Crossover November: Would ‘Penny Dreadful,’ ‘Once Upon a Time’ characters work well together?
What is interesting when you look at “Penny Dreadful” and “Once Upon a Time” on paper, you have two shows that, at least roughly, are attempting to do the same exact thing: Tell stories based on a variety of literary / fairy-tale characters in unusual situations. The difference is that they air on different networks, have different tones, and certainly look at the source material in different ways.
Let’s take the network part of the equation away for a minute, since logistically this makes a crossover impossible. Is there still hope? In this latest edition of Crossover November, we investigate.
The case for a crossover – Emma Swan meets Vanessa. One Dr. Frankenstein meets another. Sir Malcolm meets Prince Charming. On the surface, doesn’t it appear fun? For those of you who are a little bit more sadistic, it has a little bit of something to do with the fact that some of the characters in the “Once Upon a Time” universe probably aren’t even remotely prepared for what the characters on “Penny Dreadful” can and will do to others. Also, couldn’t you make the case that the world “Penny Dreadful” is just a really dark universe that the “Once Upon a Time” world has yet to visit? It could so some of these characters some good to know that there are dark corners of the universe.
The case against it – Oh, there are many, but the main ones revolve around two words: Family show. One of these shows is, and one is not. There’s no way that “Once Upon a Time” would even associate some of their characters, many of whom are tied to major Disney franchises, to the sort of violence and sex that exists on the other show. That doesn’t make one better or worse than the other, but they’re clearly meant to appeal to different people. It would be fun almost as a bit of fan service to see a character from one show pop up on the other, but there’s no real reason to. There is not really an element that either show is missing, and neither is enough of a commercial smash at this point that the ratings for one show would really be boosted by another.