Recently my sweetie-wife and I finished season one of the FX series Taboo. Starring Tom Hardy who produced it along with Ridley Scott and Steven Knight the story takes place in 1814 London and is a gritty tale of treasure, treason, and slavery. Hardy plays James Keziah Delaney, a man who has returned home to find his father dead and quickly becomes into conflict with both the Crown and the power East India Company. Delaney has inherited his father failing shipping company and a property desperately desired by not only the Crown and the East India Company, but the Americans, currently engaged with England in the war of 1812, also will stop at nothing to steal it away.

The first season follows Delaney as he assembled a team of thieves, orphans, and charlatans to challenge the great powers aligned against him. Throw into the mix a half sister, played by Oona Chaplin, with whom James has an unconventional relationship, and Taboo becomes a story with passion, savagery, and heavy doses of cynicism. It is very nearly a noirset in 1814 England. The main character is hardly a person of admirable character. Delaney is a man who lets no one and nothing, not even lifelong relationships, stand between himself and his objectives. One should not look to this series for examples of moral characters and lessons in ethical actions. The series strongly suggests a supernatural undertone but never lets this subtext overpower the muddy realism of the piece.

One aspect that particularly pleased me about the season one was that it ended on a note that leaves it open for more stories but with enough closure that it can also be suitable as a self-contained story. I detest the trend for season cliffhangers. Too often the conclusions are far from satisfying.

Now that we have finished Taboo our next television adventure will be AMC’s adaptation of Dan Simmons’ The Terror.