The Essex Serpent
by Anna Symon, based on the novel by Sarah Perry
The Essex Serpent is slow, pretty, slightly creepy, and sexy in that “I can’t have you so I’ll stare at you with my brooding, metaphorically piercing eyes instead of having sex” sort of way that some people despise and other people adore.
My idea of pure happiness on this earthly plane is Claire Danes digging fossils out of cliffs while wearing trousers and a floppy hat, accompanied by Tom Hiddleston in a sweater, so I was down with this for the most part. But if you aren’t, I get it, because this is terribly slow paced stuff, and worse, it lacks chemistry.
Our story begins with the death of a horrible man, the abusive husband of Cora Seaborne. Cora, played by Claire Danes, positively glows with bliss once her tormentor is dead. She gathers up her son and her companion, Martha, played by Hayley Squires, and makes for the Blackwater Estuary of Essex, a place of tidal mudflats and marshes and channels that lead to open sea. Cora is fascinated by recent rumors of the Essex Serpent.
She is also fascinated by the local vicar, (Tom Hiddleston, still my true love), who is married to the perfect wife and mother and friend Stella (Clémence Poésy). Meanwhile, Martha (who, to my delight, is a Marxist) is clearly in love with Cora, and so is London hotshot doctor Luke (Frank Dillane).
All this simmers on low burn while Cora delights in poking at cliffs for fossils and dancing at her birthday party in bare feet, but threat lurks in the increasing local panic about the serpent. Cora and Will try to get villagers to calm the fuck down, an effort the villagers do not appreciate because no one likes to be told to calm down, especially when the person who is telling you to calm down is literally standing over a corpse.
Should you watch this show? Here some of the pertinent FAQ’s:
Does everyone wear comfy sweaters and interesting historical clothing?
Yes.
Do people gaze at each other, tense and sort of vibrating with silent and repressed longing?
Sure thing.
Does Tom Hiddleston get dressed up and waltz?
Of course, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Does a weird guy with an unfortunate beard yell about sin a lot?
Alas, it is so.
Does someone yell, “SHE’S A WITCH?” at an out-of-towner redhead in a red dress?
Takes them long enough, but they get around to it eventually.
Is there a monster?
I won’t say whether the monster is real, but I will say that we see far too little of any creepy content, cryptid or otherwise.
I get that this show has interesting female characters, but are women also behind the camera?
Why yes! For instance, the series is based on a novel by Sarah Parry, directed by Clio Barnard, and written by women.
This series benefits from complex and interesting characters and excellent actors. No one is one-dimensional. Everyone has flaws but also strengths with the possible exception of the curate who spends all of his time yelling about sin.
The women are particularly mesmerizing – Cora with her mingled compassion and cluelessness, curiosity about the world, and joy in her independence, Martha’s crusading spirit, savvy political awareness, and quietly broken heart, and Stella with her clear-eyed view of her family’s future.
Stella says hello to Cora’s son, Frankie, who is hanging out under a table.
Alas, there are two problems with this show that utterly sink it: glacial pacing and a lack of chemistry between Danes and Hiddleston.
This entire endeavor depends on Cora and Will feeling an intense, irresistible, insatiable attraction towards one another but they both just look, respectively, nervous and (forgive me, Tom, you know I’ll always love you) constipated.
I buy their friendship but not the sexual chemistry and without the sexual chemistry there’s no reason for 90% of the drama. Will, in particular, is just a sad mop of a man, ineffectual in every way and making everything about him.
“Is this my judgment?” he asks, upon learning that Stella has tuberculosis.
Jesus, asshole, your wife’s TB is not about you! Get a hold of yourself, man!
I’ve had a stressful couple of months, y’all, so frankly I didn’t give a shit what happened in this series as long as beautiful people wore beautiful clothes amongst interesting scenery. But I’m essentially using this series as wallpaper. As a drama, there is not a lot here. Whole episodes pass with just a teensy bit of plot taking place about five minutes from the end.
Is the series creepy?
Mostly no.
Is it sexy?
Alas, IMHO, no, not especially.
Do I care about these people?
Kinda, but mostly as individuals, not as potential romantic partners, which is a problem in a show so propelled by romantic entanglements.
The show has six episodes and no significant payoff. Many questions remain unanswered at the end of the show, and although the characters’ relationships with each other have finally fallen into place, they do so anticlimactically. I can only recommend this show to the most devoted fans of historical drama. It’s simply too slow paced and too lacking in chemistry to be compelling.
It’s a shame, because all of the characters are fascinating and they, as well as the actors that portray them, deserve so much better.
