I saw a review title that read: “a grimy, grisly tale of heist, incest and a bit of voodoo,” and that was the perfect intro to Tom Hardy’s tv series Taboo. I will warn you, Taboo is not for everyone. If you are ok with the violence in Peaky Blinders, the incest in Game of Thrones, the insane visions Max has in Fury Road, or the high brow, not giving you the information until you need it approach in Raised by Wolves, you may just love Taboo.

I had never even heard of Taboo, the FX tv series based on a story written by Tom Hardy and his father Chips Hardy. YouTube in their ever impressive random video recommendations, suggested a video entitled “Adult Dialogue” and I was so impressed with the scene I immediately told David we needed to watch this show. (Note: the video is no longer available but this is the scene the video was showing).

Set in 1814, Taboo is about James Delaney, played by Tom Hardy, who returns to England after his father’s death. Having thought dead after a ship wreck, the East India Trading Company turns their sights on his inheritance of a vital piece of land in the Americas that will open up trade to China. Delaney uses his clout with the underbelly of London to best the East India Trading Company, the Prince Regent and the American government to advance his own agenda of rebuilding his father’s shipping company and get revenge. He proves to be a worthy adversary leaving rumors of being an evil supernatural entity in his wake.

This show is amazing. You can really feel the £10.4 million budget. The sets, costuming (Sweet Baby Yoda! Hardy’s long coat and hat MAKE that character), and the cinematography by Mark Patten is divine. The cast is so good, Jonathan Pryce, Michael Kelly, Tom Hollander, Franka Potente and FREAKING MARK GATNISS AS PRINCE REGENT. And Tom Hardy. I feel like I don’t even need to sing that man’s praises, but hot damn, he is a phenomenal actor. He plays the almost crazy, but maybe genius character so well. You can tell this was a complete passion project for Hardy and his father. And it’s reported that Hardy put up a ton of his own money for this show.

So good. Again, this show isn’t for everyone, but if you liked Peaky Blinders you will definitely like this one. You can check the first season out on Hulu, and the second season is supposed to be out soon on FX after being delayed during the pandemic.