Taboo episode 2 review: Murder mystery holds together Tom Hardy's BBC drama

An improvement on last week but still frustrating at times

Tom Hardy in Taboo (BBC Picture)

“Why? Why wouldn’t he even look at our offer?” Jonathan Pryce’s villainous Sir Stuart Strange asks eight minutes into the second episode of Taboo. “Why would he defy logic and retain? Why did he know so much about the board of negotiations? How did he know they were taking place in Ghent? And where did he get the money to buy a ship?”

It’s these questions viewers were encouraged to ask following the first episode, along with many more, something that left me feeling both frustrated and intrigued. That frustration was somewhat subdued throughout episode two. Not necessarily because the show answers any questions - really, it asks more - but because we have something to finally focus on: James Delany’s investigation into his father’s murderer.

So, what do we know so far? Tom Hardy’s character has returned to London to inherit Nootka Sound from his recently deceased father, disrupting plans between his sister, Zilpha, and the East India Trading Company. Delany’s return from Africa to England has also meant a brothel - set up in his father’s dockside estate - has been stopped, and various people are now trying to kill him.

But who? Well, there are many suspects, the East India Trading Company being the most obvious. They are, for nearly all intents and purposes, a one-dimensional villain, obsessed with power and being an omnipresent controller in London. Again, their motivations are set out through more boardroom meetings; not exactly riveting stuff but Pryce remains excellent as the company’s leader.

Thankfully, there’s a slightly more ambiguous killer on the scene: the mysterious silver-toothed man. He’s after Delany and Delany is after him: a murder mystery to hold things together. What’s more, a new murder contender - who enters during a public meeting about inheritance - presents what could be a truly interesting character and proper foil for Delany going onwards.

However, like with the first episode, there are few breaks from Hardy’s intense performance, leaving only seemingly unintentional humour to break the serious tone once more. Most notable is Mark Gatiss, who is unrecognisable as the infamous Prince Regent (later George IV). It’s not the character’s looks that are hilarious, though. Instead, some remarkably crass dialogue - “F**k them,” Prince Regent says, to which an underling quips “I intend to” - is laugh-out-loud funny/awkward.

That’s not the only point where dialogue feels strained. Numerous times, the audience is reminded how “mad” the Delany men are (madness we see twice: once when Delany burns down a ship, the other during that very last sequence). A sequence with House of Cards actor Michael Kelly, revealing a tenuous relationship between Delany and the Americans in particular mentions ‘madness’ several times. Oona Chaplin’s Zilpha is also frighteningly underused, barely saying a word and predominantly just staring into the distance and breathing heavily when her half-brother is around.

As Taboo progresses with the Sherlock-esque murder mystery, I remain somewhat intrigued, and the aforementioned new murder suspect looks who could finally match Delany. Unlike Sherlock though, there is still little reason to invest in the grizzled Delany’s story, making for yet more frustration. It’s questionable whether the episode’s cliffhanger was deserved: I believe it was - if only just about. An improvement on the first episode, even if I’m still not particularly fond of Delany.

Taboo continues Saturday night at 9.15 pm on BBC One