“And it turns out that nothing will crack this world harder than one gentle question.” ~ The Nevers (HBO TV Series) 1
The ‘The Nevers’ starts with the upper echelons of the society in Victorian England being alarmed by the “natural order” being threatened by people (mostly women) who are “touched” by some mysterious spores from above. The “touched” have special abilities - someone has ability to see glimpses of the future, someone has the skill to see energy flowing across things, someone has power to heal, someone can generate balls of flame, someone can understand any language, one person grows into a giant, on so forth. The premise is exactly like X-Men (No one like Wolverine though!). The show touches upon many social themes like women’s rights, labourers’s rights, etc. though I think the overarching theme is the ‘resistance to change’, especially by people in power.
But the last episode (of Part 1 of Season 1) completely changed the narrative. One wondered if one was watching the same series or not since the episode starts off in some distant dystopian future. A lot of mystery is cleared, especially around Amalia, but it also raised so many more questions. One could see that the series could go on in many different directions for a long time and keep the audience intrigued.
Comparison to Raised by Wolves
In a way, the dystopian future where earth is destroyed and almost unlivable, reminds one of the future depicted in ‘Raised by Wolves’2.
Short summary of Episode 6 - “Humanity is a war; earth is almost destroyed; there are two prominent groups - FreeLife and Planetary Defense Coalition (PDC); FreeLife is a group of religious people who believe in God, PDC believes in science; PDC is open to the idea that Galanthi, an alien species could save the earth, while FreeLife wants to kill all the Galanthi and have already killed most of them.”
Raised by Wolves had The Mithraic (religious group) fight against the Atheists. In both of these stories, I found it intriguing that it is the religious groups that had the technological prowess. The non-religious groups were idealistic but were behind, especially in terms of weapons of mass destruction. This, I think is a diversion from cinema or TV of the past decade where non-religious people were mostly shown as advanced and extremely religious people as primitive.
I guess many film makers are showing an aspect of the truth of modern times that one could be deeply religious and immersed in rituals and practices that are 1000s of years old and yet be an expert at the cutting edge of modern technology. Also the fact that technological advancements can be leveraged by anyone.
Lofty ideals - faulty implementations
Most religions have lofty ideals and they provide some tools for effective living - a) rituals, b) connection with people, and c) answers to the big questions about the purpose of life.
On the bright side, If you follow rituals they could chart your life into one with positive habit loops where you never go wrong in getting basic things right. If you connect with the right kind of people you stand to lead a more fulfilling life. If you’re able to answer at least some of the fundamental questions of ‘being alive’ in this vast universe of seeming nothingness, you could possibly avoid the crushing void of cynicism and despair.
But on the flip side, if you blindly follow rituals and impose them others, if you connect with other people to use religion as a tool of power and manipulation, if you have a flawed worldview that lacks common sense and is harmful to life itself, then you’re yet another person who is pushing humanity to its destruction.
Eleanor Tomlinson as Mary Brighton
Coming back to ‘The Nevers’, though Episode 6 answered many questions, and had a lot of material to think about, an episode that I think back to is Episode 4. It featured a funeral and definitively (sadly) established that Mary was dead. Similar to Professor X in X-Men who could mentally connect with all the mutants in the world, Mary could connect with all the ‘touched’ through her song. So I thought she would play a bigger role. The choice of dresses, the music, etc, had made Mary the singular angelic person in the series at that point in time but her death was quite unexpected. The other thing was that since Eleanor Tomlinson, who was the idealistic and down-to-earth Demelza in Poldark, played the part of Mary, it set the expectations high. In fact, I watched the series only because I saw Tomlinson and Pip Torrens (Tommy Lascelles in ‘The Crown’ and George Warleggan’s uncle in ‘Poldark’) in the trailer.
The funeral
The song that was sung at the funeral was very touching and to me it underscored the importance of attending a funeral itself. The cinematography and direction were top-notch. The scenes of the funeral and the scenes at the dock with laborers going on a strike around the same time are shown in tandem. A laborer pushing a wheelbarrow is shown and then the scene transitions from the spokes of the worn out wooden wheel barrow to the spokes of an ornate and expensive wheelchair that Lavinia Bidlow is sitting on at the funeral site. All this is happening while the beautiful hymn in being sung. The hymn and the music makes the scene poignant and an unforgettable experience. The hymn is below. The scene also took me back to my reflections about viewing the departed that I spoke about on the RBG post.
S1 Episode 4 (The Undertaking) 2:22 - 4:18 - “Now the laborer’s task is o’er”3
{{< blockquote >}} Now the laborer’s task is o’er; Now the battle day is past; Now upon the farther shore Lands the voyager at last.
Father, in thy gracious keeping, Leave we now thy servant sleeping.
There the tears of earth are dried, There its hidden things are clear, There the work of life is tried By a juster judge than here.
There the penitents, that turn To the cross their dying eyes, All the love of Jesus learn At his feet in Paradise.
Father, in thy gracious keeping, Leave we now thy servant sleeping.
(Not sung in the episode) ‘Earth to earth, and dust to dust,’ Calmly now the words we say; Leaving him to sleep, in trust, Till the resurrection-day. {{< /blockquote >}}
{{< youtube VTCA6Tx_qds >}}
Quotes
Nothing will crack this world harder than one gentle question. ~ Knitter
“This close” is where we always end up. It’s where we all fold. “This close,” change is too scary, even for the people who fight for it. ~ Stripe
We build homes to keep other people out and then build machines to let them all in. ~ Lord Massen
Public opinion is a brush fire. ~ Ms. Bidlow
Pain despises hope. ~ Amalia
More suffer from society’s perception than their own debilitation. ~ Amalia
All time does is run out. Waiting’s only painful when you’re not doing anything else. ~ Amalia
Sometimes pretending you feel good makes you feel better. ~ Desirée
All rumors are ugly. No one whispers about virtue. ~ Hugo Swan
Chaos is not change. Shouting for recognition does not make a people worthy of it. ~ Lord Massen
Image Credit - Youtube - Nevers Official Trailer - HBO4. Link to the image.
