The Nevers: Hanged
May 9, 2021 7:22 PM - Season 1, Episode 5 - Subscribe

As the city buzzes with anticipation over a pending execution, Penance (Ann Skelly) grapples with a moral calling at odds with Amalia's plan. With the two women at a crossroads, the Orphans must decide whom to follow. [IMDb]

"We spent quite a lot of time deciding, was this the right thing to show an audience? ... I think Clara, her acolyte, giving herself for the cause, I think is a weighty moment from Maladie. You do see a glimmer of upset there. There is a moment of, ‘Wow, I’m still human. What have I done? What am I doing? Why have I turned into this monster?’ And I think the questions that arise for Maladie within Effie, the true Maladie, are maybe along the lines more of, there’s someone that wants to save me. Penance was there, Penance wanted to save her. And I think that she didn’t expect this to happen. It doesn’t actually go the way that she expected it to happen."—Amy Manson interviewed by Jennifer Maas for The Wrap

"It’s tricky to see how Phillipa Goslett, the British screenwriter and first-time showrunner tapped to replace Whedon, can excavate what’s working (Amalia and Penance’s repartee, Hugo Swann’s cocksure smarm) from what isn’t (a longer list). But after watching “Hanged,” a much tidier episode than we’ve come to expect, I’m suddenly optimistic again. It’s feeling less like we’re nearing some arbitrary halfway point and more like the end of a lengthy prologue."—Amanda Whiting for Vulture
posted by bcwinters (9 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I thought that was pretty good. Splitting the two missions into two episodes was a good decision. The bits that went into this episode joined up and made sense, so I have no major beef with the writing this week.
posted by confluency at 2:54 AM on May 10, 2021


Have not seen this but a slight derail rant about the trend of shorter high production value shows.

With all the caveats on the producer I just quite like all the characters, and would just like more of them. They have built all these amazing sets and clearly have well thought out personalities, and a whole bunch more all around. Just why not go full "Lost" with less big CGI and more about the people?!?

It just seems like a great format with all the many different people with many stories to tell from their touched gift/curse. Again I'm not deeply in love with any of the show or a particular character but it seems like there are many interesting characters and stories that would keep an audience enthralled with a small mix just in one of the drawing rooms chatting away.

That industry really needs a new vision of putting on shows. Why not a mix of shorts, youtube glimpses, oh gawd tictoc. One element of the Marvel universe is just familiarity, people like the production for a lot of reasons but knowing the ground rules is a comfort, and as good as a new production can be (not claiming this one is) novelty is just one element.
posted by sammyo at 5:25 AM on May 10, 2021 [1 favorite]


If bcwinters hadn't mentioned the Effie Boyle/Maladie theory in the comments of the last post, I'd have been totally lost at the execution. Was I supposed to remember that someone was missing toes? They do walk you through the switcheroo by the end but knowing that Effie was Maladie during the episode was much easier for me.

Felt we got a lot more exposition on the Massen cabal this episode. I was still in the dark that they were the ones who'd murdered Mary. I do kind of wish we knew who the cabal is aside from Massen.

I had some trouble paying attention at the beginning of the episode and completely missed the explanation for what Galanthe was, so the plans, the drilling, whatever didn't really make any sense to me. In addition to other things that I can't seem to pay attention to: why is Harriet constantly fighting with her fiance and is he possibly a ghost? Have we seen him speak or interact with other characters? Didn't Dr. Cousens have a wife and child at the orphanage? Where did they go?

The Beggar King was more of what I wanted in his confrontation with Massen. I liked his "I'll adapt" line in the face of changing overlords. Criminal underclass solidarity!
posted by gladly at 7:59 AM on May 10, 2021 [1 favorite]


I had some trouble paying attention at the beginning of the episode and completely missed the explanation for what Galanthe was

You didn't miss it - it wasn't there. They just all start using this word we've never heard before as though everyone knows what it means.

There was a lot that was fun about this episode, but it felt very rushed to me. Between that and the Effie reveal it was like there was an entire episode that had just been elided.
posted by Ragged Richard at 8:45 AM on May 10, 2021 [4 favorites]


I wonder if what is mostly responsible for the choppy plotting and gaps is that they weren't filming all the scenes in chronological order, so that at the point when filming was interrupted by COVID, multiple scenes which would have filled in information in the earlier episodes didn't yet exist and had to be cut out. I don't have any specific knowledge about the way filming a TV series works, so I don't know how common / likely that is.
posted by confluency at 1:35 PM on May 10, 2021 [1 favorite]


Well, professionally run tv sets have continuity editors who make sure scripts and final product provide a coherent narrative for the viewer, but obviously this is not a professionally run tv show.

I'm a little incoherent with anger right now after this episode but really, fuck this show and fuck Joss Whedon and fuck HBO.

Fuck them all for putting Laura Donnelly's nipples as the main focus of a stupid useless sexposition scene. And fuck then for not examining at all the layers of a black man cheating on his black wife with a white woman. And fuck them for making his wife invisible and and voiceless and irrelevant in whatever this fucking useless cheating narrative is.

And fuck them for the continued ableist bullshit of the Maladie storyline because apparently now people who have extreme mental illness and delusions and inability to perform personal hygiene are ALSO capable of being very groomed, coherent, and can also keep it together long enough to follow stories, write pieces, and get them published in widely read papers.

What an absolute pile of crap.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 7:29 AM on May 11, 2021 [7 favorites]


You didn't miss it - it wasn't there. They just all start using this word we've never heard before as though everyone knows what it means.

Yeah, I only got halfway through the episode before I had to stop for other obligations and I was like.. Wait, did I take a micronap when they were discussing the Galanthi in another episode? Nope! Not mentioned once before!

There were a few other things that people were complaining about in earlier episodes that, eh, if you read between the lines, you understand that Maladie and Amalia were both institutionalized together, so they had shared history, etc and so forth, but this was truly out of left field. Yikes.
posted by Kyol at 12:31 PM on May 12, 2021


Pssssst, can I interest anyone in another show about orphans with powers in Victorian London (but with a script that joins up)?

I completely missed this when it came out, but it was mentioned in the Nevers subreddit. I'm really enjoying it so far.
posted by confluency at 3:14 PM on May 12, 2021 [2 favorites]


The policeman's burst of insight seemed to be pulled out of his ass. I'm glad I'm not the only one frustrated by this episode.
posted by Pronoiac at 10:08 PM on June 2, 2021


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