IR TV Review: THE ESSEX SERPENT - EPISODES 1 & 2 (“The Blackwater” & “Matters Of The Heart”) [Apple TV+]
The texture of "The Essex Serpent" on Apple TV+ with its first two episodes: "The Blackwater" and "Matters Of The Heart" is based on a book but bathed both in the metaphor and the practical. As evidenced by the title there is an allusion to the serpent which of course is a bigger context to socio, economic and community health perspective plus religiosity. The initial focus is around Cora (Claire Danes) [in one of her first outlays since "Homeland"]. This is braced in a period style which must have been part of the allure but also the texture of playing a woman in an even more oppressive time that is both ambitious but also naïve in certain matters of consequence. Danes plays Cora with a fervor but there are obvious dark areas of her previous life which are coming to bear as well as relationships and contexts of others in her circle including her assistant of sorts: Martha (Hayley Squires). Tom Hiddleston plays Will Ransome whom she encounters when she goes to investigate said serpent after both an event in her own life and an incident that coincides.
There is also a secondary narrative with a doctor in London: Luke Garrett (Frank Dillane) which has an almost "The Knick" texture to it and, in certain ways, is the more dynamic facet of storytelling so far in the series. The narrative in Essex is alright but it plays to a certain idea of expectation, of what characters might do, but not necessarily the risks they are taking. Granted the suspense is building but the series is not creating a sense of dread or even chemistry as it probably should. It is more than adequately made and acted but to accomplish a greater impact it needs to be a little more. Again because it is based on a novel sometimes that restricts the level of dramatic license if the book doesn't dictate it. Again, going to the novel would provide some perspective but (as this reviewer was not familiar with the book before) it is better to let the series unfurl on its own without attaching that expectation (in a similar way with the current "Tokyo Vice"). The key is whether these characters and their ambitions and shortcomings come to fruition or simply create a basis for their own suffering. B-
By Tim Wassberg
