Vanessa Ives suffered for our sins on Penny Dreadful.

Anne Hale lived for them on Salem.

But fourth seasons eluded both.

This article containsPenny DreadfulandSalemspoilers.

Neither ShowtimesPenny Dreadfulnor WGNsSalemmade it to season 4.

Both series deal with problems of biblical proportions.

Vanessa may speak Verbis Diablo, the ancient Words of the Devil, but the devil listens to Anne.

SalemSeason 4 is in entertainment hell.

The hero didnt win.

The villain carries the day.

And it wasnt any villain.

This was a series about witches, and the audience fully expected the heroine to triumph.

The comparisons toPenny Dreadfuls Vanessa Ives were unavoidable.

They both had dark secrets and hair, magnetic eyes, and a strong will.

But Sibley is not the victor at the end of the show.

With Annes ambition trumping Marys anguished love,Salemconcluded on the exact opposite note as ShowtimesPenny Dreadful.

I shall fear no evil because Im the biggest bastard in the valley.

Anne Hale is the baddest witch in the continent.

Hale goes the other way.

She is on the fast track to godhood and shes starting with the old hood.

Hale doesnt go over or under peoples heads, she gets into them.

Even her sermons are accessible to the highbrow and lowbrow.

Penny Dreadfulwas quite highbrow in spite of its origins.

It looked positively posh.

It was all so quite British.

Set in a harbor town on the new frontier, it was rugged.

The drawing shows a small gathering of children in various stages of happy levitation.

You really didnt want to be caught practicing magic of any kind during the time period.

In some circles you couldnt even mention apples.

Penny Dreadfulis set in the late nineteenth century where practicing witchcraft was practically encouraged.

The show begins in 1891, the year Madame Helena Blavatsky of the Theosophical Society died.

you’re able to see its descendants on basic cable now.

Wells, Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Oscar Wilde into a loving tribute.

The series was Goth poetry and grindhouse Grand Guignol told by Victorian emos with a stiff upper lip.

Man was supposed to rise above the beast.

Although Dorian Gray might disagree.

The evils in the woods were very real and also very beastly.

The people of the era didnt only rise above the animals, they cooked them.

Vanessa Ives and Mary Sibley both got involved in treacherous love triangles.

Vanessa loved Ethan, and Mary loved John.

The audience is never really clear whether Anne Hale should dump Cotton Mather (Seth Gabel).

Dracula is doing it for love, but good has nothing to do with it.

Penny Dreadfulseason 3 rode to a close with the double creature features Perpetual Night and The Blessed Dark.

Either series could survive its finale.

But they lie as contemporary bookmarks on either side of the horror bin.