Taboo This is the new success of the Netflix series in Latin America; in Spain, it remains on HBO Max. But it is also a curious phenomenon that defies explanation. The lesser known work of the creator of Peaky Blinders Released in 2017 and starring Tom Hardy, it went unnoticed for years. Or at best, it was seen as an intrigue and visual oddity with little resonance beyond England. But now, as part of the Netflix catalog, it’s become a hit.
The Netflix series, which had a single season of eight episodes, seemed to be part of a long list of unique and unfinished projects. Created on BBC and distributed in the United States by Fox did not reach the expected resonance. Taboo, with its dark and extravagant air, shows a Tom Hardy who goes beyond his usual registers. The story of James Delaney, a mysterious man who returns to England in 1814 with vengeance in tow, is surprisingly dark. Also, for Steven Knight’s ability to create a rare work with a deep personality, disconcerting in its rawness.
Netflix’s new hit completely departs from much of the platform’s catalog. This sinister and dark play, peppered with seemingly supernatural elements, is based on the possibility of secrecy. At the time, Taboo was described as “an exceedingly macabre Victorian tale”. But in reality it is a mature, disturbing and dense work, based on stories of moral and spiritual nightmares of surprising intelligence.
Set in a Charles Dickens-inspired London, with liner notes by Wilkie Collins and Joseph Conrad, this Journey in the Dark is a claustrophobic tale. Tabou, beyond its disturbing air, is also a look at a type of television story that does not follow conventions. And therefore its success.
A mystery box with Tom Hardy at the helm
By the time it hit BBC screens, Steven Knight was already enjoying the success of Peaky Blinders. But he was also obsessed with creating a much denser author story. In reality, all in Taboo seems to be tied to a fragmented history. The eight chapters are script marvels that tie several threads together in parallel. In particular, the perception of a dark type of evil that rarely reaches stories aimed at all audiences.
FOR halfway between a work of psychological horror and something more dense, Taboo is a mix of disks
From superstition, fear, ultraviolence to incest. Taboo It is a strange work that advances on dark ground from which it does not always emerge well. Much of the criticism it received when it premiered was precisely due to its failure to explain the disturbing background that underpins it. Is everything not said in Taboo magic? Or is it narrative tricks and fails? Steven Knight took a series of narrative risks to create a painful and violent work, breaking with all his other works. And if Peaky Blinders has sometimes been accused of romanticizing and embellishing violence, Taboo slips to the other side of the spectrum.
The series is a collection of small-scale horrors. All wrapped up in a dirty, terrifying aesthetic that sublimates historical details into a kind of twisted beauty. With its deeply British air but above all its literary conception of morality and the inexplicable, TongueYou play with expectations. It does so, creating a mysterious overtone to the Delaneys’ motives for returning from Africa, the horror that accompanies it and the possibility of fear. Halfway between a work of psychological horror and something more dense, Taboo it is a mixture of registers. One that overwhelms with being inexplicable, visually appealing and ultimately a terrifying product of enormous quality.
Taboo, a black star in the firmament of the BBC
At the time of its release, Steven Knight’s work was compared to Hammer’s twilight dramas and B-class horror films. Also, a mix of registers and textures that made it a risky commodity. Despite Hardy’s extraordinary performance, the more and more obvious and elegant gothic look, Taboo did not win over the public. Now, from the Netflix catalog, not only does it do so, but it also becomes an attractive production that surprises and captivates.
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Tongueú has found its place in Netflix’s large global audience. And perhaps also followers of the murky, violent and substantial darkness of a complicated story to analyze.
