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Taboo: Tom Hardy's historical drama (BBC1/FX) [spoilers]


AncalagonTheBlack

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14 hours ago, Horse of Kent said:

Distaste for swearing is primarily a middle class thing, so the upper classes in the EIC would likely not have minded too much. I have no idea what words they would have used, but fuck stands out less to me than some archaism.

 

I found it a pretty decent opening episode, but I am concerned that the supernatural could come to dominate. 

 

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One issue I had with the timeline is that James left England at 15, but still managed to have a child with his younger by a good few years half-sister. Unless I am misunderstanding something.

 

Interesting observation -- also --

Spoiler

Girls reached puberty a lot later back then.  Puberty started to kick in earlier the 20th century, due to diet and other factors that suggest environmental factors from the hormones and so on used in so many products including 'foods.'  By now there's a significant number of girls hitting puberty at 8 and 9, which creates both physical and emotional health hazards.

 

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Intriguing first episode. I'm looking forward to how the story plays out. If I had one complaint it would be preferring Delaney's past to be slowly revealed throughout the series, rather than being told it through the East India Company's files.

Spoiler

I initially thought the boy was the child of Delaney and his sister, but now feel it could also be the child of his father and his sister.

 

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I agree that "intriguing" is the best summation of the first episode.  Fantastic direction, use of light, arrangement of scenes, etc.  Hardy growls and glowers but it fits the character and situation.  Pryce's swearing was a poor choice because for his character in those meetings loss of control would undermine him more than menace or shock would strengthen him, but it's not a big deal.  I'm happy with the ambiguous supernatural element.  I did not like the effort taken to read us Hardy's "exceptional, exceptional, ..." resume in the EIC meeting, like the action move cliche of info-dumping a resume of badass awesomeness to establish the hero's credentials.  It was a bit implausible that Hardy knew of a secret diplomatic meeting in Ghent but I'm willing to believe that some judicious bribery was used and would have been accessible to him.

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I am not sure that I liked Zilpha and her husband is very close to be among most annoying characters of 2017.

 Did anyone noticed what Helga told to James about what she has heard about him?

7 hours ago, Astromech said:
Spoiler

I initially thought the boy was the child of Delaney and his sister, but now feel it could also be the child of his father and his sister.

 

Spoiler

I also thought that it was his but his father's would had been more :ack:. (in the series wikia

Spoiler

it is told that it his his father's illegitimate son however I don't know if that counts).

Nevermind, I had misunderstood. Being his father's child was what they had told to what they had told to the men who took care of the child.

 

 

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25 minutes ago, Jon's Queen Consort said:

I am not sure that I liked Zilpha and her husband is very close to be among most annoying characters of 2017.

 

 Did anyone noticed what Helga told to James about what she has heard about him?

 

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I also thought that it was his but his father's would had been more :ack:. (in the series wikia

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it is told that it his his father's illegitimate son however I don't know if that counts).

 

 

Yeah, I can't wait for that guy to get his (and I do believe bad things are gonna happen to him).  Also, I agree with the spoilers here.  After all...

Spoiler

Zilpha did say her father "disgraced" her.

 

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Maybe it was a stylistic thing with other FX shows but it always struck me as odd how in "sons of anarchy" the motorcycle gang never dropped a F-bomb

Jesus Christ! Had to say it, sorry.

Greatly enjoyed the ep. My only complaint would be I didn't always follow it, as I missed some of what was spoken. I was watching live so I couldn't rewind. Going to watch it again on the dvr. I love the vicious nature of the world and characters we see. The toffy toffs were great. Awesome visuals. I think the creepiest part of the whole episode for me was that starving dog. The Fallout programmers could learn a lot from that visual.

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Enjoyed the first show and did a rewatch. It wasnt till after the rewatch that I got all the dialogue though. I couldve even used captions the first showing but im adjusting to the dialect. Pretty sure I'll be watching all 8 shows I already feel kind of invested in seeing where this goes.

So the half sister is Noomi Rapace, I loved the Dragon Tat triology. This is a fantastic cast.

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2 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

So the half sister is Noomi Rapace, I loved the Dragon Tat triology. This is a fantastic cast.

It's actually Oona Chaplin, who played Robb's wife in GoT. Rapace and Hardy were paired up in The Drop, though.

I enjoyed the first episode and I'm looking forward to more Tom Hardy madness. Even just watching him walk around on the streets is somewhat entertaining. Agree with all that it is kind of hard to understand him at times.