I read The Essex Serpent, twice, because I entirely forgot having read it the first time. One time, I rated it four stars, highly enjoyable. The other time, I gave it two stars, which means I bothered to finish it but only because I hated it so much. I can’t really explain the discrepancy because… I have entirely forgotten it again. So I really can’t say if I recommend it.
Made more hilarious to me because I almost only ever give three stars, and that’s just so I know that I read a book.
I read and adore chunky 19th century novels–Dickens, Gaskell, Collins, the Brontes–on the regular. Like at least 2 a year. And I found the book dull, plodding, and unreadable. No compelling characters or romance, no suspense. It felt like the sort of worthy book people think they should be reading versus actually a well-written book.
I am slightly more favorable to this series, and would put it at a B-. I really applaud the complex characterization and acting of the three female leads. And while I agree with Carrie that most of it was fraught with tension but not particularly sexy, episode 4 notched the repressed sexual desire up to 11 and was fabulous tv. It’s really a shame the rest of the series didn’t feel the same.
The monster mystery was a pretty thinly veiled metaphor (maybe? Still not really sure what we were getting at there). I have had the book on my kindle for years but haven’t read it. I expected the plot to be more supernatural based on descriptions, which it is not in the series.
Overall though, I thought the series was beautiful and atmospheric viewing and what I needed in my evenings during a rough week. if you enjoy period costuming I highly recommend checking out at least a few episodes just to ogle Cora’s knit sweater coats and Stella’s art deco-inspired blue gowns.
I tried to watch this, I really did. But I just couldn’t. I lasted two episodes before I gave up — the pacing was just so SLOOOOOOOOOOW.
I love Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes but not in TES. I barely made it through episode 1 and then decided life is too short. I’m watching series 3 of Derry Girls.
My feeling when I finished the book, was: humph, that’s it? If the series is even slower, I can’t imagine watching it.
This review exactly sums up how I felt about the book. I was nothing short of astonished that it sold so well and got awards.
What I remember most about reading the book was getting at least two or three chapters in and not actually realizing it was set in the nineteenth century. The description of the world and characters (at first, anyway) just lacked the specificity and detail that would have helped make that clear. And for the rest of it, I echo Mabry’s “that’s it?” No thoughts about the series, but it’s a pity that the adaptation process doesn’t seem to have improved on the source material.
I had not even realized that The Essex Serpent was adapted into a TV series! Sad that they cast big names like Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston, and the two don’t have any chemistry together. I think I’ll try reading the book first before deciding if I want to watch the show.
Not that I imagine it would ever have happened, but a repeat casting of Damian Lewis and Claire Danes (so excellent together in HOMELAND) would have brought lots more sizzle, whereas a Gothic repairing of Jessica Chastain with Tom Hiddleston for ESSEX SERPENT would probably still lack the needed spark. There didn’t seem to be enough passion behind the opposing viewpoints held by Will and Cora in the television adaptation, and I never felt entirely convinced that Will had a religious calling (more screen time was given to surgical operations in London than to church sermons in Essex).
Never heard of this, perked up when I saw Tom Hiddleston, but if something is called The Essex Serpent there had better be a helluva lot of SERPENT (actual and metaphorical) in it, if you know what I mean.
I mean, adaptations have so many ways to fail one must sometimes simply tip the hat and say ‘thank you for trying’ but – SERPENT!! In the title! In a series with TH, irresistibly sexy as chaotic evil Loki! Make it a shapeshifter story, people! One where the sexy conflicted vicar IS THE SERPENT!!
Sorry, that got away from me a little. For all I know, that’s the Big Reveal right there. 🙂
An important ingredient that I observed in The Essex Serpent was the emphasis on science and technology and the new era of thought compared with the superstitious, almost old testament religion touched with a little pagan-like reverance for the mythical ‘Essex Serpent’ held by the town folk from the country side marshland. The serpent head is not only in the minds of the locals but carved into the chapel pews. It appears to have a history in the village.
The superstitious beliefs of the people of the Marshland are in contrast with the changing belief systems and independence brought to the village from London via the fast train service with its underground and through the young Doctor’s interest pushing the boundaries of medicine. While the Clare Danes character is also trying to push a rational scientific answer to the serpents origins using theories about non extinct dinosaurs. Underpinning this battle is the 19th C. romantic tension always suggested and proper juxtaposed with the more free thinking emancipated female characters and references to social change.
Is Miss Scarlett and the Duke on PBS a better option? I would say yes. Good chemistry actually mystery and delightful side characters. Also a nemesis has appeared so lots of emotional damage to work through.