Nevers in the World presents a selection of artworks from the generous bequest of Sidney R who spent decades assembling a world-renowned collection of French ceramics These objects demonstrate how artistic innovation can flourish through cross-cultural exchange During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries France created extraordinary ceramic vessels using the faience technique faience describes a glaze for ceramics that includes tin craftspeople discovered that adding tin to ceramic glaze produced an opaque white surface suitable for colorful decoration As the method spread across Asia and Europe French aristocrat Henriette of Cleves married Italian politician Louis of Gonzaga The couple brought artisans from Italian maiolica centers to Nevers where they introduced a style of storytelling through images in addition to tin-glaze European demand for Chinese porcelain spurred workshops in Nevers to attempt imitations in faience Nevers artisans quickly developed a distinctive style that reached its zenith in popularity under King of France Louis XIV (1638-1715) when it featured in his elaborate dinner parties at Versailles these objects continue to tell stories about the people who made and used them Associate Curator of Collections with Alicia Bruce Friends of Art Curatorial Project Manager and Researcher Kemper Curator of Collections and Academic Affairs This exhibition is supported by the Sandra Cohen Bakalar ‘55 Fund the Judith Blough Wentz '57 Museum Programs Fund and Wellesley College Friends of Art at the Davis BOISE, ID – The Idaho Steelheads (@Steelheads), proud ECHL (@ECHL) affiliate of the Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) and Steelheads Head Coach & Director of Hockey Operations Everett Sheen announced today that the club has signed forward Mason Nevers to an ECHL contract.  just finished a five-year career at the University of Minnesota where he accumulated 66 points (27G 39A) in 171 games serving as team Captain this year and an alternate captain in 2023-24 MN native helped the Golden Gophers to a Big Ten Tournament Championship in 2021 and Regular Season Championships in 2022 and 2023 Across his five seasons Minnesota qualified the for the NCAA Tournament each year including two trips to the Frozen Four During the 2022-23 campaign Minnesota lost in the National Championship game 3-2 in overtime vs 180lb right-handed shooter served as an alternate captain for the USHL’s Des Moines Buccaneers in 2019-20 producing 40 points (19G He helped Edina High School to a Minnesota (Class AA) State Championship in 2018-19 where he served as Team Captain.  Idaho is at Allen tonight and tomorrow for puck drops at 6:10 p.m Sign up for our email newsletter to be the first to know about news and upcoming games The 24-year-old is on crutches and has a shattered foot after two men broke into his home in Dearborn Heights Saturday morning Ben was struck in the foot in the exchange of gunfire with the suspect “I know she went into shock immediately because it traveled up and it’s lodged somewhere in her chest,” said Nevers The two suspects got into the house through the kitchen window They then searched the house for valuables like studio equipment and jewelry before ending up at Ben’s bedroom door Surveillance video: Inside the Dearborn Heights home invasion and I know I hit him in the leg,” said Nevers Surveillance video: Shots fired in Dearborn Heights home invasion Nevers believes his large social media following from his days as a party promoter tempted the suspects to target him Attorney Jim Makowski specializes in firearm laws He says it is "Absolutely" a clear-cut self-defense shooting “The homeowner acted completely responsibly Dearborn Heights police have a suspect in custody: Phillip Price is facing 21 felony charges for the break-in including two counts of assault with intent to murder Police are actively searching for a second suspect Nevers set up a fundraiserto help his girlfriend cover medical expenses Gophers' captain played 171 NCAA games affectionately known as “Laxie” left this world peacefully on March 14 leaving behind many to mourn his kind heart and smile Preceding him in death were his parents the late Shulman and Betsy Elizabeth Nevers Laxie was one of 12 children and attended Clydesdale Primary School with his many siblings he fervently developed his skills as a master carpenter Ann in the 1950s for the city life of Kingston He met his future wife Jannette in Jamaica before they emigrated separately to Montreal They met once again there and married in October 1973 Laxie was known for being able to fix and build just about anything and others all around Boston and Cambridge MA He was known for being a caretaker and making jokes to bring out a smile You could often catch him mixing in a little French with his English Wilbert is survived by a host of family and friends to mourn him: his son Jamaica W.I.); in addition to numerous nieces Visitation will be held at Life Changing Church Contact Us to have your link and message added here We will contact suitable submissions with further details please provide your name and email address This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content That day—a day we now call "The Never Day"—a developmental pediatrician handed us a laundry list of all the things RJ would supposedly never do: Travel comfortably or be in public spaces without struggle and I wondered what sort of gloomy crystal ball this doctor was looking into—after all We rolled up our sleeves and vowed to challenge every "never" on that list RJ was expelled from a preschool that called him "unreachable." Airplane travel became a