TL;DR – When this series comes together, it is a delight to watch. Unfortunately, a lot of the episodes are a bit hit or miss.  

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this series.

Nautilus  Review –

In today’s re-make/re-boot culture, there are stories that you hear over and over again because they are in the public domain. Sure, it is great to see another take on Peter Pan, but there is a treasure trove of works in the public domain that are interesting and ready for interpretation through a modern lens. Today, we are looking at just such a property that has not been delved into since 2003’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

So, to set the scene, it is 1897, and the British India Company has stretched its influence across the globe through colonisation and imperialism. One of those ships, in its vast navies, was on its way to Bombay when something rumbled the ship from below. They could have let it go, but Captain Youngblood (Jacob Collins-Levy) had to hunt it down. The only problem is that what they saw was not a beast but a craft unknown to science at the time and one that just ripped their hull out from underneath them. For this is a machine, a machine made of metal, that can travel under the water and is led by the magnificent Captain Nemo (Shazad Latif). We will be looking at the season as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

Now, before we dive into this series, pun intended, I do think I need to spend a little moment tempering some expectations, most notably with regard to the historicity of the show. Now, you might be asking why we should bother checking that when this is a fantastic series. Well, that is because while it wears those fantasy elements on its sleeves, it also wants to root itself in real-world political situations and organisations. So, if your area of expertise is the British India Company, Colonialism in the Indo-Pacific region, or Norse cultures, then beware there may be things here that annoy you.  

However, once you have worked through that, or if that is not an issue for you, you will find a fascinating series that tries to link back to those adventure stories from the past, but also with a clear modern lens. From the start, I liked the conceit that this version of the Nautilus was being built in secret by the British India Company to help destabilise trade in the China region but was instead captured by the prisoners that were used to build it. This scenario gives you buy-in right from the start, and much like, say, Farscape, it gives you an immediate villain and emphasis to move quickly.

When it comes to the broad strokes, I think this series succeeds quite well. Firstly, it is because they worked on crewing the ship with interesting characters whose story you want to follow. Shazad Latif makes a very compelling Captain Nemo, even before they start fleshing out his backstory. I wanted to know everything about Kai (Tyrone Ngatai) and how he 100% found love with Loti (Céline Menville) via one of their penchants for stabbing people. Also, what the heck was up with Jiacomo (Andrew Shaw), who was Cuff (Benedict Hardie) working for, and why no one punched Lord Pitt (Cameron Cuffe) in his perfectly punchable face throughout the series?

From a production perspective, we have some strengths and weaknesses. I loved the look and the design of the Nautilus. It combined that retro throwback with an art deco design and a touch of steampunk. You feel that it does have those dual roles of being a fancy exploration vessel but also something completely dangerous if so used in that way. The costumes are solid, and I think they did a good job on the location work, even with an odd surrealism of seeing my work location on the big screen. However, while the digital effects are solid, and the practical effects are sound, you could tell that the budget was not quite there when compositing the two into the same scene. It was quite noticeable in some places.

While generally, I did have a good time with this show, and it was compelling enough for me to get through the entire season. Some of the individual episodes felt more than a little hit-and-miss at times. A good example was Slippery When Wet,  which introduced a fascinating character who then gets unceremonially killed at the end. Or The Big Blue, which makes the scientist Gustave Benoit (Thierry Frémont) a fool for no reason. Structurally, I wish they had gotten the crew to a crew earlier than episode eight, so there was not a rush to the finish.

Also, it was slightly frustrating that a series that was exploring the role of colonialism in that area as a core part of its narrative did so in such a surface-level analysis. We got a lot of analysis of why things were not great for white women during that time as Humility Lucas (Georgia Flood) is positioned as the character who gets growth over the season. We get hints of life under colonialism, undercurrents of Communism, and, of course, some evil British facilitators that, if they were any more comically evil, they would be in RRR. Still, even then, RRR understood the theoretical bedrock it was building on. Things do start to coalesce a bit better on this front in the finale episode, which might be the strongest of the season, but it needed better development throughout.

In the end, do we recommend the first season of Nautilus? While there were some frustrations here and there. Some good design, a strong cast, and an engaging world all helped bring this series to life. I hope we get to spend some more time in this world because I think it has just found its feet, but also because it is just such a fun premise.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Nautilus yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Nautilus
Directed by – Michael Matthews, Ben C. Lucas & Isabelle Sieb
Written by – James Dormer, Matthew Parkhill, Melissa Bubnic, Sonya Desai & Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre
Created by – James Dormer
Based On – Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas  (Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers) by Jules Verne & Story by Mark Stay
Production/Distribution Companies – Moonriver TV, Seven Stories, Disney & Stan
Starring – Shazad Latif, Georgia Flood, Céline Menville, Thierry Frémont, Luke Arnold, Jacob Collins-Levy, Damien Garvey, Cameron Cuffe, Anna Torv, Caroline Goodall, Noah Taylor, Muki Zubis, Richard E Grant & Kayden Price with Benedict Hardie, Arlo Green, Tyrone Ngatai, Ling Cooper Tang, Pacharo Mzembe, Andrew Shaw, Chum Ehelepola, Ashan Kumar & Lukas Whiting and Marcus Oborn, Pierce Gordon, Abhilash Kaimal, Bruce Spence, Samara Wheeler, Shabana Azeez, Darren Gilshenan, Socratis Otto, Shanky Singh, Adolphus Waylee, Sean Miguel Perez, Sophia Florence Lim, Sri Sacdpraseuth, Dhruv Rao, Paddy Duffy, Bryan Probets, Donnie Baxter, Pete Murray, Libby Kay, Leeanna Walsman, Sam Sidhu, Wayne Bassett, Alexander England, Don Bridges, Nicholas Hope & Elvis
Episodes Covered – Anahata, Tick, Tick Boom, What Lies Beneath, Slippery When Wet, Anguille Fumee, The Big Blue, Cold War, The Tipping Point, Ride of the Valkyrie & Too Big to Fall