The Essex Serpent Review: Episode 1-2 The Elegance Of The Direction And The Historical Reconstruction Enhance The Locations
Cast: Claire Danes, Tom Hiddleston, Frank Dillane, Clémence Poésy
Director: Clio Barnard
Streaming Platform: Apple Tv+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
The Essex Serpent, the new Apple TV+ series that adapts the novel by Sarah Perry and features Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston as protagonists. If you liked movies like The Witch and you are captivated by gothic-style novels like “Frankenstein” or “Dracula”, without a doubt you are going to find a grenadier horse in The Essex Serpent. It is a miniseries of six Apple TV+ episodes whose first two will be available on the streaming platform on May 13 to premiere a new one every Friday until the broadcast is completed on June 10.
Originally, the best-selling novel of the same title by the English writer Sarah Perry, which has been compared to a cross between Shelley and Dickens and in which she explores some of her most intimate concerns: the coexistence of faith and reason, violence against women and their difficult access to knowledge in the Victorian era and, of course, cryptozoology. After Severance and Pachinko, Apple TV+ continues to put up solid bets for this year’s Emmys. The latest is The Essex Serpent, a Victorian miniseries starring Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston, which explores the conflict between faith and reason when rumors of a mythological creature alter the lives of a small town in 19th-century England.
The Essex Serpent Review: The Story
The Essex Serpent introduces us to Cora Seaborne, a widowed woman who decides to move to a small seaside town to investigate sightings of what appears to be a terrifying and unique creature. Accompanied by her son Francis and to leave her unhappy marriage behind, she will leave London to seek a new refuge in which to feed her desire for knowledge at a crucial moment in which medical and scientific discoveries seem to be capable of working miracles.
They soon run into some hostility from the locals, engrossed in legends and dire omens that the mythical The Essex Serpent has returned to the vicinity of the estuary to claim human life. Cora, an amateur naturalist and very interested in ancient creatures, believes that it may be an unknown or tremendously ancient species. Her investigations lead her to the local vicar, William Ransome, who deals with other problems such as the deviation of the faith of his parishioners. Despite being far apart in their beliefs, Cora and Will end up developing an unusual relationship, feeling drawn toward each other.
The first thing that strikes you about The Essex Serpent is a magnificent cast led by Claire Danes (Homeland) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki). Both have sensational chemistry on screen, but it is when the latter appears that the series “goes up” in an unleashed way. Tip: enjoy it in its original version to taste its unbeatable diction. Even though a very careful setting is sought with a budget waste by the production design in its eagerness to adapt to the time, some small anachronisms slip through that are noticeable.
There he establishes a complicated bond with Will (Hiddleston), the vicar of the village, with whom he shares scientific, theological, and ideological debates as passionate as the inevitable chemistry that arises between them. As he attempts to prove his theories, irrational fears spread contagiously among the community’s inhabitants. The environment in which this story takes place works as an extension of the contradictory internal lives of its protagonists. An atmosphere that is at the same time wild, free, exuberant, oppressive, and cloudy. A fertile ground for ideas such as punishment, sin, or the curse to germinate from the fear of the unknown to explain what cannot be understood.
And in that effort to explain the inexplicable, Cora and Will find themselves in a debate that goes beyond the classic science vs. religion. “Science requires dreaming, like your theology,” she tells him, to which he replies, “it requires faith.” Cora needs to believe in science to justify the presence of The Essex Serpent, while Will simply denies its existence. Cora has faith and will, the shepherd of God’s law defends reason.
The Essex Serpent Review And Analysis
Real or not, the threat of this creature forces the protagonists to face the nature of their instincts and fears while trying to discern if it is a fable invented to scare children, a tale to attract tourists, or the manifestation of collective guilt. The Essex Serpent is a gripping period series with exquisite levels of production and memorable performances, an exhilarating blend of gothic mystery with historical romance that explores friendship and desire in times of change. It is not that they harm the narrative, but in general, they give it a different air than what we could expect from a series closer to reality since it does not stop acting at times as a story of customs.
The real China in the shoe of this series is the duration of the episodes, especially the first ones, in which we are introduced to the characters and we see certain dalliances of the protagonist, who takes a while to “catch the air”. Her terror also takes her time to stick out her little leg, making her wait long. For the rest, the treatment of the filming locations stands out. The Essex Serpent makes us breathe the mystery of the marshes, often enveloping the characters in a nature that seems unknowable and threatening.
The mixture of the tone of “Frankenstein” with open-heart operations, disturbing flashbacks of real monsters, and the supernatural threat of a leviathan lurking in the mist, makes up a very attractive proposal that also connects with legends such as “the monster of the Lake Ness”, but above all, it summons us to primitive and abstract fears. All this without taking into account the value of the metaphor of the snake as temptation, but also as knowledge and, therefore, the opposite of faith. As we said, religion and science are two of the leitmotifs that the series exploits both by contrast and by attraction, although it sounds paradoxical.
With the premiere of The Essex Serpent, Apple TV+ reaffirms itself as one of the platforms that are expanding its catalog in a faster, more sustained, and spectacular way in terms of quality. Let’s remember that, among others, it has launched in recent months The Luminous, Slow Horses, Pachinko, WeCrashed, or the celebrated Separation, already renewed for a second season. The production values of all of them are very high, in such a way that it is already more than advisable to have this service so as not to miss key premieres. And many more to come!
The Essex Serpent Review: The Last Words
Overs of the Victorian era and Gothic novels such as “Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus” have an appointment on Apple TV+ to enjoy this series halfway between the story of customs and underground terror. Every time Tom Hiddleston appears on screen, he elevates the ensemble. All aspects of the setting are overwhelming.
