Image via Showtime
Published Oct 24, 2026, 7:36 PM EDT
Lacy Baugher Milas is an entertainment and culture writer whose bylines have appeared in Paste Magazine, The A.V. Club, Den of Geek, Jezebel, Digital Spy, Telly Visions, and more. A lover of Time Lords, fantasy stories, period dramas, and tumultuous 90s rock bands, you can find her on social media pretty much everywhere as @LacyMB.
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Josh Hartnett is having something of a moment these days. Back in the public eye thanks to roles in movies like Oppenheimer and a particularly disturbing turn on a darker-than-average episode (“Beyond the Sea”) of Black Mirror, he’s making the most of this career renaissance. Now his new drama Below is dominating the Netflix streaming charts, thanks to its atmospheric (and spooky season-appropriate) troubled small-town vibes, and the fact that hit series Widows’ Bay has made creepy maritime horror a thing again.
But while Below’s brisk pace makes for an easy and satisfying binge, those who really want to see Hartnett’s range as an actor need to make time for one of his earlier (and least well-known) roles: Penny Dreadful’s Ethan Chandler.
‘Penny Dreadful’ Is an Underrated Masterpiece
An indulgent, atmospheric Gothic horror series that was never afraid to swing for the fences, Penny Dreadful premiered in 2014 and ran for three seasons on Showtime before suddenly and very purposefully concluding its story on its own terms. Translation: It shock-dropped a finale episode that no one saw coming at the time. And while it never really received the widespread acclaim it deserved while airing, the show has become something of a cult classic in the years since its finale in 2016, but it’s still wildly underrated considering how good it is. And with shows like Below and Widow’s Bay making waves (both literally and figuratively speaking), it’s past time to give this excellent drama another look. And Hartnett’s performance is a big part of the reason why.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring
Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you.
😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger)
🧸Chucky(Child's Play)
📞Scream(Ghostface)
🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files)
FIND YOUR NIGHTMARE →
01
Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you.
ASomebody falling asleep when they really should not. BA toy that has moved, and nobody touched it. CA phone ringing in an empty house. DA child talking to somebody who is not there.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything.
AI am exhausted and my mind is playing tricks on me. BSomething in this room is not where I left it. CSomebody is in here with me. DThis house has never felt entirely right.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does.
ANever fall asleep. BNever leave it out of your sight. CNever answer the phone. DNever go down to the basement.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight.
AConvince myself I imagined the whole thing. BTell someone, and brace for them not believing me. CWork out which person I know could be behind it. DGet everybody in the house into one room.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking.
AFine during. Wide awake at two in the morning. BShouting at the screen that nobody is listening. CCalling the twist out loud before it lands. DThrough my fingers, holding on to something.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing.
AFall asleep in a room I have never been in before. BKeep an old doll on the shelf facing my bed. CAnswer every unknown number that calls after midnight. DSpend one night alone in a house with a history.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do.
ANot wanting to turn the bedroom light off. BNot trusting one particular object in my house. CLooking twice at people I have known for years. DFeeling like something came home with me.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare.
AThat I am still asleep, and it knows it. BThat the thing nobody believed me about is here. CThat somebody with a key is downstairs. DThat something is in the doorway, watching us sleep.
REVEAL MY NIGHTMARE →
The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…
Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind.
Elm Street
Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever won that particular argument.
- Freddy is horror's cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
- You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your own head is where this does its damage.
- These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
- You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.
Chucky
Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.
- Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
- You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You know that feeling from real life too.
- The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you have met those adults.
- By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.
Scream
Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.
- Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be somebody who was at the party.
- You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the same way you watch films.
- The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
- Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.
The Conjuring
Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.
- The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
- Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
- This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
- Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one standing in the hallway.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
Penny Dreadful features an absolutely stacked cast of talented performers, from Eva Green’s blockbuster turn as a tortured clairvoyant constantly battling her own internal darkness to Billie Piper’s fascinating and furious take on a version of the Bride of Frankenstein, who’s fully in charge of her own power. Next to such showcase roles, Hartnett’s turn as Ethan, an American sharpshooter with a dark past of his own, can feel a bit understated. But this performance is not just some of the best work of his career; it’s also the show’s quiet heart.
‘Penny Dreadful’s Gunslinging Ethan Chandler Isn’t What He Seems
Mysterious, charming, sexy, and occasionally sinister by turns, Hartnett’s Ethan is initially introduced as he joins forces with the aforementioned clairvoyant Vanessa Ives (Green) and retired explorer Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) to track a dangerous creature and a missing girl. At first glance, the character seems as though he will be little more than a cliché American cowboy, a stereotype that will undoubtedly end up as the butt of many jokes. But that’s not at all what happens.
Ethan’s story ultimately evolves into something much creepier and more complicated, a reinterpretation of the Wolf Man that goes beyond a simple monster movie trope, incorporating everything from Native American history to Jack the Ripper lore. (And while the show doesn’t explicitly reference it, the jokes about An American Werewolf in London basically write themselves.)
A figure of quiet intensity despite his over-the-top public persona, it’s obvious from fairly early on in the show’s run that there’s more to Ethan than meets the eye. Underneath all the gunslinging confidence and swaggering bravado is a man full of genuine suffering, plagued by the curse he carries and the endless guilt that comes along with it. Or, as he puts it: “There are such sins at my back it would kill me to turn around.”
Josh Hartnett’s Layered Performance Grounds ‘Penny Dreadful’s Intense World
Image via ShowtimeUnlike some of the other things that go bump in the night which inhabit this fictional universe, Ethan has little control over his violent nature. Also, unlike many of the others, he feels deep remorse and guilt over what he has done (or, perhaps more correctly, over the people he failed to save). And who doesn’t love a tortured hero — or at least a tortured antihero who wishes he was something different? Plus, he’s surprisingly romantic, a trait which allows Hartnett to put his years as a heartthrob-style leading man to excellent and swoon-worthy use.
His tragic relationship with the consumptive (read: doomed) Brona (Piper) is genuinely moving, but it's Ethan's star-crossed romance with Vanessa that powers much of the series' three seasons. The pair’s profound connection, born of a shared understanding of isolation and inner darkness, is rich and moving, and they’re as compelling when they’re flirting as they are when one is begging the other to kill them. Though — like so much else in this story — these two are obviously not destined for a happy ending, their ability to accept (and, eventually, love) the absolute worst parts of each other is why they’re so easy to root for.
Yes, Penny Dreadful is dark and genuinely disturbing in places. But it’s also deeply romantic and emotionally moving, representing exactly the sort of moody richness we need more of on our TVs right now, not less. There's never been a better time to step into its satisfying darkness.
Release Date 2014 - 2016-00-00
Network Showtime
Showrunner John Logan
