The Nevers landed on HBO Max with its first episode titled The Touched. Set in 1899 in Victorian London, the episode is loaded with steam punk and “touched” people, that is people with special powers. This is no secret in society, everybody is very well familiar that such people exists and everybody is creating an opinion on them.
As far as the first episode goes, it packs bunch of action starting from the very beginning and even though it might seem fast paced, it does very well on introducing each character. it does this in a way that you remember all names and who did what, despite the not so little character ensemble it boasts.
The cast is a promising one, can’t wait to see what they offer for the rest of the series.
What you will love about the series:
- the setting, the set of London on the brink of the 20th century is amazing, you will love every frame. It seems that it is deliberately set in years so close to step into another century to signify that changes are coming, just like the appearance of electricity and the touched people.
- the two leads, Laura Donnelly and Ann Skelly as Amalia True and Penance Adair, make an amazing duo that play very well together
- there is no pointless and unnecessary dialogue, and there is a very subtle humor in all of it
- the mystery, which might remain a mystery never to be resolved and the series will only deal with the lives of the touched people
Watching it twice, helps to see the humor subtleties, which you might miss on first watching as you did not know the characters’ “afflictions”.
That would be a short review, but totally recommended watch, you should not miss this.
Spoilers ahead!
The episode starts 3 years ago, when the touched gained they special abilities, this is a short scene, in which not a lot is shown (this is saved for the end of the episode) and then it skips to present day. The leading duo is on a mission to help a touched girl whose parents do not know how to deal with her affliction. But, someone tries to kidnap the girl and True and Adair jump right into action. Believe it or not, we are introduced to the first carriage on autopilot.
After the fiery start, the episode calms down a bit and introduces Augustus and Hugo, as well as the Beggar King and of course the orphanage residents. Meanwhile Amalia and Penance prepare themselves for the evening opera event by invitation of the orphanage benefactor, Lavinia Bidlow.
At the opera, little things go smoothly, as Maladie shows up and steals away Mary Brighton whose affliction is her singing voice. As Mary sings, she touches and detects every person around who is also touched.
And for the episode finale, the show-runners decide to just give it all up, sort off. The episode returns to the beginning, 3 years ago, on August 3rd, 1896 and explains how everybody gains the super powers. One thing it does not answer is why.
A large space ship shows above London and sprinkles “fairy lights” all over the city. This explains why only Londoners or people who were in London at the time gained the special power. To mix it up a bit, as Lord Massen said, no men of stature were affected, and while most believe that only women have special powers that is not true, some men were touched as well, like Augustus or Dr. Horatio Cousens.
I did not shy away in capturing the beautiful vessel in as many screencaps as I could.
As the ship goes away, those that remained untouched do not remember that it ever appeared, Maladie clearly saw it and remembers even after she was touched, although it is uncertain for the other super powered humans.
Questions expected to be answered in future episodes:
- what power does Augustus have?
- is Myrtle important and her language capabilities
- what was that ship and why (but as I’ve said at the beginning this might never get answered)
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