after being so vexed by her reviews for so many episodes, i must cop to agreeing with much of emily's criticism this week.

dear terrible review,

there's a fascinating alchemy that happens to me when i really connect with a movie or TV show. i become a bit too forgiving of flaws and a smidge too enthusiastic about minor successes. no amount of critical praise or damnation can unwind the transformation or break the spell.

the only thing better than watching deadwood is watching it again.

oh c'mon guys yourself.

how about this doozy?

i realize it's early days still, but i think it's got some 'great show' potential, at least on my list. there is some impressive, cinematic long-form narrative storytelling going on here. i've greatly enjoyed my weekly journeys deeper into taboo's outrageous intrigues.

ohmygodyes — it was extremely time-bandits-giant-esque.

good call on chichester's chapeau for this week's headpiece MVP!

yeah…i kinda got riled up last week and may have gone a little overboard with my praise. but in fairness to taboo, "dialogue as good as deadwood," is a phrase very unlikely to be said about any other television show, from now until the heat death of the universe.

it may not have been enough.

best review of the review yet!

thanks.

the absurdity of the psychic incest scene is duly noted.

he may not have wanted to create a rift with his sister, but i also think delaney has a deep sense of morality and fairness that we see him struggling to square with his violent means and thirst for vengeance.

okay. so i think i may have figured out why i love this show more and more each episode; it's really nothing so much as a classic dickens potboiler updated with 21st century sensibilities.

yeah, something with the zilpha character is definitely not quite up to par compared with some of the other characters on taboo. i think it might be that we don't really have any sense of who she really is, or what it is exactly that she wants — beyond her obvious desire that her husband stop beating and exorcising…

what a lovely, succinct summary of these absurd reviews. i am enjoying hate-reading emily's inept criticism nearly as much as i enjoy watching taboo itself.

Taboo is a show that wants to explore the complexities of global conspiracies and insurrections about as much as Die Hard is a movie intent on examining the impact of Japanese corporate influence on the American economy in the 1980s.

those are all pretty sharp critiques of taboo. i think it's a great big piece of over the top gothic sugar candy and i love it, but i don't begrudge you your opinions, and they seem well stated.