I Watch TV: The Nevers

 

The Nevers

This came back on the TV and I hoped that meant they’d got the 6 episodes that didn’t get broadcast the first time; apparently not, due to the way they cancelled the show the rights are tied up. Anyway in 1890s London various people, mostly women, have begun displaying powers of various sorts; a “turn” it’s called (like a talent one would display at parties) and those with them are the “touched”.

Lavinia Bidlow, a rich woman in a wheelchair, is the patron of a home for the Touched, run by Amalia True, a widow. True has glimpses of the future; is also out of time, and her body, and is good at fighting which she does too much. With her friend Penance Adair, who sees energy flows and invents machines and gear, they attempt to help the Touched and figure out what’s going on, what all this means.

Opposed to the Touch is Lord Gilbert Massen, part of the semi-secret group who run the British Empire, and also an arms manufacturer for the war (presumably the Boer War though I don’t think they mention it). Lord Hugo Swann hires Touched for his Ferryman’s club, where posh people have debauched parties. His friend, Augustus Bidlow, Lavinia’s brother, gets caught up in the running of it, also turns out to have a bird-themed-turn and is sweet on Penance.

We also have Maladie, an unstable Touched leading a gang of renegades and criminals, following her own dark and labyrinthine path. She is pursued by Inspector Mundi of Scotland Yard, a violent man who was once the fiancée of Mary Brighton, a singer whose turn sets off a confrontation between Amalia and Maladie. Mundi is also caught up with Swann, they were once lovers, or at least had some sort of sexual encounter.

So we have Victorian super-powered fights, steampunk miracles, weird time-related revelations, secrets, plotting and occasional horrible murders and breathtaking acts of heroism. A charming cast, lots to enjoy. And a premature and slightly offputting reveal at the end. There’s a future where they studied 1899 London, but that’s a side-story to the fight over the end of the world!

Watch This: Five good episodes of exciting Victorian super-adventures and one that turns it on it’s head
Don’t Watch This: Doesn’t finish, lot of “what if the X-Men were steampunk” nonsense