Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
lifts cats over head
Jan 17, 2003

Antagonist: A bad man who drops things from the windows.
Taboo premiered 1/10/17 on FX but after catching the premier later I decided it warranted it's own thread.


Tuesdays, 10pm EST on FX

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9QvSry2-CM

From FX's website:
"Set in 1814, Taboo follows James Keziah Delaney, a man who has been to the ends of the earth and comes back irrevocably changed. Believed to be long dead, he returns home to London from Africa to inherit what is left of his father's shipping empire and rebuild a life for himself. But his father's legacy is a poisoned chalice, and with enemies lurking in every dark corner, James must navigate increasingly complex territories to avoid his own death sentence. Encircled by conspiracy, murder and betrayal, a dark family mystery unfolds in a combustible tale of love and treachery.

Taboo is created by Steven Knight with Tom Hardy and Chips Hardy, who is also the show’s consulting producer. Executive producers are Ridley Scott and Kate Crowe for Scott Free, Tom Hardy and Dean Baker for Hardy Son & Baker, and Steven Knight, with Timothy Bricknell producing. Taboo is directed by Kristoffer Nyholm (Eps. 1-4) and Anders Engström (Eps. 5-8), and reunites Hardy and Knight for their third collaboration following Locke and Peaky Blinders."

While some criticism for the premier argues that the show drags, I felt quite the opposite. The setting of 1814 London really has an opportunity to establish itself as a backdrop for the story. The costuming appears to be right on point for the period to the best of my knowledge as well. Throw in some top notch performers (Tom Hardy, Jonathan Pryce) and I think FX may have another gem on their hands.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
Wasn't a big fan of episode 1. Felt too slow and hammy, despite some great performances. Hope it improves - anyone seen episode 2 and can give their impressions?

Biaga
Oct 27, 2009
Came here to talk about Ghosts.

Took me 2 viewings to see the one in episode 1, but the one in the second episode was pretty obvious. Curious to see if anyone has spot something else interesting throughout the episodes.

Biaga
Oct 27, 2009

Escobarbarian posted:

Wasn't a big fan of episode 1. Felt too slow and hammy, despite some great performances. Hope it improves - anyone seen episode 2 and can give their impressions?

Episode 1 was an effort to build the mystery, Episode 2 is establishing the conflict of the overall series and introduces all the characters (Americans, Brits, Slum characters, Monarchists). Its a little slow but it expands on the mysticism of Delaney, we get some hints about his spirituality and more of his connection with Africa - ie why he was in Africa. They build on his relationship with his sister/lover and even outline the mystery of the death of his father, but it sets the theater of the show rather than any of the excitement. If you watch any of Steven Knights other shows, Peaky Blinders, it feels very similar so I would suggest holding out for episode 3 to get hit with a hook or greater draw outside 5 minute cliff hangars at the end of the episode.

lifts cats over head
Jan 17, 2003

Antagonist: A bad man who drops things from the windows.

Biaga posted:

Came here to talk about Ghosts.

Took me 2 viewings to see the one in episode 1, but the one in the second episode was pretty obvious. Curious to see if anyone has spot something else interesting throughout the episodes.

Perhaps I'm missing something because I'm not sure what you're referencing. The only ghost-like thing I spotted was the large black man during his apparent hallucination.

lifts cats over head fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Jan 18, 2017

Biaga
Oct 27, 2009

lifts cats over head posted:

Perhaps I'm missing something because I'm sure what you're referencing. The only ghost-like thing I spotted was the large black man during his apparent hallucination.

No, you are totally missing in.... drat, I can't be the only one. rewatch the last scene when Delaney meets with the East India Company, specifically after the guy launches the letter at him.

Biaga fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Jan 17, 2017

Orv
May 4, 2011
Yeah, it's there alright. That's weird.

Show seems good so far. I enjoy a slow burn.

RedneckwithGuns
Mar 28, 2007

Up Next:
Fifteen Inches of
SHEER DYNAMITE

My girlfriend and I are convinced this show is another piece of evidence in our theory as to why Tom Hardy is always great in whatever he does: Tom Hardy never fucks.

Orv
May 4, 2011
Well of course not, you can't interrupt Tom Hardy's mumbling time.

Hakkesshu
Nov 4, 2009


I like the show, but I'm not sure I would call it good. The thread title is right, half of it is just Tom Hardy grunting and staring and posturing and walking heavily down a street, while the other half is EIC screaming about WHAT'S TO BE DONE WITH THIS DELANEY

But then there are lines like

"What's the smallest thing you saw in Africa"

"Human kindness"

And I can't help but love it.

Orv
May 4, 2011
It's 'good' in the way that all period dramas are good: it's overwrought, totally anachronistic soap opera where everyone is dressed up funny and has funny notions about countries that don't exist anymore. Tudors broke my brain and I can't get enough of these dumb things, no matter how bad they really are.

