvoyant to a British explorer looking for his missing daughter who was ... taken ... by a thing, they will meet all kinds of famous horror literary characters ranging from Dorian Gray to Van Helsing and Dr. Victor Frankenstein.
Imagine a more risque Grimm and Dracula, and you have Penny Dreadful - which fits in perfectly on M-Net and with the channel's Friday night schedule - M-Net already scooped both Grimm and Dracula previously, and has success with shows like Arrow, Beauty and the Beast and The Tomorrow People.
The addition of Penny Dreadful comes shortly after M-Net added several other TV shows and series, which the South African pay-TV broadcaster is acquiring and rolling out with great success very close to the American broadcast date for viewers.
"Penny Dreadful is another international acquisitions coup for M-Net, illustrating that we bring our viewers the talk-of-Hollywood-town without delay," Lani Lombard, M-Net's head of publicity tells TV with Thinus.
"Penny Dreadful is an unusual adult horror series and is a great companion piece to Game of Thrones on a Friday night".
M-Net which secured the rights, will play out episodes of the new series only five days after the United States.