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Out of curiosity are the people having trouble understanding the dialogue in the show not from the UK? Hardy is a known mumbler but I still follow everything he's saying and besides him, I didn't notice any problems. Then again most conversations in the episode have him involved.

Just wondering whether accent is as much of a problem as the mumbling is.

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The mumbling and accent together probably. Although it was only a few things he said, not like it was all episode.

29 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Incidentally i love that hat the U.K. gets to watch this before the U.S. Sometimes he spoiler dodging while we wait gets tiresome you know! :P 

Revenge for Westworld and Penny Dreadful. I don't like it. :thumbsdown:

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Incidentally i love that hat the U.K. gets to watch this before the U.S. Sometimes he spoiler dodging while we wait gets tiresome you know! :P 


 

Hahah, well the spoiler dodging wasn't too bad. At least there wasn't writers putting Taboo spoilers into article titles like they did with GOT. 

I'm an American. I can usually understand Hardy. I think it happens sometimes when he's moving around and stuff. I seem to recall one of the times he was like bending over and talking at the same time when it happened. I do recall not understanding him a couple times in Peaky Blinders as well, and there is similarities in these two Hardy characters.

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10 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

 

I'm an American. I can usually understand Hardy. I think it happens sometimes when he's moving around and stuff. I seem to recall one of the times he was like bending over and talking at the same time when it happened. I do recall not understanding him a couple times in Peaky Blinders as well, and there is similarities in these two Hardy characters.

That does sound like a sound editing issue when other sounds are masking things. That or they should tell him to speak up a bit :)

It's not the only two Hardy characters that share this similarity - you can throw his "revenant" character (who I found hard to understand) and Mad Max (although he barely speaks) to that collection. Bane was oddly one of his most intelligible characters.

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American here and I had a hard time hearing/understanding some of what he was saying. Had to turn the volume up a few notches for this show.

I would say interesting is a great description for the first episode.

Spoiler

I would say the boy is his and his half sisters, or his and some random woman we meet later. If it was his half sisters you would think her husband would know she had given birth before they were married.

As to the language, I am with some on it. I hate that U.S standards are so stupid that things that are spoken in everyday life are taboo (pun intended) to say at 9pm on a show about a motorcycle gang that deals in guns and drugs and murders people, but heaven help us if they swear!!!

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47 minutes ago, dbunting said:

American here and I had a hard time hearing/understanding some of what he was saying. Had to turn the volume up a few notches for this show.

I would say interesting is a great description for the first episode.

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I would say the boy is his and his half sisters, or his and some random woman we meet later. If it was his half sisters you would think her husband would know she had given birth before they were married.

As to the language, I am with some on it. I hate that U.S standards are so stupid that things that are spoken in everyday life are taboo (pun intended) to say at 9pm on a show about a motorcycle gang that deals in guns and drugs and murders people, but heaven help us if they swear!!!

or a nipple is seen!

regarding the boy

While I think the boy is Hardy's and his half-sisters it seems odd how the foster parent never tried squeezing the sister for money either.

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4 minutes ago, red snow said:

or a nipple is seen!

regarding the boy

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While I think the boy is Hardy's and his half-sisters it seems odd how the foster parent never tried squeezing the sister for money either.

 

Well i would assume he doesnt know who the mother is. Zilpha probably went off to stay with some rich aunt in Germany and James dropped of this son by 'some woman' with the foster parent. I never assumed the foster parent or anyone else knew the truth or the two would be treated very differently

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1 minute ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Well i would assume he doesnt know who the mother is. Zilpha probably went off to stay with some rich aunt in Germany and James dropped of this son by 'some woman' with the foster parent. I never assumed the foster parent or anyone else knew the truth or the two would be treated very differently

Also, just purely speculating here, but James has been gone for 12 years, right?  If so, when was the boy supposed to be born because he certainly doesn't look 11 or 12 (but maybe he's supposed to be):dunno:

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41 minutes ago, Prince of the North said:

Also, just purely speculating here, but James has been gone for 12 years, right?  If so, when was the boy supposed to be born because he certainly doesn't look 11 or 12 (but maybe he's supposed to be):dunno:

10 years, wasn't it?

45 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Well i would assume he doesnt know who the mother is. Zilpha probably went off to stay with some rich aunt in Germany and James dropped of this son by 'some woman' with the foster parent. I never assumed the foster parent or anyone else knew the truth or the two would be treated very differently

Yeah, James has form for concealing the origin of family members, remember? ;)

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