10 Horror TV Shows That Had No Right To Be This Good

Conceptually, Penny Dreadful is one of the more bonkers sounding shows on this list. Named after the penny dreadfuls, a form of cheap serial publication from the nineteenth century centred on dark and sensational topics, the show sought to bring together a variety of iconic characters from Victorian Gothic horror into one narrative. What results is a TV show that sets Dorian Gray and Frankenstein side by side with Dracula and Van Helsing.

While this could have easily ended up as a poor imitation of Once Upon A Time goes horror, somehow Penny Dreadful manages to expertly intertwine these individual stories with a delicate hand, deftly interposing them with original characters who themselves drive the overarching narrative. The performances, in particular, are mesmerising. Eva Green undeniably provides a career-best turn that it is genuinely baffling she was never nominated for, with Timothy Dalton and the late Helen McCrory also helping carry the show with a mastery over their roles.

Though the third and final season of the show does eventually fall prey to the struggle of giving each of the characters sufficient focus and interaction, it remains little short of a miracle that Sam Mendes and John Logan managed to produce a show that executed such a complicated premise this well for so long. After all, few individually-focused gothic horror adaptations have pulled off depictions of these characters this well.