Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
PBS‘s Masterpiece is usually a safe place on television. It’s the home of comforting period pieces as Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs. This week, though, Masterpiece is bringing the chills. Dark Angel stars Downton Abbey alum Joanne Froggatt as one of the most notorious women in British history: the nation’s first female serial killer, Mary Ann Cotton.
Back in Victorian England, Mary Ann Cotton was known as a bit of a “black widow.” She would marry men, get them insured, poison them with arsenic, and collect the insurance money. Because arsenic poisoning looks like a bad stomach ailment, and the 19th Century was full of awful diseases, it’s tough to trace precisely how many victims there really were. She may have killed up to 21, though in Dark Angel, she only has 11 victims. There are even some theories that she killed almost all of her own children, also for the insurance money. What’s fascinating is that she actually predates the vile murder sprees of way more famous serial killers “Jack the Ripper” and H.H. Holmes. I don’t know what I’m trying to say here, but the late 19th Century was full of people just straight up murdering folks. It was like serial killing came into style along with the bicycle or something.
Dark Angel traces Mary Ann Cotton’s descent into evil as though it was a natural devolution. She loses children, loses faith, loses her hope for the future. Froggatt does amazing work here. Even if you don’t understand why a woman would fully embrace murder as a hobby, you sympathize with her pain. Oh, and Downton Abbey fans will get a kick from seeing good old Anna marry and prey upon sweet old footman William. Thomas Howes has a small role as one of Mary Ann Cotton’s husbands and victims.
Dark Angel debuts on Masterpiece on PBS tonight at 9 PM.