gauntlet of unkind passengers and flight crews with RJ often overwhelmed by sensory overload it felt like those "nevers" were turning into "forevers." and RJ's story is a testament to perseverance RJ has defied nearly every prediction on that list Two of those "nevers"—traveling on airplanes and meaningful employment—are now central to his life RJ has spent the last nine seasons as a clubhouse attendant for the Los Angeles Dodgers and a paycheck that has empowered him to self-advocate it has given him something he struggled to find as a child: Community RJ went from having almost no friends to being surrounded by an entire clubhouse of supportive "brothers." To celebrate the Dodgers' incredible championship win as well as a belated 60th birthday trip RJ and I took a mother-son getaway to two dream destinations: The Maldives and Dubai Our journey began with a long flight to the Maldives including an eight-hour layover in Istanbul a city that had been on both our bucket lists who once struggled so much navigating airports airports used to overwhelm RJ with sensory overload—from the chaotic sounds to the unpredictable pace of travel But through years of practice and determination RJ has transformed into my own personal travel agent He now knows the layouts of airports and seat maps of airplanes better than most seasoned travelers He can identify the best seats on every plane and which gates connect flights most efficiently After a short seaplane ride from Malé we arrived at the stunning Avani+ Fares Maldives Resort where turquoise waters and overwater bungalows greeted us an avid swimmer and lover of all things aquatic spent hours snorkeling in the warm cerulean waters earning the nickname "the fish whisperer" for the way colorful fish followed him and an endless parade of vibrant marine life I stepped out of my comfort zone by taking a ballet class offered at the resort with a talented visiting dancer named Karis Scarlette Despite my rusty skills (I haven't taken ballet since I was six years old!) Karis made me feel like a graceful swan for a brief moment Our first stop was Anantara The Palm Dubai Resort where we were treated to a spectacular welcome including a chocolate "film reel" of my Hallmark Channel movies The lagoon-style pool outside our villa glowed with a serene blue light each night and RJ and I shared unforgettable meals while dissecting every moment of the Dodgers' playoff run One of the trip's highlights was reconnecting with my dear friend Isti inspired by her own journey raising a child with special needs an inclusive school where children of all abilities learn together RJ and I had the honor of reading our children's book to a group of curious and surprisingly attentive four- and five-year-olds It was a profoundly moving experience to witness Isti's vision in action We wrapped up our Dubai adventure at Anantara World Islands Dubai Resort an extraordinary property offering jaw-dropping views of the city skyline Our two-story villa with a private pool felt like pure luxury we were both blissfully restored by tension-melting Island Lava Shell Massages at Anantara Spa The experience was rejuvenating and grounding a perfect way to soak in the tranquility of this one-of-a-kind resort This trip was more than a vacation—it was a celebration of how far RJ has come and a reminder of the limitless possibilities ahead From a "never" list that once loomed so large RJ has checked off milestone after milestone one thing is clear: The "nevers" that once defined our lives are now nothing but fuel for RJ's ever-expanding dreams I always say I wouldn't change RJ for the world but I will always try to change the world for RJ Do you have a unique experience or personal story to share? See our Reader Submissions Guide and then email the My Turn team at myturn@newsweek.com Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsletters in your inbox See all will launch a direct-to-consumer streaming service later this year encompassing what CEO Lachlan Murdoch described as a “holistic” blend of the media company’s live-sports political opinion and entertainment programming is to lure in “cord cutters” and “cord nevers.” Murdoch was light on specifics for the new platform, which was announced Tuesday during the company’s blowout fiscal second-quarter earnings report (press release and webcast available here) The company posted revenue of $5.08 billion which was up 20% year on year thanks to huge pre-election ratings and advertising spending on Fox News along with monetization of a resurgent World Series and the always big NFL regular season With all of Fox’s affiliate deals locked up for fiscal 2025 Murdoch was careful to message that the new DTC service would not cannibalize the media conglomerate’s pay TV business “We sell the traditional cable bundle as still having the most value for consumers and frankly the most value for the company,” Murdoch told equity analysts “we do want to reach consumers who are part of a large population that are now outside the traditional bundle." and we have no intention of turning a traditional distribution customer into a DTC customer our subscriber expectations will be modest and we are going to price the service accordingly.” He said the new streaming service will leverage only content within Fox’s existing rights portfolio and will not drive additional licensing cost for the company certainly relative to what others in the space,” Murdoch said Additional information about the new service will be arriving in the coming weeks Murdoch pointed to the scuttling of Venu Sports the joint streaming venture with Disney and Warner Bros Discovery that failed due to anti-trust issues as perhaps the lone “disappointment” amid an October-December period during which Fox was up in virtually every sector.  