Rocksicles
Oct 19, 2012

by Nyc_Tattoo
Old timey England was a loving disaster, and they still managed to gently caress half the world up.

shut up netface
Jun 15, 2008
Im somewhat interested in the show thus far however I have a feeling these images Hardy had on the ship from episode 2 are going to be connected to something on the Zong level of hosed up


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zong_massacre
For u non history majors

Biaga
Oct 27, 2009

shut up netface posted:

Im somewhat interested in the show thus far however I have a feeling these images Hardy had on the ship from episode 2 are going to be connected to something on the Zong level of hosed up


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zong_massacre
For u non history majors

I think its pretty clear that he was involved in such incidents, given the timline of the character (we know that Delaney had been in africa for 12 years before 1814). The events of zong were well known by the British by 1807, but we can safely assume that the implications of Delaneys chat in the first episode suggest they might be dipping into bad habits which we will likely uncover as the show progresses.

Also, we also know that the greater plot involving the EITC pans out in favour of the British, because, well, Vancover is in Canada.

3 Action Economist
May 22, 2002

Educate. Agitate. Liberate.
I like the show so far, but Tom Hardy's goatee and haircut drive me crazy. I know it's a dumb thing to be :spergin: over, but facial hair especially is a pet peeve of mine in historical contexts.

Everyone else looks great, though, and the costuming is pretty amazing.

RedneckwithGuns posted:

My girlfriend and I are convinced this show is another piece of evidence in our theory as to why Tom Hardy is always great in whatever he does: Tom Hardy never fucks.

He hosed in Band of Brothers.

Bust Rodd
Oct 21, 2008

by VideoGames
I liked Ep 1-2, but Winter feels a bit too much like a Deus Ex Machina. The man-servant owns bones and I'm just chomping at the bit until we see more of him going native. All I want from this show is Tom Hardy stalking about and more of this juicy plot.

It does speak to the great irony of Victorian upper class issues, namely if you live in a world where everyone woman you new is a snaggle-toothed mudscamp except for own half-sister, and she's the only person your own age you're allowed to talk to without their parents breathing down your neck, it's no wonder this sort of thing was wicked, wicked common

BexGu
Jan 9, 2004

This fucking day....
I just love that this show takes place in a time period most people (Americans) forgot since most history classes go from 1776 straight to the Civil war with a little bit of talk of the War of 1812. The US is still kind of a fledging country and the East India Trading Company is basically a nation with a standing army in all but name.

Depending on what month its is the White House is going to burn down soon!

spaceships
Aug 4, 2005

i love too dumptruck

guacamole aficionado
i'm digging the poo poo out of this. hardy is a beast and i want to touch his face.

edit: i am also digging the idea that to (most of) these people, all Delaney is, is a savage friend of the family.

Zergden
Apr 6, 2009

Biaga posted:

No, you are totally missing in.... drat, I can't be the only one. rewatch the last scene when Delaney meets with the East India Company, specifically after the guy launches the letter at him.

There was another one on the ship that Delaney purchased and removed the chains from.

AFewBricksShy
Jun 19, 2003

of a full load.



Biaga posted:

No, you are totally missing in.... drat, I can't be the only one. rewatch the last scene when Delaney meets with the East India Company, specifically after the guy launches the letter at him.

Can someone screen cap this? I didn't catch it.

lifts cats over head
Jan 17, 2003

Antagonist: A bad man who drops things from the windows.

AFewBricksShy posted:

Can someone screen cap this? I didn't catch it.

Far left

sector_corrector
Jan 18, 2012

by Nyc_Tattoo

Huh, holy poo poo. I'll have to rewatch that scene tomorrow.

Biaga
Oct 27, 2009

Zergden posted:

There was another one on the ship that Delaney purchased and removed the chains from.

Ya the second episode one is very obvious.

Part of me wants to rewatch them in hopes of finding some other appearance, but I think that is a fools dream. I will settle with a different ghost every episode.

As for who the ghosts are, it's pretty clear that the one in episode one is the strange shaman we see in the pool of water in one of his flashbacks. As for episode 2, I can't help but think it might be his father.

Biaga
Oct 27, 2009

Bust Rodd posted:

I liked Ep 1-2, but Winter feels a bit too much like a Deus Ex Machina. The man-servant owns bones and I'm just chomping at the bit until we see more of him going native. All I want from this show is Tom Hardy stalking about and more of this juicy plot.

It does speak to the great irony of Victorian upper class issues, namely if you live in a world where everyone woman you new is a snaggle-toothed mudscamp except for own half-sister, and she's the only person your own age you're allowed to talk to without their parents breathing down your neck, it's no wonder this sort of thing was wicked, wicked common

Something tells me she is not his sister. I expect a young marriage (like a tribal marriage to unite or solidify the contract we have yet to see) and that by marrying the chief's daughter to Delaney's son they formed a formal commitment to the land purchase. In an effort to hid such a situation from the greater British public, they pass off the girl as a daughter rather than a daughter in law.

Unless they do follow the incest story-line and this show has a whole other level of hosed up which I would also respect.

WeedlordGoku69
Feb 12, 2015

by Cyrano4747

RedneckwithGuns posted:

My girlfriend and I are convinced this show is another piece of evidence in our theory as to why Tom Hardy is always great in whatever he does: Tom Hardy never fucks.

