Taboo (2017 TV series)

Main

Recurring

Production

Taboo was created by Steven Knight, Tom Hardy and his father, Edward "Chips" Hardy, and is based on a story written by Tom and Chips Hardy. Knight and Tom Hardy previously worked together in the 2013 film Locke and the TV series Peaky Blinders, which premiered in 2013. The first season was directed by Kristoffer Nyholm and Anders Engström. The music was composed by Max Richter. Two more series are planned. The programme was officially renewed for a second series in March 2017.

Broadcast

Taboo premiered on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2017, and on FX in the United States on 10 January 2017. The debut episode had 1.839 million viewers in the US, and a rating of 0.6 for the 18–49 demo. Its Live+3 figures were 3.43 million viewers – 1.63 million adults in the category 18-49 – the time-shifted percentage increase of 101% in the demo is a record for FX. In the US, the first season averaged per episode 1.33 million viewers and 0.4 rating in the 18-49 demo on the episodes initial airings, but increased to 5.8 million viewers per episode after viewing figures from all platforms had been added, including on-air replays, delayed viewing and streaming.

Reception

The show has received generally favourable reviews, with critics praising Hardy's performance, the show's aesthetic and the slow burn aspect. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the series an approval rating of 78% based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 7.03/10. Their critical consensus reads, "After a sluggish start, Taboo takes a hold as a mysterious, dark, and often brutal period drama with plenty of promise as a series – most notably Tom Hardy's exceptionally watchable performance". On review aggregator Metacritic, the series has a score of 67 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Ben Lawrence of the The Telegraph gave Taboo 3 out of 5 stars, stating that Taboo's strength is that, despite borrowing from westerns, gangster flicks and even Dickens, it still manages to feel utterly original. Sam Wollaston of The Guardian noted that while some of the dialogue does make you wince, Hardy's acting and onscreen presence more than makes up for it.

Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Tim Goodman noted that Taboo is a solid if slow, in the early going, entry in FX's stable of series, with a compelling turn by Tom Hardy. Kevin Yeoman of Screenrant wrote in his review that it all added up to a dark, slow-moving but nonetheless intriguing drama with secrets to dispense in due time. He also said that it was likely that those drawn to Hardy’s onscreen intensity and seemingly unlimited capacity to become the physical embodiment of gloomy menace would be the ones most likely to stick around until the very end, and in doing so would reap the potential rewards.

Some historians have expressed concern that the East India Company may be portrayed inaccurately. Before the broadcast of Taboo, Steven Knight said, "This man, James Delaney, is a deeply flawed and deeply troubled human being. His greatest struggle will be against the East India Company which, throughout the 19th century, was the equivalent of the CIA, the NSA, and the biggest, baddest multinational corporation on earth, all rolled into one self-righteous, religiously-motivated monolith." Tirthankar Roy, an economic historian at the London School of Economics, argued that it gave an excessively negative view of the East India Company. Nick Robins, author of The Corporation That Changed the World, added that the organisation had made a positive contribution, but that by the time it was dissolved it had long "outlived its usefulness". A lecturer at Manchester Business School, Matthew McCaffrey, considers Taboo to portray monopolies realistically.