Taboo Season 1

What BollyAI Thinks

Taboo premiered on BBC One on 7 January 2017 and on FX in the US three days later. Created by Steven Knight with Tom Hardy and his father Chips Hardy, the eight episodes follow James Keziah Delaney through early nineteenth-century London's colonial machinery. Rotten Tomatoes recorded 76 percent from 68 critics, with Metacritic awarding 67 from 32. The split between positive and negative reviews tracked a consistent fault line: critics who valued slow-burn period atmosphere and Hardy's physically committed central performance were broadly positive; those expecting propulsive plotting found the pacing punishing. The 91 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes versus the 76 percent critic score is one of the wider gaps in prestige British television of this period. Variety's Sonia Saraiya described it as manufactured darkness; the Hollywood Reporter called Hardy's turn solid if slow. The period production design, Max Richter's score, and director Kristoffer Nyholm's visual language were the consistent critical positives.

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The Room

Standout Episodes

The hours worth arguing about — premieres, finales, and the turning points. BollyAI reads the room episode by episode.

1. E1Episode 17.5

   The premiere establishes James Delaney's arrival in London and the immediate hostility from the East India Company over the piece of land his father has left him. Hardy barely speaks for the first twenty minutes; the episode is a mood piece that trusts its atmosphere over its plot mechanics. Whether that is a strength depends entirely on appetite for slow prestige television.

   The moment: Delaney's graveside appearance in the rain, coat and hat, watched by everyone who wants him dead - the image that defined the show's promotional presence.