April 12, 2021
It was London in the year 1899. A prescient and athletic widow Amalia True (Laura Donnely) and innovative inventor Penance Adair (Ann Skelly) were bringing Myrtle (Viola Prettejohn), a girl who can speak in a multitude of foreign languages, to the Orphanage. This place, sponsored by wealthy spinster Lavinia Bidlow (Olivia Williams), was home to many similar individuals who were called "Touched" because they gained unusual supernatural abilities since the fateful day of August 3, 1896.
This one hour-long pilot episode gave a concise yet comprehensive introduction to the world of the Touched, which became a pressing issue in London in the final years of the 19th century. At its core, it had the basic concepts of "The X-Men," mutants who were trying to fit into the world of regular people. The Orphanage was analogous to Professor X's School for Gifted Youngsters. We are also introduced to the two women who run its operations, the pragmatic Mrs. True and the optimistic Penance, and get an overview of their skills.
There were also some "Touched" who use their powers for evil purposes, and we got to meet a few of them, like the mentally-unstable and murderous Maladie (Ann Manson) and her minion Bonfire (Rochelle Neil) who can throw balls of fire. We were introduced to their mayhem when Maladie interrupted a performance of the opera "Faust" by slitting the neck of the actor playing the Devil. We intuit that they were also collecting Touched themselves, by abducting Mary Brighton (Eleanor Tomlinson) whose song can freeze the Touched.
There were also regular humans who were worried about the presence of the Touched among them, and the most prominent one of these was Lord Massen (Pip Torrens). There was an interesting conversation between Amalia and Massen before the start of the opera which effectively summarized the underlying plot conflicts of the series and suggested the direction where the next five episodes will go. In an earlier scene, Massen actually classified the Touched along with "women, immigrants and deviants," setting up its social message.
This is the latest project of director Joss Whedon, and from "Buffy" to the "Avengers," we know that he can tell stories about people with supernatural powers. The Victorian setting gave the overworked Mutant story a different twist, with a rather maudlin color palette and a lot of steampunk designs. There was a side plot about the Ferrymen Group run by the depraved aristocrat Hugo Swan (James Norton) which can go either way. So yes, I am still curious to see how the rest of the series will go. 7/10.
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