How a lot you get pleasure from The Essex Serpent, an Apple TV Plus adaptation of Sarah Perry’s 2016 novel, would possibly rely on how a lot you get pleasure from seeing Tom Hiddleston brooding in a misty area whereas sporting cozy wool sweaters. For lots of people, that may most likely be sufficient of a hook. (It was for me.) But fortunately, the six-episode collection gives much more than nice hair blowing within the wind — it’s a tense and heartfelt exploration of grief and perception and the way a lot these two issues can mess with you. The nice sweaters are only a bonus.

The present primarily follows two characters. One is Cora Seaborne (Claire Danes), a current widow and a budding pure historical past scholar who has fairly the fixation with sea serpents. She spends her spare time researching them through previous books, maps, and newspaper clippings. When rumors pop up {that a} serpent has been terrorizing a small fishing village in Essex, she — alongside along with her younger son (Caspar Griffiths) and buddy / housekeeper (Hayley Squires) — boards a practice from London to research.

What she finds when she arrives isn’t a serpent — a minimum of not initially, no spoilers there — however slightly a city steadily going mad with worry. A lacking baby has everybody on edge, blaming the legendary creature, which, many imagine, is attacking essentially the most sinful of the bunch. As dangerous issues proceed to occur to just about everybody, the tragedies are inevitably blamed on the beast. One of the primary individuals Cora meets on the town is Will Ransome (Hiddleston), a neighborhood pastor and one of many few individuals who doesn’t suppose the serpent is a nasty omen from God.

Initially, The Essex Serpent leans fairly closely on some well-worn tropes. When Cora and Will first meet, they don’t know who one another is, and though she helps him rescue a goat from sure doom, he’s nonetheless an enormous jerk. Later, after they’re correctly launched so he may also help along with her analysis, it’s the basic rom-com second the place she has the shock realization that “Oh, that’s the person who was so rude to me earlier.” It’s not essentially the most unique technique to have two characters meet, however a minimum of the present rapidly strikes previous it. It helps that Danes and Hiddleston have an antagonistic chemistry that’s lots of enjoyable to observe play out, even with the acquainted setup.

The different, rather more fascinating topic the present leans on is the religion vs. science debate. Cora’s need to discover a logical clarification for the serpent — she spends lots of time placing on good outfits to go digging for fossils — is available in direct battle with most individuals on the town, who develop into more and more satisfied that it’s the work of a vengeful deity. What makes the dynamic significantly fascinating in The Essex Serpent is Will, who’s caught within the center. He’s a person of religion who can also’t settle for the supernatural explanations for all the pieces affecting the city, leaving him questioning fairly a bit about his beliefs and the way a lot he may also help the neighborhood he serves.

To add much more drama into the proceedings, the present finally ends up being rather more about interpersonal relationships than existential ones (although the serpent and faith nonetheless stay key components all through). The Essex Serpent places lots of very lovely individuals in a really grim location after which allows you to watch them strive actually onerous to not be overtly attractive for one another. Cora is lastly experiencing one thing near freedom now that her abusive marriage is over, and he or she finally ends up caught between Will (who is just not solely a pastor but in addition married with two children) and Luke (Frank Dillane), a captivating younger physician who additionally occurs to be a pioneering pressure behind the at-the-time nascent area of open-heart surgical procedure.

Image: Apple

Much of the present hinges on watching the three of them navigate this awkward dynamic whereas being too British and well mannered to simply come out and say how they really feel. This is balanced with all the aforementioned struggles like discovering a legendary sea serpent or perfecting a radical form of surgical procedure. It’s a gradual burn of a present, which doesn’t reveal its true intentions till a number of episodes in. But as soon as it finds its footing, The Essex Serpent turns into a drama that treats its topics with a refreshing form of honesty that makes all of them the extra fascinating. Falling out and in of affection is all the time messy, however particularly when the world round you can also be a whole mess. The Essex Serpent captures that completely. And at six episodes lengthy, it does so with out overstaying its welcome.

Really, it’s a present concerning the lovely chaos that comes from battle, whether or not that’s between science and religion, love and hate, or placing a bunch of fairly individuals in a grim and miserable little city. In that manner, the comfy sweater is a metaphor for The Essex Serpent as a complete: its drab and well-worn exterior hides one thing rather more intriguing beneath.

The Essex Serpent begins streaming on Apple TV Plus on May thirteenth.