Taboo · Season 1 · Episode 1 · 7 January 2017
S1E1 Episode 1
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.
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...
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Taboo Season 1 Episode 1 aired January 7, 2017 on BBC One as the premiere of the eight-episode series. Rotten Tomatoes holds Season 1 at 76 percent from 68 critics; IMDb audience scored it 8.3. The RT consensus described it as 'mysterious, dark, and often brutal' after 'a sluggish start.' The premiere is a mood piece before it is a plot machine: James Delaney's arrival in London is conducted almost entirely through atmosphere, with Hardy choosing silence and stillness over explanation across his first twenty minutes of screen time. The East India Company's immediate hostility over the Nootka Sound land is established, the period register - cold, grimy, anti-romantic - is introduced, and the Delaney legend is built from implication rather than exposition. Whether the premiere's deliberate opacity is a strength depends entirely on appetite for prestige television that trusts its own atmosphere over its narrative propulsion.