Where the waters are calm and deep and occasionally treacherous

[sovay]

It rained so briefly and lightly during our walk this evening that spatch could not capture a shot of me with the rainbow, which would have been apropos for Bisexual Visibility Day, but he got one of me with sun beforehand and one of me with rain after, which almost evens out to the same thing.





I no longer remember who recommended me Taboo (2017), but I am three episodes in and while I have not yet wearied of watching Tom Hardy stalk his dark, baroque, quasi-supernatural and rather exoticizing way around 1814 London with a roster of fine character actors and dialogue whose swear jar owes the inevitable debt to Deadwood (2004–06), the supporting cast features Edward Hogg as a sweet, nervous clerk of the East India Company and cross-dressing habitué of the local molly house and I just want a show about his life, all right?

Comments

[sovay]

How was the annual day when everybody can see you?!

The part where we went for a walk was very nice! A person who could see me pointed out the rainbow to us, since it was diagonally behind us otherwise. Some other parts were not so hot, but I seem at least to have woken up the next morning.

The photos came out well, as usual.

Thank you.

FWOOM does that show have a body count, and I'm so sad.

I would have answered your original question with "mondo." Of my three favorite characters [rot13 for those who care], bar tbg sevqtrq juvpu V ernyyl bowrpgrq gb, bar jnf frevbhfyl vawherq va gur svanyr fhpu gung n frpbaq frnfba pbhyq unir tbar rvgure jnl ba gurve fheiviny, naq V jbeevrq fb zhpu nobhg Tbqserl sbe nyy gur boivbhf ernfbaf naq gura abguvat sngny be ehvabhf orsryy uvz ng nyy rira jura ur fcrag zbfg bs gur raqtnzr va qent ol qnlyvtug. V nccerpvngrq vg! Ur qrfreirf fbzr avpr sryybj jub'yy gerng uvz evtug va gur Arj Jbeyq! Zl rkgerzryl yngrag fynfu vafgvapgf rira fhttrfgrq fbzrbar ol gurve svany fprar! But there are quite a lot of actors pretending to be corpses at various stages of the plot.

The show's creator apparently describes the East India Company properly as "...the CIA, the NSA, the biggest, baddest multi-national corporation..."

Despite its excursions into a sort of Georgian Gothic, Taboo is bang on where the powers and politics of the time are concerned, including the ways in which the interests of Crown and Company are not always or even often coaligned. At other points it gets lost up its own atmosphere. My verdict is basically a flawed but compelling first season that might have worked out most of its hitches if given more time; there is at least one element baked into the premise that was just never going to fix itself as written and cast, but I enjoyed enough of the show as it exists that I would have been interested in a second season, which could have done a better job unifying all its themes and threads as opposed to spinning off digressions and the occasional script-level nope. I'm not sure what happened that it stopped short instead.

[selkie]

Oh, boo, on the fake dead people. ("Weird thing to have," says my therapist. "Well, it took me until this year, but I think I figured it out." "You tried working with real dead people and that didn't....?" My therapist is a manifestation of the meta-narrative sent to make fun of my existence in fifty-minute-hour chunks.)

I went in sort of embracing the Georgian gothic! Nothing is wrong with the Georgian gothic! The element I bounced off, still sight-unseen, was gur snpg gung Uneql'f punenpgre vf fhccbfrq gb or unys Abbgxn? Naq Uneql vf gra gubhfnaq creprag n juvgr qhqr? V'z thvygl bs guvf va n qensg zlfrys, ohg YBEQ ab bar tnir zr OOP zbarl gb pneel vg guebhtu.

[sovay]

I went in sort of embracing the Georgian gothic! Nothing is wrong with the Georgian gothic!

Absolutely not! Taboo's issue is that it whiplashes between the Gothic and the realpolitik when they need to run in tandem, one as the shadow under the surface of the other as they should: the Gothic is one of the genres that evolved to speak to social anxieties on the slant. The show tries to mix them and sometimes it succeeds, but sometimes they just sort of coagulate in their own corners of the plot and give the audience some difficulty switching tracks.

The element I bounced off, still sight-unseen, was

That would be the unfixable bake-in! I actually went in not knowing it and as soon as it was revealed spatch had to listen to a lot of shouting.

