Ok, let's get a few things out of the way. Tom Hardy is as fierce, committed and compulsively watchable as ever. If you're a fan, you get what you expect. Jessie Buckley, though lesser known, has a zesty charm and intelligence wherever she goes, and the same is true here. She's a highlight in a show that could otherwise have defaulted on cliched female characters. Set design and cinematography is decadent, dark and high budget... like a deeply sinister Dickens adaptation meets Black Sails from hell. Truly awesome. Sometimes passages of dialogue have the trademark Stephen Knight superiority... if you're ever going to be stuck in an elevator or on an island with someone, any one of his characters would be a fine choice.
On the other hand, Taboo suffers irrevocably from intensely bad pacing, among other things. The first two episodes establish only the bare external minimum, and are much more dependent on personality than progress. Still, without this initial momentum of progress character suffers too, even as plotting eventually picks up after about 4 eps and James vs. The East India Company gains twists and turns and little reveals. Hardy's character is distinctive, but only in distant shades and biting one liners. What he wants and why can be told by the external, as later on various action-y clever plots unfold to his ends, but going forth he remains oddly opaque even as the script attempts flashes of spiritual/ mystical perspectives on his part. At this point it is very difficult to buy into him a genuine mystic in any way. He just seems insane and his connection to the mysterious mother transient rather than profound. Is that the point? I don't know. However, he is not nearly the closed book that the sister/ former lover is. This character and her portrayal is so insistently cold and confounding, that even by the end it is unclear what went on here, and who wanted what out of this particularly odd connection. If you are thinking Lannister siblings, you certainly aren't going to get that here. The siblings here have an intensity that is manufactured, rather than built from narrative building blocks. I still have no idea how she fit into the story, or his motives. Or if she even harbored genuine motives of her own.
The character of James also has an opportunity to connect with an audience via his estranged young son, who he now intersects with for the purpose of this story. Yet the two continue to have the dynamic of a boss and a young employee played by an extra and it is too easy to forget that the son exists. This puzzled me the most. Even absence of interaction itself could make a big part of story. This subplot could have been the heart of the story, and I hope there are plans to make this such in the future. The dynamic with the step mom came closer, and by the last two episodes that FINALLY picked up the pace, was a highlight. She stands to force James to become easier to understand as a character. Characters like Godfrey the drag queen and Atticus the clever, rough sidekick eventually played well into forming a bit of a "tribe" for James... but too little too late. Again, pacing is the death knell here. I'm still not sure what I think about the outrageously over the top royal and all the scenes he took up. I appreciate that humor was attempted here, regardless of how dark, but I'm not watching because I want more of this guy.
Ultimately, the impression is that Taboo is cool and has a sharp, esoteric tone, but that no one has thought about a deeper purpose aside from Tom Hardy outdoing some old white guys over some land. That stuff is needed, but should be secondary, or you are forced to redo the essence of your character each time you put him against a brand new nemesis or in a new context. He will sound and look the same, and be as clever as always, but his arc will be unmoved and he will lack a theme for true motive from season to season. People may argue with me but in passages (and to a much smaller degree) I feel like Peaky Blinders, Knight's other and hugely lauded show has the same problem, at least with its main character (not so much the secondary scene stealers who have no matching counterparts in Taboo). You're better off just watching that one. There is less to scratch your head over. And if you already have, then I recommend passing on Taboo unless you're ready to watch one show's problems greatly compounded, not improved upon, in another.
On the other hand, Taboo suffers irrevocably from intensely bad pacing, among other things. The first two episodes establish only the bare external minimum, and are much more dependent on personality than progress. Still, without this initial momentum of progress character suffers too, even as plotting eventually picks up after about 4 eps and James vs. The East India Company gains twists and turns and little reveals. Hardy's character is distinctive, but only in distant shades and biting one liners. What he wants and why can be told by the external, as later on various action-y clever plots unfold to his ends, but going forth he remains oddly opaque even as the script attempts flashes of spiritual/ mystical perspectives on his part. At this point it is very difficult to buy into him a genuine mystic in any way. He just seems insane and his connection to the mysterious mother transient rather than profound. Is that the point? I don't know. However, he is not nearly the closed book that the sister/ former lover is. This character and her portrayal is so insistently cold and confounding, that even by the end it is unclear what went on here, and who wanted what out of this particularly odd connection. If you are thinking Lannister siblings, you certainly aren't going to get that here. The siblings here have an intensity that is manufactured, rather than built from narrative building blocks. I still have no idea how she fit into the story, or his motives. Or if she even harbored genuine motives of her own.
The character of James also has an opportunity to connect with an audience via his estranged young son, who he now intersects with for the purpose of this story. Yet the two continue to have the dynamic of a boss and a young employee played by an extra and it is too easy to forget that the son exists. This puzzled me the most. Even absence of interaction itself could make a big part of story. This subplot could have been the heart of the story, and I hope there are plans to make this such in the future. The dynamic with the step mom came closer, and by the last two episodes that FINALLY picked up the pace, was a highlight. She stands to force James to become easier to understand as a character. Characters like Godfrey the drag queen and Atticus the clever, rough sidekick eventually played well into forming a bit of a "tribe" for James... but too little too late. Again, pacing is the death knell here. I'm still not sure what I think about the outrageously over the top royal and all the scenes he took up. I appreciate that humor was attempted here, regardless of how dark, but I'm not watching because I want more of this guy.
Ultimately, the impression is that Taboo is cool and has a sharp, esoteric tone, but that no one has thought about a deeper purpose aside from Tom Hardy outdoing some old white guys over some land. That stuff is needed, but should be secondary, or you are forced to redo the essence of your character each time you put him against a brand new nemesis or in a new context. He will sound and look the same, and be as clever as always, but his arc will be unmoved and he will lack a theme for true motive from season to season. People may argue with me but in passages (and to a much smaller degree) I feel like Peaky Blinders, Knight's other and hugely lauded show has the same problem, at least with its main character (not so much the secondary scene stealers who have no matching counterparts in Taboo). You're better off just watching that one. There is less to scratch your head over. And if you already have, then I recommend passing on Taboo unless you're ready to watch one show's problems greatly compounded, not improved upon, in another.