saw its fiscal Q2 revenue increase by 31% YoY with political ads spilling over to the FAST.  But it was right-wing political opinion platform Fox News that was once again the company’s biggest audience driver delivering 4.5 billion hours of consumed content in fiscal Q2 with overall ratings up over 50% depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) doubled YoY to $781 million Fox is just as bullish about the ongoing fiscal Q3 with the Fox Broadcasting Network sold out on commercial time for Sunday’s presentation of Super Bowl LIX Fox has been collecting $8 million per 30-second commercial spot for the premiere live-sports event Fox will also show Super Bowl LIX on Tubi.  ';case"arrow-right-regular":return'\x3c!-- Font Awesome Pro 6.1.0 by @fontawesome - https://fontawesome.com License - https://fontawesome.com/license (Commercial License) Copyright 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innocents in desperate need have no place left to turn they’re magically transported and find themselves under the protection of one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe But Scarlet Witch knows better than anyone that magic always has a price Comic Watch Review: Scarlet Witch #1: Don’t Griever for me, Argentina… Corin Howell Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Variant The Scarlet Witch is trapped in a realm where her survival depends on the strength of her will — and the benevolence of its overseer chooses to bet Lotkill’s survival on the aid of a sworn enemy… Wanda finds herself trapped in a realm of the Queen Of Nevers in Scarlet Witch #1 on shelves & digital platforms Wednesday Chad lives in upstate NY and has been a life long comic book reader and collector and website in this browser for the next time I comment Post comment Δdocument.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. The Scarlet Witch is trapped in a realm where her survival depends on the strength of her will - and the benevolence of its overseer chooses to bet Lotkill's survival on the aid of a sworn enemy… Wanda was eaten and killed by one of the Griever’s pet worms leaving Quicksilver and Darcy to pick up the pieces and save as many civilians in Lotkill as they can the Witches Underworld in the presence of the Queen of Nevers What will she come across on her dark journey Orlando continues his run on Wanda and her world and has Wanda going up against one of her most powerful opponents thus far with the Griever but Wanda finds an abstract conceptual being in the Queen of Nevers who we find out is the abstract being of eternal possibilities and that all of the universes Nexus beings It’s an interesting predicament that we find Wanda in Becoming the avatar of the Queen of Nevers changes Wanda’s status in Marvel’s hierarchy cementing her position as one of the most powerful beings in the universe It’s something that could be an interesting storyline to explore in other areas of the Marvel universe Another positive I gleaned from this issue was the inclusion of family in this issue but we also get Polaris in the game to assist her siblings One of my favorite parts of Orlando’s last volume of Scarlet Witch was the issue that had Polaris in it Seeing the two sisters from the House of M team up was a treat and seeing Pietro “run” to her (bad pun) for help was just great to read rich history these two characters have together and I’d love to see what Lorna could bring to that dynamic Hopefully we’ll see the three of them together on a much more regular basis and he continues to give us some great visuals to go along with this new volume I especially enjoyed the part that involved the Queen of Nevers She’s been around since Slott and Allred’s run on Silver Surfer With Wanda being her avatar means that we’ll keep seeing her throughout this volume of Scarlet Witch the being who will still survive at the end of all things We find out the Queen of Nevers happens to exemplify possibilities whereas the Griever is the ultimate embodiment of order so having these two opposite forces being a part of her world is very fascinating Especially with the revelation that Wanda is the avatar of the Queen of Nevers but currently live in the metro Detroit area Billy Nevers played Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson since the UK and Ireland tour began in November 2023 His London credits include Groundhog Day at the Old Vic Legally Blonde at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Jesus Christ Superstar at the Barbican and Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre He has appeared in the concerts I Could Use A Drink in Concert at the Garrick Theatre Roles We’ll Never Play at the Vaudeville Theatre and Apollo Theatre and An Intimate Evening with Kristin Chenoweth at the London Palladium On television he has appeared in NBC’s The Grinch Live Stay updated with the most recent stage-related news about Billy Nevers From latest appearances and projects to exclusive features The pair of Tony Award nominees performed a selection of numbers Get the best deals and latest updates on theatre and shows by signing up for WhatsOnStage newsletter today MINNEAPOLIS — Some folks believe that one of the best things about college is the friends that you have by your side through good times and bad For Minnesota Gophers forward Mason Nevers priority one when he returns to the rink for a fifth season is to find two new friends to have by his side Nevers announced that he will return to the Gophers for a fifth and final season of college hockey As a fixture at wing on