Vg vf qbhoyl sehfgengvat orpnhfr juvyr nfcrpgf bs vg ner unaqyrq onqyl ba gur cntr naq gurersber qba'g genafyngr nal orggre gb gur fperra, bguref ner yrtvgvzngryl vagevthvat. Wnzrf Xrmvnu Qrynarl vf gur bayl fba bs gur zrepunag Ubenpr Qrynarl naq n jbzna ur nyjnlf pynvzrq gb unir zneevrq va Ancyrf; uvf fba fnlf ovggreyl naq npphengryl gung ur obhtug ure whfg yvxr ur obhtug gur ynaq bs Abbgxn Fbhaq, jvgu thacbjqre, ornqf, naq yvrf. Jr qba'g rira xabj ure erny anzr. Fur vf ohevrq ba gur byq tebhaqf bs Orqynz haqre gur anzr bs Naan, juvpu Ubenpr fghpx bagb ure nf cneg bs gur Arncbyvgna cergrafr. Wnzrf terj hc oryvrivat ure gehr anzr jnf Fnyvfu, juvpu vf abg n crefbany anzr, vg'f gur anzr bs gur angvba arkg qbbe gb gur Ahh-punu-ahygu, fb rira zber jnf ybfg va genafzvffvba guna ur haqrefgnaqf. Ur unf nyjnlf gubhtug bs uvzfrys nf zber bs uvf zbgure'f puvyq guna uvf sngure'f, rira gubhtu ur jnf oerq gb rzcver ol uvf sngure, frag ng gur ntr bs ryrira gb genva jvgu gur bgure pnqrgf bs gur Rnfg Vaqvn Pbzcnal ng gur Eblny Zvyvgnel Npnqrzl ng Jbbyjvpu; ur unf nyjnlf oryvrirq gung uvf zbgure jnf frag gb Orqynz orpnhfr fur ershfrq gb nffvzvyngr naq cynl ure nffvtarq ebyr. Jr yrnea yngr va gur fubj gung juvyr ur'f nyzbfg pregnvayl evtug nobhg gur pnyybhf pbairavrapr bs ure vapneprengvba—Ubenpr erzneevrq nf fbba nf vg jnf qrpragyl cbffvoyr, cebqhpvat gur nyy-Ratyvfu Mvycun—fur jnf pbzzvggrq fcrpvsvpnyyl orpnhfr fur gevrq gb qebja gur vasnag Wnzrf. Vg znxrf frafr bs n erpheevat avtugzner-ivfvba bs uvf, n fvera-yvxr juvgr-snprq enira-jbzna nyjnlf frra jnvfg-qrrc va n evire, fbzrgvzrf fpernzvat; whfg bapr nsgre ur'f gbyq gur fgbel, jr frr n syvpxre bs ubj fur zhfg ernyyl unir ybbxrq, n lbhat jbzna jvgu ure oynpx unve va oenvqf naq ure snpr cnvagrq juvgr naq oynpx nf ure bja tubfg, ubyqvat gur puvyq va ure nezf orsber fur ubyqf uvz haqre. Gur yvxryvrfg rkcynangvba vf gung Wnzrf jnf abg n jnagrq puvyq nal zber guna Ubenpr jnf n pubfra uhfonaq. Ur nyjnlf vzntvarq uvzfrys yvxr ure, ba gur bccbfvat fvqr sebz gur Oevgvfu Rzcver, naq ur jnf whfg nabgure cebqhpg bs rzcver gb ure. Gung'f nyy cnvashy, snfpvangvat fghss naq vg'f tvira gb n punenpgre cynlrq ol Gbz Uneql, jub nyzbfg rirel rcvfbqr cenpgvprf evghnyf sebz uvf zbgure'f fvqr bs gur snzvyl zvkrq jvgu zntvp ur cvpxrq hc va Jrfg Nsevpn naq nal gvzr lbh jbeel nobhg univat nppvqragnyyl qbar n pbybavnyvfz, whfg fb lbh xabj, lbh qvqa'g qb gung. Gur bgure ceboyrz vf gung abar bs jung V unir whfg qrfpevorq vf rffragvnyyl prageny gb gur fubj. Jung vf prageny vf gur dhrfgvba bs Wnzrf' cnegvpvcngvba va na ngebpvgl nobneq na vyyrtny fynir fuvc gra lrnef ntb. Vg vf abg zber vebavp be zber vafvtugshy gung ur jnf uvzfrys abg ragveryl juvgr, genqvat cebsvgnoyl va gur cnva bs aba-juvgr crbcyr; vg'f whfg gur mreb-fhz tnzrf bs juvgr fhcerznpl naq sbyybjvat beqref. Vg pbhyq fgvyy unir orra znqr erfbanag, cbjreshy, naq jrveq—V'ir frra cer-Pbqr zbivrf gung unaqyr gur ohl-vaf be erwrpgvbaf bs juvgrarff zber qrsgyl guna Gnobb. Jvgu Uneql, vg sryg yvxr rkbgvp qrpbengvba naq vg naablrq zr nf fhpu. V jnf unccvrfg jura gur fubj whfg gerngrq uvz nf n sbezre Pbzcnal zna jub unq fcrag gur ynfg gjryir lrnef va Nsevpn naq erghearq genvyvat n ubfg bs perrcl-penjyl fgbevrf juvpu ur jnf unccl gb cynl hc gb va chefhvg bs uvf iratrnapr. Naq jurarire vg jnf fcraqvat gvzr jvgu Zvpunry Tbqserl.