TV Show review
Review basis: 1 season · through February 25, 2017
January 7, 2017 · 60 min · TV-MA · Ended
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Taboo is a dark gothic historical drama set in 1814 London. Adventurer James Keziah Delaney returns from Africa to claim his late father's disputed inheritance, including valuable land in Nootka Sound, and wages a personal war of revenge against the corrupt East India Company amid spies, gangs, family secrets, and brutal intrigue. The story incorporates the protagonist's mixed indigenous heritage and critiques of corporate exploitation and slavery through a revenge-driven plot, presented in a slow-burn atmospheric style without modern activist lectures or identity-focused messaging.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Taboo.
Woke representation / casting
Tom Hardy, a white actor, plays the mixed-heritage lead whose indigenous mother ties into the backstory; this drew isolated online complaints of mismatch, though supporting cast uses period-appropriate actors without modern diversity quotas or signaling.
Woke political dialogue
Some characters denounce the East India Company's greed and crimes, but these remain personal and business conflicts within the 1814 setting rather than ideological speeches or activist framing.
Identity-driven story themes
Delaney's mixed background and "savage" rumors from his Africa years add to his outsider mystique and gothic tone, serving revenge and atmosphere rather than identity affirmation or modern social themes.
Western institutional / cultural critique
The East India Company appears as a corrupt, murderous corporate power complicit in slavery and exploitation alongside working-class hardship; this stays historical anti-tyranny storytelling without reframing into current activist critiques of capitalism, patriarchy, or Western institutions.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No notable complaints accusing the series of pushing woke or identity politics; limited criticism came instead from progressive viewers on casting and historical portrayals.
Creator track record context
Steven Knight specializes in historical dramas exploring class, power, and corruption with some present-day parallels but has publicly supported British creative identity and opposed glorifying division; co-creators show no activist patterns.
Production