a line alongside since-departed Jaxon Nelson and Bryce Brodzinski for the bulk of games over the previous two seasons Nevers will need to find two new linemates for the 2024-25 campaign Injured in a preseason game versus Bemidji State last season Nevers missed four games early on and took some time getting back up to speed once he returned to the lineup but he finished with three goals and a dozen assists in 35 games and he’s one of the guys you come across in our sport that is in it 100 percent for the right reasons,” Gophers assistant coach Ben Gordon said and he’s one of the most selfless guys in team play that you’ll ever come across.” While Nelson generally provided the size on their line and Brodzinski was the pure sniper Nevers was always considered the brains of the trio “It was a weird year for him last year with the injury early on but when he’s feeling great and is at 100 percent his hockey sense and his ability to see things happen is off the charts,” Gordon said Nevers posted a career-best 10 goals and 13 assists in 40 games as a junior while the Gophers made a run to the NCAA title game Nevers’ return means the Gophers are likely to open training camp in September with eight experienced forwards who are juniors or older Nevers is the team’s lone graduate student They expect to have the services of seniors Aaron Huglen and Rhett Pitlick They are also expected to have Matthew Wood who transferred to the U of M after leading UConn offensively last season Two more rising juniors — Garrett Pinoniemi and Charlie Strobel — entered the transfer portal and will play for Omaha and Colorado College Courtney “Undah-Privilege” Nevers said the sky is the limit in 2025 as he will film a new season of Arnold’s Caribbean Pizza release the Dream Chaser short film series Splitting his time between California and Jamaica Nevers has nabbed the formula for balancing a robust career He plays Melvin on Arnold’s Caribbean Pizza as filming of Season 3 is set to begin in early 2025 Produced by TV mavericks Bentley Kyle Evans — of Martin and The Jamie Foxx Show fame — and Trae Ireland the sitcom is centred on Jamaican businessman Arnold Brooks and the colourful characters who work and eat at his Caribbean restaurant This could contribute to my character being likable It’s a great feeling to connect with audiences while doing something you love,” he told the Jamaica Observer the show first aired and gained popularity on Flow in Jamaica and NBT (National Black Television) Arnold’s Caribbean Pizza is now streaming on Tubi which is a fresh take on The Odd Couple [and] is relatable to diverse audiences,” Nevers added The popular sitcom is not all that he has in store as he is partnering with Mix Frames Entertainment to produce the short film series Dream Chaser Dream Chaser has garnered new fans and lots of interest since its teasers dropped across social media recently “Dream Chaser is centred on a young ghetto youth working to change his life from one of poverty and violence He hopes to uplift himself by acquiring some money a loan to start a T-shirt printing business but opposition from the don and opposing gangs in the community steers him off course,” Nevers explained he is promoting what he describes as godly music through songs like HIStory and Question with the latter single and video creating a waves amongst listeners The scene of the accident on Tom Nevers Road The Air Station Cape Cod jayhawk helicopter landed at Nantucket Memorial Airport around 9 a.m 2024: Update 12:15 p.m.) An island attorney struck by an SUV on Tom Nevers Road in dense fog early Tuesday morning was airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston by a Coast Guard helicopter due to his injuries was rushed to Nantucket Cottage Hospital immediately after the accident The extent of his injuries were not immediately known who called police to report striking Cohen was identified as Brendan Lafferty of Tom Nevers Road A MedFlight helicopter was requested to transport Cohen to a mainland hospital but it could not fly because of foggy conditions Coast Guard Station Brant Point master chief Lance Wiser said because they will fly in virtually any conditions The Air Station Cape Cod Jayhawk helicopter landed at Nantucket Memorial Airport around 9 a.m and landed at the hospital just after 10:30 a.m. Police are actively investigating the accident Lafferty will be charged with several motor-vehicle violations He has yet to be scheduled for arraignment in Nantucket District Court Email notifications are only sent once a day Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device Account processing issue - the email address may already exist Have the latest local news delivered every morning so you don't miss out on updates Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email Invalid password or account does not exist Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission Last week I opined that the world of The Nevers was contracting in ways that made plotlines crisper and the general flow of information easier to follow I nearly felt that if a stranger asked me the question What is The Nevers about? I could give them a perspicuous if lengthy explanation We finally have an answer to the riddle of Mrs the reason why she’s so good at close combat and so bad at adhering to Victorian mores Her real name is Zephyr Alexis Naveen and she’s a stripe with the Planetary Defense Coalition some kind of supranational armed forces protecting galanthi in Earth’s apocalyptic future This squares with Amalia’s rudderlessness — she’s a wartime soldier marooned on the front without a mission How does Zephyr come to occupy the petite frame formerly