'The Nevers' Is A Great Idea, But Also Exhausting
In today's Hollywood, a completely original work of fiction as a prestige TV series is a rare sight. Most of the time, when a production studio sinks that kind of money into a series, especially a CGI heavy fantasy-laden one, they want a built-in fanbase from a series of novels or comics. HBO's The Nevers takes a risk and creates something wholly new, wholly fascinating, and surprisingly enjoyable, at least in its first six episodes. However, there are problems, glaring problems - most of which begin and end with the show's creator, Joss Whedon. To paraphrase Coco Chanel: This is a TV show that should look in the mirror and take off one plot point before exiting the house.
When prestige TV first rose in the early aughts, so did the role of the "showrunner." The position always existed in TV, the point person who coordinates all the aspects of the show. But with high art television came the idea of the showrunner as auteur. Joss Whedon was part of the initial vanguard of this group. His Buffy The Vampire Slayer was so popular, Warner Bros. and Paramount used it to launch an entire broadcast network, The CW, putting it in the rarefied air of shows that defined an arm of national entertainment. (The others are Masterpiece Theater and Sesame Street for PBS and The Simpsons for Fox.)
The Nevers was supposed to be Whedon's grand comeback to television. And the show certainly has all the hallmarks of why Whedon was held in such high regard. The case in which he balances a massive amount of storytelling makes it look easy. One can see the talent that drove 2012's The Avengers to break box office records and defined the entire crossover superhero formula of wisecracking snark-flavored action sequences balanced against deep feeling and drama. It's become the Marvel formula that drives the success of the MCU's 22 movies, 4 TV shows, and counting, and was part of the success that helped launch Disney+. The Nevers displays it here, too, in spades.
