to my astonishment my local CBS news weather person gave DS a shout out this morning for it's 50th. he made a bad pun about today's warm, sunny weather not casting any "dark shadows" and then wished the show a happy 50th.

it was quite surprising.

Penny Dreadful: Here's How Season 4 Could've Unfolded Without Eva Green

did Green quit? what's with the do or die attitude around her?

and even if Vanessa had "died" given that reanimation, ghosts and eternal life are major themes on the show she certainly could have popped up at any time. something about this whole thing is fishy. 

i don't really care about McKechnie one way or the other. Amanda Harris isn't exactly a favorite of mine...


it's just funny she cancelled due to a "work commitment" and then very publicly went on social media, during the festival, and announced she was attending a ballet in New York. 

i just went for the day yesterday...


and they were actually able to get their hands on the original 1954 Art Wallace teleplay 'The House'. it was part of an ongoing anthology mystery series called, quite ominously, 'The Web' (as in trapped in a "web of lies").


and indeed the early Liz/Jason storyline is lifted very directly from this source. a few of the names are different but ( Elizabeth Stoddard was Elizabeth "Stover" ) early iterations of Liz, Jason, Carolyn and Joe Haskell were the featured players. there was even a bar scene ( evocative of the 'Blue Whale' ) with a throwaway extra named "Sam" ( a drunk, of course ).

it was a self contained half hour story. and the fate of the blackmailing Jason equivalent is left ambiguous ( suffice to say he was not strangled to death by a vampire ) but it was interesting to see where the story had it's origins. 

and Curtis instantly noticed the "chemistry" between the two actors and it "inspired him"...


please. at the time Maggie was an expendable secondary character he could throw under the bus in a hail Mary storyline when it looked like the show was about to be cancelled. 

she had some sort of very public psychological breakdown around the time of the 2012 film release and, in some strangely misdirected anger, took it out on the festival organizers and stranger still the fans.

it was a very bizarre period. 

Cody must have moved heaven and earth to reingratiate herself with festival organizers after her meltdowns and temper tantrums of a few years ago...

and now she's a no show? i wonder what's going on with her?