Warning - I don't think this has spoilers, as I'm commenting on the actual relevant history that's been skillfully woven into the plot - but if you are clueless about this history you might misconstrue what I say as a spoiler. I knew this history and my reaction was – dang (I can't write what I actually said), somebody really understands the world of the time!
TABOO is welcome proof that you can have a well written, directed, and acted series that is historically accurate, or as a minimum historically plausible. It's 1814 and the East India Trading Company is the largest chartered company in the world, and one of its largest and most powerful institutions. It controls close to half of world trade and fields its own army that has conquered India and enforces a total monopoly on all trade there and with many other places. The War of 1812 is winding down, the slave trade but not slavery was outlawed into England and the Empire just seven years before, and the East India Company has been involved with much of that trade which is still quasi-legal if ships did not equip via England.
There is a building anti-slavery movement in England, with British emancipation just 16 years away. This adds a certain believability in the East India Company still being actively but deniably involved in slave trading, and trying to hide this not only from the public but those politicians opposed to slavery. Simultaneously there was a faction in the British Aristocracy that as late as the US Civil War wanted revenge on the Colonials that had ungratefully revolt in 1776, which is also worked into adding depth, motivation, and believability to certain actions in the plot. You might say evil often happens one excuse at a time.
Now into this cauldron you have James Keziah Delaney returning to England from Africa in 1814 to his sick father, who has actually just died. He disappeared 10 years ago, somewhere in Africa, after an appropriately horrific incident that could change anyone, and again has a strong basis in history. He's a hard man, shaped by his history into a survivor who will not be intimidated, or back down. His actions, just like those of his adversaries, make absolute sense given the character and the situation and continue to escalate in ways that are more than credible. The only blatant thing to me is the name of his deceased mother from the Pacific Northwest, Salish. That is the name of a coastal Native American people in the area she is from that is a major plot point in and of itself, and which has some kind of apparently occult linkage to be further revealed in later episodes.
It's a grimy, dirty London, sharing more with Penny Dreadful then with My Fair Lady. Add in James Delaney's questionable ancestry, his father's odd behavior before his death, grave robbers, knowledge of the state of chemistry of the time (no 19th century NCIS thankfully), questions of inheritance and the rules of the time, conspiracy in the halls of power, and finally questions and flashes of what is probably the occult that is being alluded to and hinted at, and it sounds like you'd have a mess.
You actually have a well-crafted stew, with each ingredient added at just the right moment, and which has been blended with the perfect mix of spices. Then you realize you're not quite sure what kind of meat has been added but it's NOT chicken, and that the flavor is being cleverly concealed. As you know the father is dead in the first five minutes of the first episode, it's no spoiler to reveal I watched up until the big reveal with the reading of the will toward the end of the second episode, when my free viewing timed out. As far as I can tell nothing happens without a reason in this series, but they weave this all into the plot and the actions without some annoying narrator in the background, nor do the club you over the head with anything. You don't need the historical background to enjoy it. In fact my only complaint is that this is only on paid cable/satellite. I just wish FX was more like Fox or CW where you can stream five episodes of their recent series.
TABOO is welcome proof that you can have a well written, directed, and acted series that is historically accurate, or as a minimum historically plausible. It's 1814 and the East India Trading Company is the largest chartered company in the world, and one of its largest and most powerful institutions. It controls close to half of world trade and fields its own army that has conquered India and enforces a total monopoly on all trade there and with many other places. The War of 1812 is winding down, the slave trade but not slavery was outlawed into England and the Empire just seven years before, and the East India Company has been involved with much of that trade which is still quasi-legal if ships did not equip via England.
There is a building anti-slavery movement in England, with British emancipation just 16 years away. This adds a certain believability in the East India Company still being actively but deniably involved in slave trading, and trying to hide this not only from the public but those politicians opposed to slavery. Simultaneously there was a faction in the British Aristocracy that as late as the US Civil War wanted revenge on the Colonials that had ungratefully revolt in 1776, which is also worked into adding depth, motivation, and believability to certain actions in the plot. You might say evil often happens one excuse at a time.
Now into this cauldron you have James Keziah Delaney returning to England from Africa in 1814 to his sick father, who has actually just died. He disappeared 10 years ago, somewhere in Africa, after an appropriately horrific incident that could change anyone, and again has a strong basis in history. He's a hard man, shaped by his history into a survivor who will not be intimidated, or back down. His actions, just like those of his adversaries, make absolute sense given the character and the situation and continue to escalate in ways that are more than credible. The only blatant thing to me is the name of his deceased mother from the Pacific Northwest, Salish. That is the name of a coastal Native American people in the area she is from that is a major plot point in and of itself, and which has some kind of apparently occult linkage to be further revealed in later episodes.
It's a grimy, dirty London, sharing more with Penny Dreadful then with My Fair Lady. Add in James Delaney's questionable ancestry, his father's odd behavior before his death, grave robbers, knowledge of the state of chemistry of the time (no 19th century NCIS thankfully), questions of inheritance and the rules of the time, conspiracy in the halls of power, and finally questions and flashes of what is probably the occult that is being alluded to and hinted at, and it sounds like you'd have a mess.
You actually have a well-crafted stew, with each ingredient added at just the right moment, and which has been blended with the perfect mix of spices. Then you realize you're not quite sure what kind of meat has been added but it's NOT chicken, and that the flavor is being cleverly concealed. As you know the father is dead in the first five minutes of the first episode, it's no spoiler to reveal I watched up until the big reveal with the reading of the will toward the end of the second episode, when my free viewing timed out. As far as I can tell nothing happens without a reason in this series, but they weave this all into the plot and the actions without some annoying narrator in the background, nor do the club you over the head with anything. You don't need the historical background to enjoy it. In fact my only complaint is that this is only on paid cable/satellite. I just wish FX was more like Fox or CW where you can stream five episodes of their recent series.
Tell Your Friends