belonging to a widowed baker we need to take it back to the beginning of The Nevers Part One finale parachuters are drifting toward war-torn Earth There’s ash in the air and fires burning and very little light by which to make out the entirely new cast I momentarily thought I’d pressed play on the wrong show The reason I knew in my heart it was the right show is that it didn’t make any goddamn sense The hints that Zephyr — whose name we don’t learn until much later because names are too sacred to even be uttered — is/was Amalia come fast There’s the familiar worrying of her fingers Soldiers from the PDC and enemy combatants from the Free Life Army have convened on this particular map dot because some scanner suggests the presence of galanthi There’s a lot of crosstalk about what to do and who to call but it’s basically impossible to recap given no one uses each other’s names We do hear about parallels to what’s happened in Victorian England There’s a medic (or “knitter”) who is a “spore” — a slur for someone who has been “empathically enhanced” by the kind of glowing dust that gave the touched their turns they find a cabinet of antiques — brass binoculars In a sign of how far this Earth is from the one we know a PDC soldier mistakes a vegetable garden for a galanthi A search of the facility turns up a door that’s not on the schematics and behind that door The objective of Free Life is to destroy the galanthi; their hatred is a mix of xenophobia and religiosity The PDC want to protect the galanthi — their last hope for a better world someone says the word “portal.” The galanthi wanted to build one Nevermind that the world would still be a hellhole There’s in-fighting and crossfire and someone somehow turns on the portal More galanthi aren’t coming; this galanthi is leaving The knitter is shot and dies before she can tell Zephyr her name A despondent Zephyr drinks some kind of poison She closes her eyes around the same time the portal gets firing and the galanthi hugs her in its blue glow But what if the reason for all those Victorian bric-a-brac is that the portal doesn’t go in or out at the exact moment the butcher’s widow plunged herself into the Thames Zephyr becomes Amalia in some sort of happenstance cosmic suicide pact (I think) this week’s episode is organized into chapters That one was called “Stripe”; the next is called “Molly.” Molly’s is a sob story who apparently doesn’t know her financiers from her canelés (Did a script supervisor not notice they subbed the pastries?) For unrelated reasons The man she loves hasn’t the money to marry her; the butcher she marries instead is an oaf the guy she loved is now wealthy and his wife is expecting Molly — we’ve seen this bit a few times now — jumps into the river with a lilting brogue and emerges with Zephyr’s wide-open American vowels Welcome to Chapter 3: The Madwoman in the Thames Zephyr thinks she’s in some kind of historical fantasy simulation I do not need to tell you how infuriating it is for a character to introduce the possibility that everything is a simulation this deep into the season Horatio becomes Molly’s doctor and then her boyfriend She explains that an alien rained superpowers on people and he takes the news on the chin because she’s hot Zephyr lays off the morphine and quits cursing Over the course of a pronunciation and etiquette montage befitting Eliza Doolittle A few other little fires of intrigue are extinguished in Chapter 3 Hague is the leader of the team responsible for Sarah’s descent into Maladie and that Amalia threw her to the wolves to save herself Bidlow plucks Amalia from the asylum once she gains a reputation for handling the touched patients She’s been complaining she lacks a mission; now Amalia and Horatio christen the orphanage before the first charge A title card tells us that Chapter 4 is called “True” and if such a lazy transition device is worthy of a splashy HBO production then certainly I can justify using it here We’re back in the more familiar Victorian past on the day of Maladie’s execution we watched Penance’s rescue attempt; this week as they try to reach the galanthi underground The Royal Army site that was meant to be deserted is but Penance’s super-drill works well enough that Amalia eventually falls down a half-dug hole in a manner that calls to mind the action-adventure film Congo starring Laura Linney opposite a gorilla that knows sign language the general tone of this episode’s special effects can best be described as very 1995 so Amalia yells at it like it’s a piece of broken tech — “PC Load Letter.” “I left Penance because you said come find me,” she pleas “It should have been someone else,” she says This is the problem with Amalia’s origin story which shores up the practical but never answers for the metaphysical Amalia is broken and pugnacious because she’s a time-hopping American Rambo called Zephyr but what happened to make Zephyr the way Amalia is All the hollering must eventually dislodge something because the galanthi starts to rumble and we get a helluva montage: Molly’s memories interlaced with Zephyr’s warm memories of learning and kinship mixed with those of fighting We see a flashback of some early moment between Penance and Amalia right after Amalia has told her new friend everything she knows about Earth’s bleak future thanks God for giving her “a life’s work.” “Do you think you were the only one who hitched a ride?” We see images of Massen and the Beggar King and Augie and Madladie and maybe It suggests that on top of the enmity these characters have developed in this world lies a layer of whatever they brought with them If Amalia is in the past to change the future some