That's nothing more than the Hedgehog/Prower phenomenon of ostensibly adult characters engaged in prolonged and intense bouts of presexual intimacy.

Tom Hardy and Jonathan Pryce - despite being thirty- and sixty-somethings, respectively - are several steps behind Matthew Broderick's teen hacker in Wargames, who tentatively explores how it feels to take his shirt off in front of a girl.

For fans, the actual erotic appeal comes from the fact that Sonic The Hedgehog does not gently caress. Ever. He achieves full satisfaction just by staring at you with his massive hypersensitive eyes, and passionately filling his rounded belly with chilidogs. Tom Hardy and Jonathan Pryce, likewise, will never move beyond hugging and trying on each others' clothes. They have no need to.

dangerdoom volvo
Nov 5, 2009
Tom hardy is a role model for volcels and incels everywhere and if he gave up his life force for some skirt that would be a betrayal of the entire community

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
Not seen ep 3 yet but what's even going on in this show? It seems like one of the biggest vanity projects of recent years.

Quincyh
Dec 24, 2011

He's stolen the fire chief's hat!
This is not at all the kind of show I would usually watch and enjoy, and yet here I find myself watching and enjoying it.

Open Source Idiom
Jan 4, 2013
I loving love it, and I admit I'm a little confused that other people don't? Is it the plot... or what? Could someone explain?

sector_corrector
Jan 18, 2012

by Nyc_Tattoo

Open Source Idiom posted:

I loving love it, and I admit I'm a little confused that other people don't? Is it the plot... or what? Could someone explain?

It's because it's not a puzzle box show that fellates their extremely limited cultural knowledge comprised entirely of children's media.

Rocksicles
Oct 19, 2012

by Nyc_Tattoo
The prince regent is all the funnier if you've seen Blackadder season 3

Pedro De Heredia
May 30, 2006
I am enjoying the show (especially the last episode) but the issue I have is with the storytelling style which is full of questions. It can be difficult to have a show where the audience doesn't quite know what's going on, unless the events onscreen are engaging enough to offset that confusion. But in the first episode and most of the second, they aren't.

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
Yeah, the third episode was an improvement but I'm still finding it too slow and self-serious overall, with no reason to really care about what happens next. drat pretty though

Rocksicles
Oct 19, 2012

by Nyc_Tattoo

Escobarbarian posted:

Yeah, the third episode was an improvement but I'm still finding it too slow and self-serious overall, with no reason to really care about what happens next. drat pretty though

I'm not sure where the complication lies in the story, it's a fictional tale about how the US and England (Canada) are fighting over the rights to the closest anchorage to China. Vancouver Island.

The whole thing with Tom hardy and his mum & dad is some old world Shamenism.

Pedro De Heredia
May 30, 2006
There's no complication. Just vagueness. Delaney comes back after 10 years of doing who knows what, and has some kind of plan or idea to defeat his enemies, of which there are many, who he wants defeated for who knows why.

Nothing has been shown onscreen to get the audience invested in Delaney's quest. The motivations of characters are largely based on cryptic events we have not even seen.

Pedro De Heredia fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Jan 23, 2017

Bust Rodd
Oct 21, 2008

by VideoGames
His dad was poisoned, almost certainly by the EIC, and his sister wants him gone because she has her perfect life and doesn't want her history with him exposed. That seems clear as day to me but I guess any show that isn't wall to wall sex robot orgies or bloodbaths just isn't "gripping enough".

I feel like Taboo is tv for people who like to read.

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
This show brings all the elitist fuckwads to the yard, huh

Bust Rodd
Oct 21, 2008

by VideoGames
I just keep reading reviews that are like "this show is very slow & unengaging" and I feel like "how are you talking about the same show I'm watching?" Ghosts and slave ships and cannibalism and international intrigue and I haven't even watched Ep. 3 yet...

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
Well, its concept vs execution, right? While I agree that laying out everything in the show makes it SOUND really engaging, I don't feel the storylines are progressing in any kind of interesting way yet. Scenes are mostly 1. the company scheming and bitching about Delaney in an office 2. Delaney scheming and bitching about the company somewhere near a river and 3. bizarre voodoo stuff that is intriguing but doesn't yet have enough context to make for truly effective scenes. Compare it to Peaky Blinders by the same writer. Just as smart but far more interesting and exciting with characters you care about immediately.

It's also a little confusing to me that I'm seeing so many here and on places like AV Club acting like this show is insanely smart and deep compared to everything else on television. I'm not saying it's stupid, but it really doesn't seem to have much more to say than most dramas of its kind, and the thematic depth doesn't seem to be.....well, that deep, I suppose. Mostly it seems to be getting by on mood, acting and visuals rather than specifically extremely intelligent storytelling. What exactly do you think makes it "a show for people who read?" compared to others? Westworld being the example you gave especially, like arguably that has more to say about consciousness and whatnot than this has to say about.....that the East India Company were bad.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Rocksicles
Oct 19, 2012

by Nyc_Tattoo
You're comparing apple and oranges, wardrobe notwithstanding.

  • Locked thread