OK, let me make one thing clear, before I continue with the review. Regardless of what you might read in other reviews, "The Nevers" is obviously not a woke show. This episode was written and directed by Joss Whedon. Joss Whedon was fired after the Rey Fisher debacle, when it became public knowledge that he had the habit to abuse actors and use racist insults towards minorities. Joss Whedon is a straight white nerd without a single original bone in his body, but with a very strong fem-dom fetish. Regardless of what many people believe, Whedon has never really been a feminist - if he were, he wouldn't abuse the actresses he worked with (yeah, ask Charisma Carpenter about this) and wouldn't blatantly take advantage of women. All of this becomes clear within the first few minutes of the episode.
OK. So, this is simply X-Men in a different setting. That's all there is. Just as the mutants in the X-Men franchise were an allegory for the racially oppressed, while conveniently having awesome superpowers, the Touched here are an allegory for the socially oppressed, while, also, conveniently having awesome superpowers. Charles Xavier here is a woman, though, and so is the potential Magnetto, and the setting is Victorian England. The setting itself doesn't matter at all and, to be honest, I suspect Whedon chose it simply because he wanted a reason to have hot girls fighting while wearing Victorian dresses and for no other reason reason whatsoever. And yeah, you have hot girls fighting while wearing Victorian dresses all the time - which is a problem, although not because of the reasons that many people have to be unhappy with this. You see, one of my martial arts instructors was a woman. I know plenty of women who can fight well, and I have no problem with seeing women beating men up. "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Atomic Blonde" are among my favorite recent action movies. Why? Because Charlize Theron is awesome. Because she is strong and athletic and can perform fight choreography like a master. The actress playing Amalia True, though, looks like she doesn't even know how to make a fist properly. Literally. She is just unconvincing. That's it. Everything is unconvincing. There is a scene where a woman casts cogwheels out of iron - while wearing her Victorian dress, of course, and without even tying her hair properly. After she's done with this, she barely needs to wet her face with water to get perfectly clean. Ugh. This is why I said Whedon has a fem-dom fetish. Because he doesn't show women being strong. He shows women being sexy while looking strong. There is a difference.
And then there is the other problem - Whedon's writing. As I said, he doesn't have a single original bone in his body. Setting X-Men in the past has been done before. There are a few scenes that were blatantly stolen from other productions. Showing women outdoing men at every step has also been done to death already. (And way too many writers who have the habit to do this turn out to be really sexist, including Whedon - which is not surprising one bit, to be honest.) And then there are Whedon's dialogues - you know, his greatest strength, according to many people. When I was in my teens, I actually thought he was the greatest dialogue writer in the history of Hollywood. Then I grew up and realized that punny and pseudo-witty dialogues are extremely easy to write, especially when all your characters talk in the same way and the only real difference comes from the acting performances. Add to that the random bursts of cussing, nudity, and gore, which contrast rather unpleasantly with the show's childish tone, and, well... You get the point.
Despite everything I've written so far, though, the story has a lot of potential and I'm looking forward to the next episode. The show is visually nice, the acting performances vary between good and great, and the mystery is promising. I just hope it will get better.
OK. So, this is simply X-Men in a different setting. That's all there is. Just as the mutants in the X-Men franchise were an allegory for the racially oppressed, while conveniently having awesome superpowers, the Touched here are an allegory for the socially oppressed, while, also, conveniently having awesome superpowers. Charles Xavier here is a woman, though, and so is the potential Magnetto, and the setting is Victorian England. The setting itself doesn't matter at all and, to be honest, I suspect Whedon chose it simply because he wanted a reason to have hot girls fighting while wearing Victorian dresses and for no other reason reason whatsoever. And yeah, you have hot girls fighting while wearing Victorian dresses all the time - which is a problem, although not because of the reasons that many people have to be unhappy with this. You see, one of my martial arts instructors was a woman. I know plenty of women who can fight well, and I have no problem with seeing women beating men up. "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Atomic Blonde" are among my favorite recent action movies. Why? Because Charlize Theron is awesome. Because she is strong and athletic and can perform fight choreography like a master. The actress playing Amalia True, though, looks like she doesn't even know how to make a fist properly. Literally. She is just unconvincing. That's it. Everything is unconvincing. There is a scene where a woman casts cogwheels out of iron - while wearing her Victorian dress, of course, and without even tying her hair properly. After she's done with this, she barely needs to wet her face with water to get perfectly clean. Ugh. This is why I said Whedon has a fem-dom fetish. Because he doesn't show women being strong. He shows women being sexy while looking strong. There is a difference.
And then there is the other problem - Whedon's writing. As I said, he doesn't have a single original bone in his body. Setting X-Men in the past has been done before. There are a few scenes that were blatantly stolen from other productions. Showing women outdoing men at every step has also been done to death already. (And way too many writers who have the habit to do this turn out to be really sexist, including Whedon - which is not surprising one bit, to be honest.) And then there are Whedon's dialogues - you know, his greatest strength, according to many people. When I was in my teens, I actually thought he was the greatest dialogue writer in the history of Hollywood. Then I grew up and realized that punny and pseudo-witty dialogues are extremely easy to write, especially when all your characters talk in the same way and the only real difference comes from the acting performances. Add to that the random bursts of cussing, nudity, and gore, which contrast rather unpleasantly with the show's childish tone, and, well... You get the point.
Despite everything I've written so far, though, the story has a lot of potential and I'm looking forward to the next episode. The show is visually nice, the acting performances vary between good and great, and the mystery is promising. I just hope it will get better.