History Series / PennyDreadfulCityOfAngels

* BodyHorror: Whatever the heck Elsa Branson does with her "son" when he doesn't need to be around, [[spoiler: absorbing him into her body through her stomach]].

** The presence of Rory Kinnear, who played the Creature/Caliban/John Clare in the original ''Series/PennyDreadful'', could indicate a connection between the series, or it could just be Kinnear and Logan's ProductionPosse rearing its head.

* InNameOnly: Quite literally. The name, the showrunner, and the fact it has supernatural elements are the only things it has in common with the parent series. Essentially, it is a take on Central American mythology and pulp fiction much like the parent series was to Victorian literary legends.

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''City of Angels'' seems to be this to the original ''Series/PennyDreadful''. It's also got strong elements of the book/film ''Film/LAConfidential'' and ''Series/{{Carnivale}}''.

* BodyHorror: Whatever the heck Elsa Branson does to her son, [[spoiler: absorbing him into her body through her stomach]].

* HateSink: There are good cops like Tiago, and bigots-with-badges ranging from mostly-good like Lewis to moderately racist like Captain Vanderhoff, but the one cop that is completely irredeemable is Reilly. He truly hates the Mexican immigrants and the pachucos, roughing them up any chance he gets. He even goes so far as to [[spoiler: sexually violate Josefina in front of her brother, Mateo, knowing neither of them can do anything about it.]] So not a tear is shed in the audience when [[spoiler:Mateo kills him with repeated slashes from a blunt blade]].

* InNameOnly: Quite literally. The name and the fact it has supernatural elements are the only things it has in common with the parent series. Essentially, it is a take on Central American mythology and pulp fiction much like the parent series was to Victorian literary legends.

* ArtifactTitle: Unlike [[Series/PennyDreadful its predecessor]], neither the setting, the tone, or the plot of the show are related to penny dreadfuls. If anything, it's much closer to [[PulpMagazine pulp]]...which is rather appropriate, as "pulp magazines" replaced penny dreadfuls and dime novels in the early 20th century as the most popular form of cheap literature.

* ArtifactTitle: Unlike [[Series/PennyDreadful its predecessor]], neither the setting, the tone, or the plot of the show are related to penny dreadfuls. If anything, it's much closer to [[PulpMagazine pulp]]...which is rather appropriate, as [[FridgeBrilliance "pulp magazines" replaced penny dreadfuls and dime novels in the early 20th century as the most popular form of cheap literature.]]

40 years, an ocean, and a continent away from Main/VictorianLondon awaits 1930s Los Angeles, a city steeped in corruption and tension beneath the glamour of Hollywood magic. Tiago Vega has just been made the LAPD's first Mexican detective when he's brought in on his day off to investigate a gruesome murder, one centered around Mexican-American folklore and a key figure, Santa Muerte.

* AllGermansAreNazis: Most of the German-American or German characters are Nazis/Nazi supporters. Peter's the only (initial) exception; though heading the LA chapter of the pro-Nazi German-American Bund he seems to be a pacifist and at least somewhat opposes anti-Semitism. [[spoiler:However, by the end of the first season he seems to have embraced Nazism under Elsa's corrupting influence.]]
* ArtifactTitle: Unlike [[Series/PennyDreadful its predecessor]], neither the setting, the tone, or the plot of the show are related to penny dreadfuls. If anything, it's much closer to [[PulpMagazine pulp]]...which is rather appropriate as [[FridgeBrilliance "pulp magazines" replaced penny dreadfuls and dime novels in the early 20th century as the most popular form of cheap literature.]]

** Peter is portrayed as head of the German-American Bund in LA, though opposed to key Nazi doctrines. The organization was pro-Nazi from the beginning, headed by Nazis and begun under their order. Here it's portrayed more as a kind of German-American fraternal organization with Nazi sympathizer members but no full commitment to Nazism.

* AssholeVictim: Officer Reilly, who roughs up the Mexicans any chance he gets and violates Josefina in front of her brother Mateo, [[spoiler:has his throat slashed repeatedly by Mateo in retribution and then left hog-tied and naked in front of the police department. He's such an [[HateSink evil piece of work]] that not a single tear is shed by the audience]].

* BodyHorror: Whatever the heck Elsa Brenson does to her son, [[spoiler: absorbing him into her body through her stomach]].

** [[spoiler:Raúl shoots four cops dead during the riot in the pilot, forcing Tiago to shoot him to defend his partner.]]
** [[spoiler: Mateo]] becomes a much more knowing one, hacking Reilly's head nearly off his shoulders for [[spoiler: sexually assaulting Josefina, among other crimes]].

* CreepyChild: Frank is ''definitely'' one. Especially apparent when he [[spoiler:kills Tom Craft's hamster just by looking at it.]]

** [[spoiler: Officer Reilly gets stabbed repeatedly, his head almost severed, courtesy of a vengeful Mateo. [[AssholeVictim He]] thoroughly deserved it, however.]]

