The Nevers
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Its August 3, 1896, in London, and Victorian women are doing Victorian things.
Somewhere, theres a lady in a mahogany wheelchair.
They all look up at the shared gray sky.
What do they see?
Welcome toJoss WhedonsThe Nevers, a highly imaginative steampunk sci-fi adventure thats even more confusing than it is imaginative.
Except its not Joss Whedons show anymore.
He cited exhaustion after a year of unprecedented challenges.
Those challenges included a production shutdown by COVID-19, but alsoquieter accusations of workplace misconductbyJustice Leagueactor Ray Fisher.
So its his fault that the episode is overcrowded with characters and often too far ahead of its audience.
After the inexplicable opening montage, we fast-forward three years from the day that … what happened, exactly?
Some people saw the sky?
Its a full five minutes before a single character utters anything other than Hello.
The set, though, is rich with information.
A newsie hollers that the serial killer Maladie remains on the loose after claiming her fifth victim.
Jack the Ripper, who also took five lives, is still fresh in this Londons memory.
Its the London of Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes andThe Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
The Victorians were pious and prude, but they read science fiction.
They invented evolutionary biology and the X-ray.
The touched can do tricks, but in most cases, the strangeness resembles a low-key superpower.
Amalia, for example, experiences ripplings uncontrollable glimpses into the future.
Penance can visualize and predict the flow of electricity.
And the touched, they are in need of protection.
(Penance is Amalias Robin, but shes also Lucius Fox.)
The touched are victims of hate crimes, including murder.
Theyre accused of witchcraft.
More commonly, the touched are disowned by their families.
The lucky ones end up at St. Romauldas.
If women feel empowered, what next?
He leaves us to imagine the horrors for ourselves.
Not all of high society agrees with Massen.
The question of what exactly the orphanageiswell surely come back to.
And yet these physical/political/social threats are not the immediate problem Amalias facing.
In the episodes Big Fight Scene, Amalia faces off against Maladie but loses.
Its a new beginning of sorts.
Ive watched the pilot three times, and Im sure I missed shit.
Amalia is forthright and caustic, while Penance is more soft-spoken, both admonishing of Amalia and admiring.
The Buffy-and-Willow energy between the Irish actresses who play them is strong.
And, as Whedon did for the slayer, he saves his slickest nonsense for Mrs.
When a bruiser threatens to slice her face, Amalia leans chaotically into the blade.
This isnt my face, she says.
What does it mean?
But its menacing as hell.
If the touched are a metaphor for any out-groups, then what to make of their enemies?
What about Lord Massen, who with his potent mix of prejudice and political capital seems hardest to vanquish?
Whedon bookends the forward action with an alternate version of the opening montage.
Then, the spacecraft clears the skies.
No one seems to remember it was ever there.
So some alien racemadethe touched?
The touchedarean alien race?
Its half an answer to a question you werent really wondering about.
And what are the least vulnerable people in society willing to do to preserve the existing order?
