I think the slave ship will feature more prominently in the future. The oo in the Taboo title graphic is a set of slave shackles.
Am I the only one picturing this as just a televised rendition of Bloodborne? It fits so well! Sure it’s 99% top hat but…
Interesting to note, the credits listed a language consultant for something called “Twi”. So I guess those weird utterances he makes occasionally are an actual (presumably African) language, and not some pseudo-mystical gibberish they made up? That’s a detail worth noting!
Well, there are “Klingon” experts…but I decided to Google it and found it is real and from the region:
Pretty rare it appears. So there is some attention to detail here.
Feel this show is f’ing fantastic. Love the setting, Tom Hardy is at his most menacingist, and the cast around him is just stellar. Production values are through the roof.
I really don’t get folks who are still looking for all conflicts to be resolved on a per episode basis. It’s not 1980 anymore, TV has evolved. If that’s what you’re looking for, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX… have the shows you should be watching! I hears CSI is fantastic!
Episode 4 was rocking crazy! So much going on, and quite a few things moving forward.
By now I no longer think the show will go to the Americas in this season at least. Loving it!
oh - East India Trading Company has a badass logo!
Haven’t watched the last episode yet but so far I’m loving Taboo. Find the whole thing fascinating, Tom Hardy is great, love the setting and timeframe, really looking forward to where it goes.
Last couple of episodes have been chock full of the crazy! I’m enjoying it a lot.
[spoiler]I am kind of confused about James’ original intent though. He came to London looking for the deed to the land in America, and he was going to use that land as a trading post to set up a trade route between the Americas and China to trade furs for tea? But apparently the fur trappers and/or Indians are only interested in trading furs for gunpowder, which is a controlled substance of sorts, so now he’s looking to cook up a bunch of it for trade. But now the American contingent has stepped in and wants to purchase all his gunpowder for their blockade. I suppose they could trade him furs for it, and he can still establish the trade route, but it seems like there is an awful big problem with the whole idea in that where will he get a continual supply of gunpowder to keep the route going?
Also, twice now he’s used that small knife on people who were following him. Both times it looks like he uses it to do something to their legs. Hamstring? It’s weird, they don’t show it, yet they obviously want us to know he’s doing something.
The stuff with his sister, while obviously giving the show it’s title, is kind of ridiculous and needs to go away. It’s getting in the way of the more interesting plot. [/spoiler]
Agree that the sister, and even more the brother-in-law, are the weakest part of the story. I wouldn’t mind seeing them go away.
I think Delaney’s plans always involved most of what he’s been doing so far. Ms. Bow strikes me as the biggest unanticipated factor.
Gunpowder:
America has gunpowder, but they need it NOW. I just assumed at some point they’ll return a gunpowder supply (pick up in New York or straight off a garrison in Seattle).
BTW apparently saltpetre is edible. We use it in sausages and ham and stuff. Wait. Is this NITRATES as in the stuff they suspected since the 1970s will give you cancer and that kicked off this whole-foods antioxidant stuff??! I should have paid more attention in chemistry class.
Great episode this week leading into the season (possibly series) finale next week. Delaney seems to have a plan, but damn is he taking some serious risks and punishment to put it in play. The waterboarding and weird submersion thing I got, but I couldn’t tell what it was they did to him to start off with. It looked like they put some kind of metal device on his leg, or knee, or groin? Then cue the sickening sounds and horrified look from the chancellor guy…
No big surprise on the Winter reveal. Looks like Ms. Bow is proving to be quite useful. I was surprised that he basically told his sister to fuck off though. I have to think he did that knowing what was coming, so that she’d be protected from the blowback when the king’s men took him. It’s all coming together nicely, so I’m very interested to see how they wrap things up in the finale next week.
All the articles I see on the web seem to be uncertain of the fate of the show. Ratings seem to be up and down, which is better than a steady decline I suppose. It doesn’t seem like the network put a whole lot of advertising effort into it once it was launched, and I know Tom Hardy sank some of his own money into the project to get it completed when it went over budget. I hope it pans out for him, and that it gets picked up for a second season.
I got the impression he was enjoying the waterboarding. He seemed very capable of disconnecting himself from his body (and the pain).
I wonder if he had gotten really stoned before being captured.
It looked like they took a cheese grater to his inner thigh. Which is a sentence I hope I never have to write again, or even think about again.
I find myself kind of underwhelmed by the finale. Not sure why exactly. It closes off the things it needs to and all. But it does I think make a lot of what came before feel unnecessary. The plotline with his sister, for example. Those of you watching via the FX airdates will have to let me know if you agree.
I would agree with your assessment. Also,
[spoiler]if he had just moved 15 minutes faster a lot of people would have survived. It was as if he did not want them to live.
Also, what exactly is in Colinade?
[/spoiler]
That was the call sign for the leader of the American spies.
Thx. I remember that now.
In regards to the sister, and by extension her husband, it is as if their usefulness is the story had ended, so they were just casually gotten rid of them. Odd, as the initial main focus of the plotlines seemed to be the unspeakable Taboo of them being together - that just kinda fizzled once they buried what’s his face and had a quick romp interrupted by a psychotic episode.
and was the son her son?
Almost certainly, yes. Hence the polite fiction that it was Delaney’s father’s child.
I liked the finale. It tied up a lot of things nicely, and got rid of one of the main things that bugged me throughout the season…and it did all that while both leaving the series in a place where it could technically end on a mostly complete note or be renewed and have openings for new storylines to develop. I’d like to see it return, but if it doesn’t I won’t feel like I’ve wasted my time with it.
[spoiler]Killing off the sister was a great choice in my opinion. The storyline had played out, and while it may have been that relationship that gave the series it’s title, James Delaney seems to be into enough shady things that there will be plenty of Taboo goings on left to justify the title. Plus, there is always the possibility that the fall didn’t kill her and she didn’t drown, that she was setting the whole thing up as a way to conveniently disappear, and will reappear in Delany’s life later on.
The battle at the docks seemed needlessly bloody. Why weren’t the non-combatants put on the ship earlier? Why risk the chemist in the battle if he’s so important to the grand plan? And how the hell did Brace go from fighting in the battle to somehow being back at the house unscathed and unarrested?
I did enjoy the East India Company bits though. Wonder who will take over if there is a next season? I will miss the head guy, he was entertaining. [/spoiler]