Nothing is as it seems…

This is only episode 2, so we’re still world-building and establishing characters. Already, The Nevers is peeling layers from the key players we met in the first episode, leaving us to wonder who is on the light side and who on the dark.

Of course, this mirrors reality more closely; we are all multi-faceted with our own agendas, some more altruistic and worthy than others, some more selfish.  You could refer to this as muddled characterisation, but I’m prepared to cut The Nevers some slack and call this interesting as it keeps the audience guessing about their motivations and I enjoy having pre-conceptions challenged. It’s more complex and nuanced than ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’, and those with opposing views aren’t always the enemy.

It’s not just women who are ‘Touched’, and the ‘Turns’ (the name used for the special gifts some of our protagonists have) bring their own difficulties for each of the Touched – we don’t know yet if there is any rhyme or reason to the type of Turn a person acquires, and I’m hoping that gets laid out for us in future episodes – I’ll be disappointed if not. We do learn more about the Turns of some important characters, so I have no reason to doubt this detail would be missed.

The shade thrown at certain Victorian views and cultural stereotypes that society as a whole no longer holds with continues a pace, but the more I reflect on it, the more I really don’t find this a problem at all. This isn’t a documentary, more of an alternate reality, and we can indulge in a fantastical  ‘what if’, in the best science fiction tradition.

There is a scene-stealing woman we meet, with a most interesting mind-trick of a Turn and it’s very eye-opening. A lot more of her, please and thank you. There is also a progression of a sweet moment from the first episode, but of course it’s far too early in the day for a happy ending, and those old cultural stereotypes and prejudices rear their head again. I’d say that was a shame, but I care about the characters involved – when did that happen?

Verdict: Who should we trust? The bad goodies or the good baddies?  7/10

Claire Smith