In advance of the premier of The Nevers on HBO this coming Sunday evening, the reviews and previews have started to be published. And so far they have been great! Read them in full via the website links. Tom Riley plays Augustus Bidlow in the series.
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. Premiering Sunday, "The Nevers" ably continues the network's tradition of making fantasy and sci-fi a prestigious television pursuit, this time in the splendor and grit of 1899 London...
...Disabled philanthropist Lavinia Bidlow (Olivia Williams) cautions against maligning the Touched, immigrants and other “deviations” from the norm. “It is the end of a century,” she proclaims. “These ancient prejudices have no use.” She funds the orphanage while using her younger brother, Augie (Tom Riley), as a de facto footman. They interact with a cast of diverse and engaging characters, from Hugo Swann (James Norton), a pansexual aristocrat and master extortionist who runs a private sex club, to doctor Horatio Cousens (Zackary Momoh), a West Indian immigrant who literally heals with his hands, and deranged American surgeon Edmund Hague (Denis O'Hare), who relishes the ghoulish delights of Victorian surgical procedure. “The Nevers” is for anyone who loved “Penny Dreadful” or “Harlots,” “WandaVision” or “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” This period drama about the persecution — and power — of the marginalized goes wide on genre appeal, while homing in on painfully contemporary themes. And it’s full of riddles designed to keep us hooked. LA Times
The Victorian setting, inextricably linked to Gothic literature, has also held a lingering whiff of brimstone. With its deliciously macabre atmosphere, smoldering sex appeal and occasional touch of gore, The Nevers will appeal to fans of recent Victorian fantasies like Penny Dreadful, Carnival Row and The Irregulars. We may've been down this Victorian alleyway before, but the show's characters and fantastical elements are slickly realized. And it's refreshing to focus on the lives of Victorian women as more than twittering toffs or streetwalking victims of the Ripper. The steampunky setting and misfits-against-the-world theme may not be revolutionary, but the infectious storytelling and absorbing world-building could make The Nevers a hit. You never know. CNet