* DarkIsEvil: Magda wears a lot of black and is the most malevolent force in the series.

* DontFearTheReaper: Santa Muerte plays a prominent role in the series. She's depicted as a benevolent figure, being attributed to taking people to heaven when they die.
* DownerEnding: The season ends on one hell of a note. [[spoiler: Magda's machinations bear fruit as race riots propel Councilman Townsend closer to his goal of becoming mayor, Peter has started on the path to full-fledged Nazism thanks to Magda/Elsa's manipulations, Molly is dead by her own hand thanks to her mother's actions, thus leaving Tiago devastated, Lewis is forced to shoot Brian, the student he spent so much time protecting, after he finds out he knows how to make an atomic bomb, Magda herself has seemingly set her sights on Tiago, and to cap it all off, the freeway's construction starts, the sight of the neighborhood being demolished rubbing salt in the wound. The only real bright spots are that Mateo reconciles with his family, and that Lewis and Tiago are still in the game.]]

* FalseFlagOperation: Lewis quickly tags onto the fact that a rich white family being butchered, and then decorated with Mexican face paint and left with a message written in Spanish, is clearly meant to shift blame for the crime onto the Mexican community and cover up something else.

* FreudianTrio: The three Vega brothers - hot-headed Mateo is the Id, police officer Tiago is the Superego, activist Raul is the Ego.
* GayConservative: Townsend, who's a conservative member of the LA city council, is also gay. While this is 1938 so most people wouldn't be accepting of this (including liberals) he's got no problem working with Nazi Germany, whose homophobia was ''much'' worse than in the US then. His lover Kurt, meanwhile, ''is'' a Nazi (with the Gestapo) who works for the cause nonetheless. They don't comment on this explicitly, although Kurt mentions that all LGBT clubs have been shut down in Berlin after Townsend takes him to one. Kurt's boss doesn't seem to mind this, even getting Kurt into a relationship with Townsend for blackmail material.

* TheGreatDepression: The series is set towards the end of The Great Depression, with the rising prominence of Nazis.

* HiddenDepths: While overall a [[SleazyPolitician sleazy piece of work]], racist, and a general prick, Townsend, of all people, shows some talent at tap dancing, briefly demonstrating while alone at home. He later mentions to Kurt that he'd tried to make a career of it, but was rejected because of his weight.

* InNameOnly: Quite literally. The name and the fact it has supernatural elements are the only things it has in common with the parent series. Essentially, it is a take on Central American mythology much like the parent series was one on Victorian literary legends.

* LatinoIsBrown: Mateo objects that Rio is white, not Latina (because she's got pale skin), and thus she can't be pachuco. However, she retorts that her parents came from northern Spain to Mexico. Of course, she's just one of Magda's many guises (who's really a demon, though apparently from Mexican culture at least). All of the other Latino characters however have olive skin and black hair.
* LooseLips: Brian is a very smart kid, his problem is once he starts talking, he has trouble knowing when to stop. [[spoiler: This winds up getting him killed.]]

* MagicalJew: Although he's probably one of the least supernatural characters, Lewis Michener is both a mentor to Tiago Vega and very Jewish. He's a bit of an AlterKocker and [[spoiler: when he sees the burned, assassinated bodies of two of his friends, tears his coat in ''keriyah'' and recites Kaddish for them]].
* MalignedMixedMarriage: Tiago's family greatly disapprove of his relationship with Molly, because she's white and he's a Latino. He's accused of not thinking a Latina is good enough to be with. Josefina acts personally betrayed, as Molly's her spiritual leader/mentor. Later he breaks off their relationship, because they could never be together publicly (simply holding hands would not be acceptable, let alone anything else).
* MarkOfTheSupernatural: Tiago has the burned scar of fingers and a thumb of a hand on his left pectoral from where Santa Muerte shoved him away from his father's burning body.

** The scene of Maria Vega praying to Santa Muerte is almost a shot-for-shot re-creation of the scene in the original show when Vanessa Ives is praying to have her possession lifted.
** Ethan Chandler and Tiago Vega are both honorable men chosen by a higher power - Ethan as Lupus Dei and Tiago marked by Santa Muerte.

** Characters with the surname of "Branson" show up in both shows: Mina's fiancé Captain Branson in the original, Magda's persona of Elsa Branson in this show.
** Creator/PattiLuPone makes her third appearance in the franchise. She previously played woods witch Joan Clayton and Joan's descendant, alienist Doctor Seward in the original show. Here, she's a torch singer at a [[spoiler: gay club that Councilman Townsend takes his lover Kurt to.]]

* NobleBigotWithABadge: Lewis realizes that the LAPD sent him and Tiago to investigate the murders because it's purportedly a "spic thing", but he physically defends Tiago against other racist cops and is secretly investigating the Nazi conspiracy in Los Angeles. He's far ''less'' bigoted than most white cops too, having requested that Tiago work with him and being generally fair toward Chicanos as well.