of these people must be here to stop her we don’t get an answer to the most relevant questions: Why Zephyr Why is the galanthi’s human form a teenage polyglot named Myrtle Amalia escapes the cave with the help of Elisabetta Cassini the lobotomized shopgirl who could make heavy objects defy gravity and apparently still can — a nice little reveal that Hague’s mining army might not be beyond saving we’ve watched an hour of episode six only to end up at the coda to episode five Amalia and the A-Team are patching themselves up at St Rom’s as Penny and the B-Sides roll in from their own botched escapades Rom’s gang everything she knows about the future She starts by telling Penance something more intimate It’s a testament to how colossally confusing The Nevers can be that the announcement a character is going to explain to me what I just watched qualifies as a cliffhanger I deserve to hear this explanation just as much as Primrose does.) Elsewhere on this site, my colleague called The Nevers an “unimpressive monument to a storyteller whose work has meant a lot to many people but who cannot now figure out how to rise to the moment.” To some extent But for those of us who see the promise in what Whedon’s started here the question isn’t whether that assessment is right but if it’s a terminal prognosis Laura Donnelly flat-out shines in this episode convincingly playing a shy 19th-century Irishwoman a measured compromise of the person she is and the body she inhabits Goslett has a more ambitious option than picking up where Whedon left off She gets to take a fresh run at the raw goods and rebuild Correction: An earlier version of this recap mistakenly referred to the “knitter” as a character named “Nitta,” because screeners don’t have subtitles By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us Password must be at least 8 characters and contain: you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York I haven’t watched all the episodes of The Nevers (2021) plus there’s been some interesting press about the show and the costumes While this is definitely a science fiction / fantasy series it’s set in a pretty realistic 1890s London I don’t see particularly abusive or gross themes in the season so far plus Whedon left the show after this season the two costume designers deserve a lot of credit for their work on this series and I don’t think it’s fair to throw that down the drain just because Whedon is an asshole I’m enjoying the series for the variety of characters each with complications and backstories of their own that get slowly revealed The characters have interesting relationships too Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) and Miss Penance Adair (Ann Skelly) together — they’re like close sisters and they’re all different and react to their gaining these strange new powers in their own ways Some parts of the plot are predictable but there’s enough that feels fresh so I tend to come back for another episode but I’m just not a binge-watcher anyway natural hues in some Jane Austen period flicks It’d be unfair to write off The Nevers as “steampunk” — goggles (and sunglasses) are only worn for appropriate jobs — because the costumes have more subtlety than that “It’s funny because I was approached to do it a while before [filming began] I suppose I wanted to create each of these very strong women in their own particular way so that they were identifiable very quickly and would play to their strengths because we get so much of the story just from looking at them.” The show has a specific timeline — a fantastical event happened in 1893 and the main action of the show happens in 1899 — but the costumes range all over the 1890s This actually makes good sense because real people in a real city aren’t all wearing clothes that reflect the fashions of one exact year The women’s clothing silhouettes range around the decade like this: I particularly love the huge sleeves and the silhouettes; in fact sometimes doing the research you can’t believe that these shapes were really worn because they were so extreme I think some of the men’s wear and most of the society figures — in particular Lavinia Bidlow who was one of my favorites to design for — are truer to period we could have more fun because their backgrounds were diverse and we often have to think about how we could disguise whatever their affliction was I say [the costumes on the series are] slightly heightened I think they make you feel secure in the fact that you are actually in this period and it’s not just a fantasy land.” Lavinia Bidlow is the wealthy benefactor of the “orphaned” women with magical talents Lavinia’s money shows in her elaborate costumes and because she’s the only woman who consistently wears hats (wtf did they run out of money for more millinery?) In an interview with Refinery 29 Michele Clapton commented on how she contrasts the wardrobes of friends Amalia and Penance: “I had the idea to darken Amalia’s color palette and play on the softer tones of Penance’s.” Her wardrobe definitely draws from 1890s styles Penance’s clothes do have a lighter overall tone than Amalia’s fitting her character’s softer personality Poldark‘s Eleanor Tomlinson shows up as Mary Brighton wearing this gorgeous embroidered blouse: seems to have a background that will be revealed in a subplot and I like that the colors and prints of her dresses hint at her South Asian heritage The closest to steampunk the costumes get is Rochelle Neil as Annie Carbey in this leather-accented outfit: This is a rare show with some slightly interesting (to me!) men’s costumes I kinda wish they’d share where they keep finding that green striped fabric or who’s