FX’s new series Taboo promises viewers a dark tale of love and murder, my favorite kind of tale.
Taboo, FX’s new series from Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott, and Steven Knight premieres 1/10.
“Set in 1814, Taboo follows James Keziah Delaney, a man who has been to the ends of the earth and comes back irrevocably changed. Believed to be long dead, he returns home to London from Africa to inherit what is left of his father’s shipping empire and rebuild a life for himself. But his father’s legacy is a poisoned chalice, and with enemies lurking in every dark corner, James must navigate increasingly complex territories to avoid his own death sentence. Encircled by conspiracy, murder and betrayal, a dark family mystery unfolds in a combustible tale of love and treachery.”
1814 London
How many people really know what London was like in 1814? Cinema has a tendency to make the past look, and smell, much better than it actually did. Therefore, in order to set the proper tone for this dark and mysterious saga involving money, power, revenge, death and conspiracy I give you London England, circa 1814:
By 1814 some places in London had begun using gas oil lamps both at home and in the streets, these were the wealthy areas of town only at this time. The War was still going on, that is the War of 1812, no one had toilets that flushed. It was common to hear “Gardez l’eau!” from windows in town, which means someone was about to toss out their chamber pot in the street. London had a serious stench and sanitation issues that would blow your mind by today’s standards. So, in a nutshell, London was dark, wet and not so great smelling in 1814.
What London did have going for it was trade! Lots and lots of trade. Some of the world’s largest trading companies did business in London and, as it is today, money meant power and power meant everything. The rules on what a corporation could and could not do were very lax back then and the workers, well, they had no rights at all. It wasn’t uncommon for small children to be working on the docks or in shops or anywhere at that time as well.
London’s main industries were still in manufacturing of food and drink. There were flour mills, sawmills, sauce factories, sugar refineries and breweries. Speaking of breweries, on a tragic and slightly off kilter note, there was a flood in London on October 17, 1814 that claimed the lives of 8 people. It was a beer flood. 135,000 gallons of beer poured from a ruptured vat flooding the Tottenham Court Road. Once the first vat went over, a domino effect happened and they all went. Such a tragic waste of lives, and beer.
While the past is often romanticized in films and novels, London was dark. London was gritty. London was unhealthy. London was dangerous and London was both rich and devastatingly poor at the same time. All in all, a perfect setting for Tom Hardy’s series Taboo, where we will no doubt see all of these attributes come to life when the series premieres on January 10th.
It’s not all so gritty and dirty, brighten up the past when you enter the Taboo giveaway for a chance to win $3,000 worth of diamonds!
*CONTEST DESCRIPTION & RULES.: *NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. ONLINE ENTRY ONLY. BINDING ARBITRATION; NO CLASS RELIEF. The “FX Networks Taboo Diamonds Sweepstakes” begins on December 20, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. PT and ends on December 27, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Only open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. and D.C., 21 and older. Void in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, U.S., Military installations in foreign countries, all other U.S. territories and possessions and wherever prohibited or restricted by law. ARV of prize: $3,000. Subject to full Official Rules Sponsor: FX Networks, LLC, P.O. Box 900, Los Angeles, California 90213.