We review HBO’s unique and stylish new series, The Nevers

Unique and stylish are two of the words we can use to describe HBO’s The Nevers, which is surely set to be a fave for many, us included. Brought to us a little a earlier thanks to Showmax who offered us a pre-screener as we briefly mentioned here, The Nevers is positioned as a 12 episode Victorian-era sci-fi drama series, a unique concept that is set to continue HBO’s much admired reputation of producing fantastic quality series.

HBO have confirmed that the first section of season 1 will consist of 6 episodes and effectively being “Part One” with the remaining 6 episodes (“Part Two”) set to air at a later unconfirmed date. The series was first announced in 2018 created by Joss Whedon (The Avengers, Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and stars Laura Donnelly, Olivia Williams, James Norton, Pip Torrens, Nick Frost, and Denis O’Hare. Interestingly, its creator (Whedon) was also set to serve as showrunner but then exited the show due to exhaustion, Phillipa Goslett effectively took his place.

Confusing at first, it must be said that before you watch it’s advisable to get a sense of the plot, something we didn’t fully do at first leading to the aforementioned confusion. Once you do, it all starts making sense and becomes an enjoyable watch. Speaking of the plot, The Nevers follows a group of women in Victorian-era England who mysteriously gain superhero abilities called “The Touch.” Two of the women, Amalia True (Donnelly) and Penance Adair (Ann Skelly), try to save those with abilities and take them into their orphanage to protect them.

Shot in London, and like many others, production was briefly haulted due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Thankfully filming resumed in September resulting in its official release. Showmax allowed us to watch the first 4 episodes and we’re now eagerly awaiting to watch the rest of “Part 1”. There’s literally nothing more satisfying than seeing power and strong women show off immense fighting skills and general expertise to complete an objective. Both Laura Donnelly and Penance Adair take center stage here with the former though being the key character that does most of the fighting scenes and who the story revolves around.

Women being front and center assuming roles of power and not the usual vulnerable states we’re accustomed to seeing, is one of the things we particularly liked about The Nevers. Certainly more roles of this nature should be afforded to women especially in the times we find ourselves in, seeing them play the vulnerable damsels in distress is tiring and been overdone, if anything it doesn’t reflect the current face of society.

The Nevers has a good tone and pacing to it. You will also be forgiven for thinking that it’s an X-Men-esque series shot in a slightly different time. The main draw was always going to be its creator, Joss Whedon, who has recently been covered in all kinds of controversy with allegations by actors (on other projects) accusing him of creating a toxic environment on sets. Despite that and the much talked about mess he created with the original Justice League movie, you can’t deny his brilliance as seen with his previous material.

With Whedon no longer set to be involved in this one, and despite the initial positive impression it has made on us, it will be interesting to see how it continues and what the overall reception will be from viewers. Thankfully, you won’t have that long to see it yourself, The Nevers is set to hit our small screens in a systematic manner with episodes 1 and 2 being available on 19 April with new episodes following suit from every Monday until 17 May.

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#HBO #Joss Whedon #Showmax #The Nevers

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Thabiso Moloi

With many, many years of PR, digital & influencer marketing work under his belt, Thabiso has worked on a great number of technology, business and consumer brands. In addition, he has become obsessed with most things under the sun including music, series, sports, movies etc which he now regularly writes about. You can find him on Twitter: @Thabz_14