hoarding it because I want to make that jacket ensemble from Poldark and having the exact same fabric would be pretty rad but I’ll finish Shadow and Bone first I’ll be adding HBO to my streaming Amazon account on the 20th But Bernadette Banner and Abby Cox have given the show thumbs up too I wasn’t actually planning on watching The Nevers … but now that I know James Norton is in it … well … That jauntily worn bowler slays me every time take a closer look at her dress and also Mrs.True’s Some of them appear to actually be riding habits with divided skirts Aww it’s so nice to see a well-tailored fat character (I haven’t seen the show so I can’t speak to the characterization and I especially love some of the performances (Ann Skelly in particular is new to me and just a delight) But I’m curious about the decision to portray “the Touched” as a group viewed with suspicion and phobia by Victorian society at large but the Victorians were so interested in supernatural phenomena like psychics I almost wonder whether a group of people suddenly granted inexplicable powers would actually be kind of lionized by thatsociety and whether that might be a fresher and more interesting “people with shocking new superpowers” story Keep the snark flowing by supporting us with a small one-time donation on Ko-fi This post contains major spoilers for the sixth episode of The Nevers I tune into my nice little HBO show about Victorian women with superpowers and suddenly I’m in the middle of a Terminator reboot One is that everything we’ve seen thus far about a group of London women who’ve been turned into superheroes by spores dropped from a luminous blue alien craft Another part takes place some time in the (hopefully fairly distant) future and nearly 5 billion people have already died The person we’ve known thus far as Amalia True is actually a traveler from somewhere in the future  identified as Stripe and played by the Australian actress Claudia Black (She also kind of looks like a jacked Julie White.) She didn’t come of her own free will and she isn’t quite sure why the Galanthi—the squid-like aliens who dropped the spores and hurtled her consciousness backward through time—sent her back at a time when the story seems to just be getting going (Philippa Goslett has taken over as showrunner although there is no date yet set for the series’ return.) So an episode that was already supposed to throw viewers for a loop is now leaving them hanging in midair Indeed—I am very confused about where we’ve left off which our Stripe—presumably a designation of her mid-level military rank although we eventually found out her full name is Zephyr Alexis Navine—seems to be a part of she’s “possuming,” playing dead thanks to the cooling pods she’s swallowed to eliminate traces of her body heat (Those are the glowing blue orbs she pukes up in the first few minutes.) We’re presumably still in London—the high shots of bombed-out buildings seem to deliberately evoke the Blitz—but she’s just come from Edinburgh after a battle in which she was the sole survivor it’s hard to know how much of this is true—stay tuned folks.) She meets up with a regiment of PDC troops who are attempting to secure a lab where there may be one of the few surviving Galanthi because Freelife has nuked most of them into oblivion We don’t really know, except that the main representative of their army we see talks with a Southern accent and that Joss Whedon has a bit of a thing for revisiting the Civil War in a sci-fi context Their vision of freedom seems to involve a xenophobic hostility to the Galanthi who seem to be sort of like space angels: creatures who can create portals in both space and time and have come to Earth to help save it from They’re ruthless enough to torture and kill the lab’s scientists simply because they’ve psychically bonded with the Galanthi and they know the humans’ death will cause it pain They’re bad and hostile and they want to kill the aliens they’re called the Planetary Defense Coalition so presumably their goal is to defend the planet New Age-y faith in the Galanthi—they’d probably say they’re “not religious but spiritual”—and they’ve got a thing about proper names which they consider so sacred that Stripe didn’t even share hers with the people she was married to the future is poly.) They seem like a pretty loose-knit coalition the PDC soldier she forms the closest bond with keep having to explain things to each other is also a “spore,” the future’s term for people who’ve been gifted by the Galanthi with empathic powers that are meant to help them understand the alien race’s language and technology This is pretty different from what the Galanthi spores did in London in 1896 for reasons neither Stripe nor anyone else understands yet If the Galanthi have come to help save humanity they don’t seem to be doing a great job of it At least not yet—this isn’t meant to be a one-season show and we learn that the one remaining has created a portal for the purposes of leaving Earth which kind of makes it seem like they’ve given up the fight having lost faith in the creatures she’s devoted her life to protecting her spirit seems to be lifted out of her body by the same kind of ghostly blue tentacles we saw the Galanthi in the lab create is a shape in the sky made out of that same light which looks at least a little bit like the tail of the Galanthi ship we saw all the way back in the first episode What if the Galanthi isn’t going back for reinforcements taking Stripe’s consciousness along with it so: How does this “Stripe” person end up inside Amalia True’s body from what we see in the episode’s second section was a London shopgirl that lived a pretty