'Penny Dreadful' season 4 cancellation news: Series finale 'felt very rushed,' film critic says

While "Penny Dreadful" creator John Logan has repeatedly insisted that it was always his intention to end the recently concluded Showtime series with its third season, many of the horror drama's fans remain unconvinced.

Shortly after the season 3 finale aired, an angry "Penny Dreadful" fan wrote Logan an open letter, accusing him of putting an end to the series so he can move on to another television project. The letter, which was published by Vampires.com, echoed many viewers' sentiments about the show's unceremoniously quick ending.

Recently, film critic Theresa DeLucci weighed in on the controversy, saying that she was disappointed by the series finale.

In episode 210 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast, DeLucci said, as quoted by Wired, "I know that John Logan, the creator of 'Penny Dreadful,' says this was always his design to have it end the way it did, but it really did not come across that way."

"It felt very rushed," she explained.

According to DeLucci, despite Logan's explanation, "Penny Dreadful" may have been forced off the air by poor ratings. She pointed out that the show never got much publicity, which may have contributed to its surprisingly abrupt ending.

During the podcast, author Christie Yant also expressed doubts that the show ended because Vanessa (Eva Green) had reached the end of her story. According to her, many of the show's key relationships had remained unresolved and the last two episodes were disappointing, failing to wrap things up nicely.

These observations are in stark contrast to Logan's comments following the cancellation of "Penny Dreadful."

"To me, the show was always going to achieve closure with the death of Vanessa," the "Penny Dreadful" boss told TVLine, adding that the series finale was meant to leave the show's characters "at a place of appropriate and beautiful stasis."

Logan also acknowledged the possibility of the show carrying on, saying that he would have loved to keep telling Vanessa's story but that it "would've been an act of bad faith."

"Vanessa's struggle had to end, and it had to end in peace," he explained.

In an interview with Deadline, Logan explained that he thought of "Penny Dreadful" not as an epic nor as a haiku, but as a sonnet.

"It was something of grace and beauty," he said.

There has been no official word from Showtime about a possible season 4 renewal for "Penny Dreadful."