So we finally had some time to catch up with the second season of Penny Dreadful and the show is just as campily gothic as ever and then some. And while I'm undecided how I feel about the whole naked witch projections bit that has replaced the color-drained vampires of the first season, the show is still proving to be quite entertaining.
More importantly, I'm rather floored by just how good the dialog is in this show. Sure, maybe real people don't necessarily talk like that all the time, but that's not the point. The show after all is in a way a celebration of the old "penny dreadful" stories sold for cheap. And in books and other forms of fiction, especially in Victorian times, everyone speaks really well. And in the show, people are absolutely brilliant.
I posted a quick status message talking about how I wish I had RPG characters that talked that way. And I'm totally serious about this statement - I would kill to have characters this eloquent! And it's not just about using bigger words or pausing dramatically for effect. There are just some amazingly wonderful bits of dialog that I wish I could quote verbatim but I am unable to do so right now. And a quick Google search has not given me the the particular line of dialog that I'm looking for.
But for reference, check out the first episode of season 2 towards the end when the witches are talking and discussing among themselves how they intend to deal with things. The one line that really popped out at me goes something like this:
Evelyn Poole: Darlings, I must confess to a modicum of disappointment about the events of last evening. Disillusionment even.
And there's this fantastic bit:
Evelyn Poole: So our task is made yet more daunting. Meaning we shall have to be yet more ingenious. We shall have to employ...stratagems.
GENIUS! We need more excuses to us words like "modicum" and disappointment" in our everyday speech! And we can't manage that, then we should at least include such moments in our dramatic RPG sessions. The more drama, the better.
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