The Nevers’ Display of Victorian Superpowers Is Both Exhausting and Intriguing

The Nevers’ Display of Victorian Superpowers Is Both Exhausting and Intriguing

I think HBO’s upcoming “Victorian ladies with superpowers” show The Nevers needs to be updated to “Victorian ladies with superpowers whom people want to control, lock up, kill, exploit, or ignore, and also the loveable Nick Frost is playing some kind of murderous crime lord” show. Because goodness gracious is this second trailer for the series busy.

Look, let’s just start with the show’s official synopsis again for a baseline: “Victorian London is rocked to its foundations by a supernatural event that gives certain people — mostly women — abnormal abilities, from the wondrous to the disturbing. But no matter their particular ‘turns,’ all who belong to this new underclass are in grave danger. It falls to mysterious, quick-fisted widow Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) and brilliant young inventor Penance Adair (Ann Skelly) to protect and shelter these gifted ‘orphans.’ To do so, they will have to face the brutal forces determined to annihilate their kind.”

This description feels like it covers about 12 seconds of the footage in this all-encompassing second trailer. It doesn’t cover the absolutely giant cast, which looks to be even larger than the lengthy rundown we got back in 2019. It doesn’t cover the people in masks, the weird candle smoke, the lady who murders that dude before a live theatre audience, the portable gatling gun, what that giant glowy blue ball is, etc. It’s kind of as exhaustive as it is intriguing, really, but a prestige HBO fantasy/steampunk/period piece is probably worth a try. As a reminder, former showrunner Joss Whedon is no longer involved with this one.

The Nevers also stars Olivia Williams, Amy Manson, Rochelle Neil, Eleanor Tomlinson, Elizabeth Berrington, Anna Devlin, Kiran Sonia Sawar, Viola Prettejohn, and Ella Smith (among many others).

The six-episode first part of the season premieres April 12 on Binge in Australia, with an additional six arriving at a yet-to-be-announced later date.