Nothing TABOO

Article first published as TABOO Review on Seat42F.

FX’s newest drama is TABOO, premiering tonight. It is the story of a man, James Keziah Delaney, who has spent the past decade in Africa under shady circumstances, and who has just returned home to London, England in the year of Our Lord 1814. Inheriting his father’s property and shipping business should be an easy thing, but even if Delaney were right in the head, which he doesn’t seem to be, he’d find it a challenge given the dark mysteries of his family and the many enemies who seek his wealth for themselves.

Given that TABOO is airing on FX, it stars the terrific Tom Hardy (Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant), and is created by Steven Knight of Peaky Blinders fame, as well as Tom and his father, I expect good things from the series. Its ensemble cast, which includes Jonathan Pryce (Brazil, Game of Thrones), Oona Chaplin (The Hour, Quantum of Solace), Michael Kelly (House of Cards), Mark Gatiss (Sherlock), Jason Watkins (Trollied), Nicholas Woodeson (Rome), Tom Hollander (The Night Manager), Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire), Franka Potente (Copper), Jefferson Hall (Vikings), and more, adds even more promise. There is lots of talent bringing their skills to bear on this one!

Which means it’s extra disappointing when the show ends up being a dud, a rare misstep for FX.

I’d say the biggest problem is that it doesn’t really seem to be going anywhere. The pacing is very slow, but rather than feeding us bits of the story as it goes to keep us engaged, very little happens or is revealed in the first hour. It plods along and I keep waiting for even a little bit of a hook, but fail to find one.

The other option a series has, besides a gripping story, is to have very magnetic characters, but TABOO lacks those as well. Pryce is always wonderful, and I enjoy him as a villain here. Chaplin is very good in this, too, her character of Zilpha having a very weird relationship with half-brother Delaney. Others of the group do a decent job, but don’t stand out as all that memorable, and Delany himself isn’t well-defined enough to be interesting. He has a little bit of a presence, but trying to attribute mystic qualities to him just because he spent time in Africa (nope, doesn’t get any more specific than that) feels forced, and there really isn’t anything in the pilot to make you want to root for him, or even care what happens to him.

So what we’re left with is an hour that’s pretty excruciating to sit through, and it ends without any motivating factor to tune in again.

What TABOO does well is the production design. The gritty side of old London comes through strongly, providing nice contract to less grounded productions. For those who watch a lot of PBS, this is going to have a very different feel. The shadows and the muck work well with the tone the series is trying to set, and the opulence of the East India Trading Company clashes nicely with the more common men and women portrayed. The world is built is visually neat.

That isn’t enough, though, for repeat watching. It puzzles me why the BBC ran this, or why FX would want to pick it up, as it seems off-brand for both. I’m not sure where it fits in their lineups, especially on the American cable network, and I can’t imagine it’s going to stick around for a second season, given the lackluster reviews its getting. It doesn’t seem likely to draw many eyeballs on either platform.

TABOO premieres tonight at 10/9c on FX.

Take Home THE REVENANT

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: 'The Revenant' on Blogcritics.

While watching the Oscars each year, there are always films near the top of the pack that really don’t feel like they’re good enough to me to be honored with a nomination. However, The Revenant, winner of three Academy Awards, does not fall into that category; it is worthy of every distinction given to it. And it has just been released on Ultra 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD,

The Revenant tells the story of fur hunter Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio, who finally and deservedly won Best Actor Award), mauled by a bear and left to die in the wilderness, and his revenge-fueled tale of survival. (I don’t feel it’s giving anything away to mention the bear because if you speak of this movie to anyone, the bear is the first thing they know about it, and it happens very early on.) Despite his severe injuries, Hugh hunts John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy, Inception, Mad Max: Fury Road) across snow-covered forest and mountains, trying to get to the man who wronged him in the deepest of ways.

At the edge of the story is another fascinating character, Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson, Ex Machina, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Brooklyn). Henry is the leader of the expedition on which Glass gets injured, and comes back into the story later on. His morality and character are noteworthy, managing to stand out in an otherwise narrowly focused narrative. While Glass and Fitzgerald take most of the screen time, along with Will Poulter’s (We’re the Millers) Bridger, Henry is always on the fringe, and perhaps not equally interesting, but definitely notable. Gleeson, first making his mark in the Harry Potter series, has had an arguably unparalleled year in film, but I’m glad he had time to squeeze this one in, too.

In my opinion, this movie is incredibly hard to watch, and you likely will not yearn for a repeat viewing anytime soon. But it’s also one of the most impressive, well-made films I’ve seen. The story is wonderfully crafted, and while the main thrust is basic, it manages to keep the details unpredictable. The acting is superb, of course, and you really feel what the characters are going through, which is rough enough to spur the discomfort mentioned earlier. It’s a very visceral thing to sit through, making it more an experience than a passive watching, and there is little to nothing to complain about in the film itself.

The direction and score are spectacular. Alejandro G. Inarritu (Birdman) took the directing Oscar for good reason. From the sweeping visual landscapes to the close ups in the most dramatic moments, there is no choice made that will leave you questioning Inarritu’s abilities. This is all enhanced, of course, in high definition, which really makes the trees and rivers and snowflakes pop into being, feeling real, and the music sing crisply in your ears. Most of the action takes place outside, and the ambient noise is excellently balanced. Watching at home made me wish I had a 4K set to truly get the most out of the presentation, but blu-ray is satisfying enough, too. The mixing is flawless, and no shot is bad.

Where this release utterly fails is in extras. There are two on the disc – an unnecessary photo gallery and a 45-minute documentary called “A World Unseen” that is light on insight and heavy on environmental protection arguments. Previously released on YouTube, “A World Unseen” doesn’t give us much about how the film was made, but does have a strong, clear message as to what it wants to say. I’m not saying the message is a bad one, but it’s not what one is looking for to learn more about The Revenant. In a film that has so many interesting elements and that does things no other movie has done, I expected a boatload of material on locations, special effects, story development, and the like, and am utterly disappointed by the lack of offerings.

Despite that, though, I still recommend The Revenant; it’s just that good. I feel like it shows us things about what film making can do that many of us didn’t realize before. For that reason, it’s worth a watch.

The Revenant is available to own now.