WHAT IT S ABOUT:
A supernatural event causes a group of Victorian women to have unusual abilities , they band together as they face enemies that come at them from different sides.
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
Simply put –
The Nevers is a lot. The first four episodes of the season, that was made available for the press to watch, pass by in a flurry of names, faces and events in an attempt at world-building that left me both confused and intrigued. The series is both unlike anything you ve seen before but also influenced by many things that you ve seen before.
The Nevers is set in Victorian London (the 1890s) and tells the story of a strange event that alters the abilities of many women. What the strange event was, we don t know, and who is behind it, we don t know either but the show is definitely setting up these questions as mysteries.
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Unless you’ve been living under a rock or have forgotten your Netflix password these past few weeks, you can’t have missed the arrival of fantasy fan favourite,
The show is based on the debut
young adult novel by American author Leigh Bardugo. It follows Alina Starkov, a teenage orphan growing up in the Russia-inspired Kingdom of Ravka who unexpectedly harnesses a power – a Grisha talent – she didn’t know she possessed
to save her best friend.
The Grisha are able to manipulate the elements in order to weaponise them, such as controlling the wind or conjuring fire, and Alina discovers she can summon light.
Together, they run an orphanage financed by wealthy spinster Lavinia Bidlow (Olivia Williams), and face threats to their existence from multiple sources throughout society. There s Maladie, a serial killer giving the Touched a bad name around London. Then there s the mysterious Dr. Edmund Hague (Denis O Hare), rounding up the Touched for his disturbing experiments. And then there s the government: stodgy old white men who mostly despised women and their quest for equal rights anyway even before some women began to have superpowers. Subplots abound, as well: there s the underground sex club run by party boy Lord Hugo Swann, plus Detective Frank Mundi (Ben Chaplin) with his bad reputation and connection to the Touched opera singer, Mary Brighton (Eleanor Tomlinson).
Ann Skelly, left, Zackary Momoh, right, in a scene from The Nevers. (Keith Bernstein/HBO)
Published April 15. 2021 12:01AM
Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times Get the weekly rundown Email Submit
Kicking butt in corsets and slaying with parasols, Victorian sci-fi drama “The Nevers” arrived under, or at least alongside, a cloud: Creator Joss Whedon, who left the series in November citing exhaustion, has been the subject of multiple allegations since last summer of creating an abusive work environment on other projects, including by “Justice League’s” Ray Fisher and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s” Charisma Carpenter and Michelle Trachtenberg.
But if this meant HBO faced an even taller order turning its ambitious new series, now helmed by showrunner Philippa Goslett, into a worthy successor to “True Blood,” “Game of Thrones” and “Watchmen,” it’s one the cable giant has surmounted. “The Nevers” ably continues the networ
Kicking butt in corsets and slaying with parasols, Victorian sci-fi drama âThe Neversâ arrives under, or at least alongside, a cloud: Creator Joss Whedon, who left the series in November citing exhaustion, has been the subject of multiple allegations since last summer of creating an abusive work environment on other projects, including by âJustice Leagueâsâ Ray Fisher and âBuffy the Vampire Slayerâsâ Charisma Carpenter and Michelle Trachtenberg.
But if this meant HBO faced an even taller order turning its ambitious new series, now helmed by showrunner Philippa Goslett, into a worthy successor to âTrue Blood,â âGame of Thronesâ and âWatchmen,â itâs one the cable giant has surmounted. âThe Nevers,â which premiered Sunday, ably continues the networkâs tradition of making fantasy and sci-fi a prestigious television pursuit, this time in the splendor and grit of 1899 London.