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Not much on television worth watching nowadays so it is a very pleasant surprise when a series of this caliber comes along. The depiction of 1800s Great Britain in all it's steamy vulgarity and corruption is intriguing and mesmerizing. Ridley Scott and Tom Hardy are at their outstanding best. The production quality and scenery is first rate. The acting throughout is of a rare quality in today's market. Tom Hardy does not disappoint in his character portrayal as the lead character. Mystery, treachery, intrigue and darkness are present in abundance in the first three episodes I have watched thus far. The reach of the East India company with its unscrupulous pursuit of power and wealth by any means has me drawn in. I cannot wait for the next episode! At a time when the majority of television series seem to be filled with political propaganda disguised as entertainment this series stands out. Nothing pc to see here. Excellent!!

Interesting how tastes can differ. I found Taboo to be a series trying desperately hard – and failing – to be a brilliant dark portrayal of early 19th century skulduggery. Why did it fail? Well, Tom Hardy obviously thinks that loping around like a truculent bear, and quietly growling every single line that he has, is superb character acting: it's not. He comes across as completely two-dimensional with no depth of character and ends up being a caricature of the ultra-macho alpha male with zero emotional range. For something like 90% of the time he is on-screen he portrays exactly the same growling, brooding expression and voice and yet somehow fails to convince us that he is a real person. If you compare his 'acting' with the brilliance of Timothy Dalton in the similarly-themed 'Penny Dreadful' who showed such wide emotional range, you'll see what I'm talking about. The BBC also has a juvenile obsession with the 'F' word, and makes sure that in every episode there is a totally irrelevant and unnecessary use of it ("Ooo, aren't we daring! We've made Jonathan Pryce say the 'F' word!!"). So overall, is it terrible? Not really: it has an interesting set of intertwined themes, but it's a series that COULD have been great, had the producers (Tom Hardy and his dad) not allowed the lead actor (Tom Hardy) to indulge in such cardboard cut-out 'Look-at-me-I'm-a-dark-and-brooding-character' acting