Never again will we see the like.

After a longer-than-anticipated mid-season break, thanks to one global pandemic disrupting the filming schedule, fans finally get to see the last 6 episodes of the first series of The Nevers, released earlier this year. Well, they will if they are prepared to dig for it, because HBO have removed it from its library. The first 6 parts aired in 2021, and ended on something of a bombshell – quite literally.

In the aftermath of the hanging and the terror, there are further revelations, threats and a moment of passion that seals the fate of one of The Touched. There’s growing public fear that only escalates into unrest on the streets, with murder, arson and what amounts to a siege of the orphanage. Meanwhile, Lavinia and Augustus come to blows as the depth of their dysfunctional sibling rivalry are unveiled. As Maladie and Amalia fight over the fate of the Galanthi, it uses its power to transform them both.

It seems as though there are a few too many threads to tie up for there to be another narrative arc and further characters thrown into the mix, I’m not sure we needed that, but the series may be suffering from the kitchen sink being thrown in, seeing as this is all that we’ll get. The upshot of the ‘ghost-mother-in-the-machine’ storyline is that Amalia and Penance are reunited. A Bill to outlaw The Touched is defeated while a sweet romance blossoms… but it’s between two men, so of course it’s doomed. Sigh.

The Galanthi’s biggest threat, Lavinia, is vanquished but we learn that the Galanthi always wanted to sacrifice itself for the greater good, to share its powers… so it was one of the good guys after all. Lovely. There’s a poignant message in there, but I’m not sure it landed as well as it could have done, because (for some inexplicable reason, considering the cancellation) the closing scenes are ‘touched’ by the ‘bad guy / thing isn’t really dead / vanquished’ trope. A strange note on which to end this fantastical steam-punk sci-fi hybrid.

Verdict: A victim of monumentally bad timing, the sins of its original showrunner – rather than the writing team – sank this clever dystopian alternative history tale before it had a chance to swim. 8/10

Claire Smith