It’s official; if it’s not a British show it just can’t compare. The Brits add another hit to their growing list of brilliant TV shows, making the rest of us look like assholes in the process. Only they could pull off the deep and disturbing story of The Frankenstein Chronicles. A show about murder, crime and a world without God. Add in a dash of a twisted romance, a few mad scientists, and the rise of syphilis and you have a hit. This addictive show pulled This Chick in right away. Maybe it was the mystery, maybe the science, who knows? I do know one thing for sure, binge this Netflix gem while you can.

“You promised me a story. . .”

The Frankenstein Chronicles follows river police John Marlott after he finds a washed up body on the shores of the Thames River. Pretty regular setup, right? Wrong. This body is made up of eight different victims and just to keep you up at night, I swear, I just saw it move. John Marlott and his unlucky partner Joseph Nightingale and a few unlucky friends unpack the mystery behind this abomination. You get to watch with awe as they enter into a dark world of twisted science, loose morals, and “resurrection,” that will force you to ask yourself, how far would you go for immortality?

The Frankenstein Chronicles seemlessly drops you into 1800’s London where life was short, filled with sickness and death, and just the beginnings of real medical sciences. A world of extreme poverty, where people live in squaller, dealing with massive inequality and no running water. Criminals and murders ran wild in a world without DNA or even professional law enforcement. The innocent and unfortunates were hanged for crimes they did not commit, and if they were lucky, their bodies weren’t dug up and sold to science. And that’s just the first season!

Clearly this show spared no expense creating a lifelike replication of one of the poorest and most dangerous times in London history. Through the use of detailed and intricate set designs, costumes, and good old fashioned writing, The Frankenstein Chronicles pulls you into the world of 1800’s murder mysteries, with all the ugly trimmings.

“He lives. He lives!”

Every character on the screen is instantly interesting and they sell the shit out of plight. The Frankenstein Chronicles boasts a pretty stellar cast including Sean Bean, Tom Ward, Richie Campbell, Ed Stoppard, and Vanessa Kirby. If you stopped reading after Sean Bean that’s okay, I would too. Regardless of Bean’s co-stars’ lack of GoT star power, all the actors stand on their own and hold their ground even if the North won’t remember them.

One of the greatest strengths of the show is the ability to mesh history and fiction into one. This mystery manages to entertain while educating the viewer on the real people of the time, including Mary Shelley, the writer of Frankenstein; Robert Peel, the father of modern policing; William Blake, a seminal figure in poetry and art of the Romantic Age; and lastly Ada Lovelace (Byron in the show) a mathematician and the worlds first computer programmer. The show also uses its gruesome story as a backdrop for the timely debates on professional policing, the church’s place in government, and the limits of medical science. Who said you can’t learn things and have fun at the same time?

This Chick doesn’t care that maybe the memorable story of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein was turned a bit on its head to make this whodunit a bit more interesting. The Beans brings the star power but the story honestly stands on its own merits. Netflix hit a gold mine when it picked up The Frankenstein Chronicles. If you’re looking for a crime show, with a dash of history, a pinch of love, a ounce of questionable science and a healthy dose of fear of a world without modern medicine, stream and do your best not to binge away your weekend watching this gruesome gem.

This Chick Scores It: 9/10