* RealityHasNoSubtitles: Latin Americans speak in non-subtitled Spanish when not speaking English.
* TheReveal: As we find out in the season finale, [[spoiler: Adelaide is the one who committed the murders from the pilot]].

* ShameIfSomethingHappened: Goss non-too-subtly threatens Michener's family during their confrontation by revealing he knows exactly where his children (and grandchildren) live.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Peter Kraft served in World War 1 as a medic, and the experience clearly traumatized him, especially when he discusses his past with Elsa in Episode 8. Having seen the [[WarIsHell horrors of war]] firsthand, and after he [[spoiler: abandoned his birth name of Krupp and]] emigrated to the US, he joined the German-American Bund in a desire to keep his new home country out of another war and the same thing from happening to his own boys.

* ThoseWackyNazis: Set in 1938, many characters have ties to the actual Third Reich.
** [[spoiler: Peter Kraft]] is a member of the "German-American Bund", a real organization in 1938. He has a uniform similar to an SS uniform and a swastika flag in his closet. [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in Episode 8 during a meeting of the Bund, in that he does not seem to quite see eye to eye with the other members on supporting Hitler and their racial views, and does not seem to be a committed Nazi, his main concern seemingly being keeping the United States out of a new war. [[spoiler: DoubleSubverted as of the season finale, as he is seen wearing an Iron Cross and reluctantly giving a Nazi salute, thanks to Elsa's manipulations.]]
** Councilman Townsend is an American man... who thinks that Mussolini and Hitler are great role models. However, he is ''[[SubvertedTrope not]]'' willing to be an actual Nazi, but has zero problems benefiting from their assistance in making him mayor.

* ThreeWaySex: Between Mateo, Rio and Fly Rico.
* TooDumbToLive: Brian is pretty intelligent in terms of scientific work, but he lacks common sense. For instance, he decides to blab to Tiago, Michener, and Benny Berman that [[spoiler: he's not only been working on rockets, but nuclear physics, specifically the atomic bomb. Not only would this be giving away important government secrets in the best of times, all three are horrified to hear of this, thus causing them to decide to kill him, with Lewis being the one to carry it out.]]
* VillainProtagonist: Magda is the primary villain to start with, but also a focus character herself.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Councilman Townsend has a very poor relationship with his father, to put it lightly, demonstrated during their meeting in Episode 9. Townsend Sr. bluntly refuses to help his son win the recall, [[KickTheDog deriding him as weak and a 'losing horse' to his face.]]
* WhatTheHellHero: In the process of interrogating Diego, Lewis figures out that [[spoiler: Tiago's brother was [[WhoMurderedTheAsshole the one who killed Officer Reilly]]]]. Lewis then lays into Tiago for letting him go. But he helps cover up that fact by getting Diego to confess to that murder as well as the Hazlett killings.
* WhereEverybodyKnowsYourFlame: Townsend takes Kurt to a secret LGBT club in LA. It has an alarm that goes off to announce police raids-at that point all same-sex couples switch immediately to dancing with opposite-sex partners. Kurt mentions that all such clubs in Berlin have been shut down under the Nazi Party. It's more realistic than the usual portrayal however, as the patrons seem to be entirely {{lipstick lesbian}}s and {{straight gay}} men, with nothing more than dancing as a woman sings (which is basically the same as the straight dance clubs in the '30s).

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: The parent series was a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover of classic horror literature about the supernatural. This series consists of entirely original characters in a drama about racial tensions, with seemingly tacked-on supernatural elements. While it as a series could very easily stand on its own merits, it doesn't show any signs of even existing in the same setting as the parent series.

* AssholeVictim: Officer Reilly, who roughs up the Mexicans any chance he gets and violates Josefina in front of her brother Mateo, [[spoiler:has his throat slashed repeatedly by Mateo in retribution and then left hog-tied and naked in front of the police department. He's such an [[HateSink evil piece of work]] that not a single tear is shed by the audience.]]

* MasterOfDisguise: The demon Magda is German housewife Elsa Branson, Councilman Townsend's assistant Alex Malone, and the pachuco 'queen' Rio. While they are all played by Creator/NatalieDormer, even characters familiar with her different identities don't notice any resemblance. It helps that she can actually be in two places at once.

* MasterOfDisguise: The demon Magda is German housewife Elsa Branson, Councilman Townsend's assistant Alex Malone, and the pachuco 'queen' Rio. While they are all played by Creator/NatalieDormer, even characters familiar with her different identities don't notice any resemblance.

* {{Gayngster}}: Fly Rico appears to be bi at least, given he has a casual threesome with Mateo and Rio, while also being a feared pachuco gangster.

** Creator/PattiLuPone makes her third appearance in the franchise. She previously played woods witch Joan Clayton and alienist Doctor Seward in the original show. Here, she's a torch singer at a [[spoiler: gay club that Councilman Townsend takes his lover Kurt to.]]