Showtime Cancels Penny Dreadful: City of Angels After One Season

After just one season on the premium cable network, Showtime has officially cancelled Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels, the Los Angeles set spin-off to the horror TV series. In a statement to Variety, the network wrote: “Showtime has decided not to move forward with another season of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. We would like to thank executive producers John Logan, Michael Aguilar and the entire cast and crew for their outstanding work on this project.” The first season of the series concluded about two months ago, drawing in just over 300k live viewers for its finale and only 650k when DVR viewers were added to the sum.

Fans of John Logan’s flagship series know all too well the sudden ending of a series on the network. When Penny Dreadful proper concluded its third season in 2016 it came without warning or notice that it would actually be the series finale. Despite comic book continuations, Logan insisted that this was his planned conclusion for the series, but later came up with the idea for the spin-off.

“It was sort of our changing world around us,” Logan told TV Guide earlier this year. “As the world went through the seismic changes, both political and social, in the last five years or so, I started really thinking about a certain period of L.A. history. I’m an Angeleno, I’m a proud Angeleno, I love the history of this city, and there are so many shocking parallels to me about what was going on then and what’s going on now… I always think of the show as: It’s set in 1938, but it’s about 2020.”

Perhaps there is nothing more “2020” than an abrupt ending once again.

Natalie Dormer starred in City of Angels in a complex part, filling a number of roles as her character was in fact a shape shifting demon. Starring alongside her in the series were Nathan Lane, Daniel Zovatto, Kerry Bishe, Adriana Barraza, Michael Gladis, Jessica Garza, and Johnathan Nieves. Rory Kinnear and Patti LuPone, who both appeared in Penny Dreadful series, also appeared, though not as their characters from the original.

The series managed to grab a 75% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, down slightly from the 2014 series which sits at 91%. Neither series, despite critical acclaim and even awards buzz, ever attracted a major audience however, with “City of Angels” averaging around 790k viewers per episode, one par with season one of Penny Dreadful.