TV Series. "Taboo" - episode one - review

Unfortunately the first episode of "Taboo" is not particularly good. It's not too bad to deny you if you've decided that you're watching a darker series (as I do). But if you come across a pirate ship, where you have to defend the idea that it's a good cinema, let alone good drama, you will find yourself in an awkward position (given that pirates have an aesthetic sense of course). What "Taboo" might possibly offer you is a return to a favorite literary genre. I like marine and / or gothic stories with fantastic elements, which work in the 19th century - a time of discovery and mysticism when terrifying stories flow from all over the world. Dan Simmons' book "Horror" still keeps me chilling and with the rest of the team we are eagerly waiting for the forthcoming series, whose producer will be Ridley Scott, also responsible for "Taboo". But before I lost you with unnecessary details, here's what's coming up with the new show: The historical drama takes us to London in the early 19th century. James Casagea Deleeni (Tom Hardy) is considered a dead adventurer who returns home after ten years of wandering. His father has just died under strange circumstances, and the East Indian company wants to swallow the business he is the heir of. Delaney refuses to sell and "armed" with 14 stolen diamonds, decides to build his own trading empire, thus interfering in a dangerous game that can cost his life as well. "Taboo" is a joint production of FX and BBC, the result of which is a mix between Dickens and "The Game of Thrones" . Something that may, however, "extinguish" your enthusiasm is the heroinizing of Tom Hardy.

Because, let's not be mistaken, this is not an image, named James Casaya Delaney, and the very same puzzled Hardy, who mutters, shakes menacingly as he walks and looks down as a dog. I have already noted in text his more interesting roles, as well as annoying repetitions and, frankly, Delaney calmly enters the second column. There is no nuanced performance serving the general whole but pure star power.If you have a poster of Mr. Bronson in your room, Taboo will not disappoint you. The first episode comes to make up the fantasy fantasy as a dark past hero who returns to take revenge and take what he is. It is so legendary and dangerous that everyone who sees it hides in the dark and whispers behind it for some feat or atrocity. Tom Hardy's cold gaze leaves little room for doubt. Since the tempo is slow, it is more in the atmosphere and bad reputation for the protagonist, one does not have much to expect of the remaining seven episodes (at least not many!). We understand that Delaney has a sister (Una Chaplin) with whom they apparently had a love affair ("taboo" is still said), and the East Indian company, in the face of Jonathan Price, breathes in his neck and tries to take him the most important piece of land - Noutka (funny sounds, but the work is thick). Most worrying is the special ability of Delaney to contact the dead. It can be one of the nails in the coffin of production, as the fantastic elements are often used for dramatic play (for example, the hero returns and is already aware of everything because his dead father has already informed him) bad - for "ambitious" visual performances.

No one would mourn about such things (though in Hamlet one of the ghost's functions is to inform), but it has been abused with moderate use for the benefit of spectacular soothers. We're about to see, but honestly, I'm betting on the second one. And the scene where Delaney saw through the window or whatever it was was taken as if casting for The Lonely Ranger. As I mentioned at the beginning - so far the expectations of "Taboo" are extremely low, and there is a serious danger after a second episode that my interest is completely lost. For now I'm driving the fumes of the literature I've read, and I continue with the belief that something exciting will happen soon enough to turn things upside down. l"

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