Rating: 5/5 Dark Genius

After an agonizing eight-year wait, Taboo Season 2 finally arrives, and it is every bit as bleak, brilliant, and baffling as the first. Tom Hardy returns as James Keziah Delaney, the man who has been to hell and brought back souvenirs.

Season 2 picks up immediately after the first season’s cliffhanger. Delaney is presumed dead, blown up on a ship in the Thames. But of course, he’s not dead—he’s in America, specifically the Pacific Northwest, hunting for the other half of his mother’s mysterious inheritance: a stretch of land that holds the key to a secret that could bring down empires.

The new season expands the scope. The East India Company is still hunting him, but now they’re joined by American fur traders, Russian spies, and a tribe of indigenous people who see Delaney as either a prophet or a threat. Hardy is mesmerizing, speaking in that trademark whisper-growl, his eyes holding centuries of pain. The production design is filthy and gorgeous, and the tension is unbearable.

The Verdict: Television at its most ambitious and difficult. It demands your full attention and rewards it with pure, dark art.

Final Thought: Some men cannot be killed. They can only be… delayed.