miserable life married to a brutal man she didn’t love and left to care for his invalid mother after her death It’s she who we saw jumping into the Thames in the show’s first episode at the end of her rope and attempting to end her own life talking in an American accent and fighting with the skills that 28 years of hardened combat has given her Molly takes Eliza Doolittle-style elocution lessons so she can convince the nice people at the asylum that she’s not a nut who believes she’s been possessed by the spirit of an American soldier from the future Does everyone in the world of The Nevers already know this The purpose of “True” is less to explain things than to sow seeds and drop hints and one of the big ones has to do with the presence in the future of virtual-reality technology Stripe finds a cache of Victorian paraphernalia and a stack of “sim cards,” which presumably allow the user to enter lifelike scenarios (Knitter’s quip about how the sims are mostly used for “fuck tech” could be a sly rationalization for why The Nevers seems so keen on showing topless women.) It’s certainly a strange coincidence—read not a coincidence at all—that Stripe has been sent back to the same time period she spent three terms studying in school but it does seem noteworthy that with its dystopian flash-forwards and body-changing consciousnesses the Whedon show The Nevers most closely resembles now is Dollhouse (Whedon even re-enlisted Olivia Williams.) On that show characters we’d known for several episodes or even more than a season were suddenly revealed to be someone else; the story kept turning itself inside-out and expanding into places you never thought it would go It seems as if he had something similar in mind for The Nevers a show that let the audience believe it was one thing only to pull the rug out from under them Continuing the story is now someone else’s job but after five episodes of so-so steampunk retread it finally seems like The Nevers has somewhere to go and design complicated VFX concepts for the 4500+ VFX shots across all episodes of the series and the way he brought this visually stunning I started digitizing camcorder footage into Adobe Premiere v4.2 and compositing in other crazy elements I’ve shot in Adobe After Effects v3 There was something amazing about the ability to mix together as many layers of video I wanted masking and manipulating the images until I felt they were right All of a sudden I was inventing new visuals to communicate my own stories What was the inspiration behind your VFX work on the film we were inspired by the question: What would superpowers look like in the 19th century What would people in 1896 London perceive as powerful We felt they wouldn’t need to be impressed by super fantastical sci fi imagery so prevalent and popular today But rather they would be affected by simple and familiar things to them a woman wielding something familiar like fire would be emotionally affected more than a woman shooting laser beams What Adobe tools did you use on this project and why did you originally choose them at any given moment I may be asked to jump on my MacBook and do any number of things in After Effects such as compositing a shot that has been filmed to get to an editor designing a new VFX concept to show a director or even compositing a background into a green screen we are shooting at that very moment to give the DoP a feel for how his lighting will integrate with a virtual background Myrtle Haplisch played by Viola Prettejohn Can you talk about the collaborative process with the director and/or editor and the process of creating your work from start to finish Once we read a script for a scene full of VFX I begin this long journey tied at the hip with the director and then reverse engineer together how we think we can achieve it We devise a plan of how we intend to film the scene in a way that supports the story the VFX will be asked to tell This could mean planning a bright orange light to shine on to an actress’s face to give us the sense that a fireball is just inches from her Then when we add the digital fireball in VFX the actor’s face will already correctly be lit by the added fireball Director Andrew Bernstein talking to Rochelle Neil Describe your favorite piece or component of the project How did it come together and how did you achieve it I think that would have to be our Emmy nominated “Shockdog” scene It is truly the culmination of our team’s passion our hero Amalia True must wrestle and fight off a half-dog We worked very closely with our fantastic stunt team and special effects team to film such convincing performances allowing the VFX team to truly run with it and knocking it out of the ballpark with an amazing photoreal creature seamlessly interwoven with our star actress What were some specific challenges you faced Often our greatest challenge in VFX is time especially in TV series production is that there’s no time to explore every possible option and to test every method Our minds have been developed over thousands of years But our guts (human instincts) over millions of years or looking through a viewfinder and snapping a photo relies on letting go of every micro thought and correction that will throw you off So just do what your gut tells you feels right If I’ve found out I’ve made a wrong choice previously a show with 4500 VFX shots will offers you plenty of more choices ahead to make right choices If you could share one tip or “hack” about any or multiple Adobe tools you used you can drop markers by hitting the * key on the number pad while you are playing back a ram preview This is incredibly helpful when working with audio dropping down markers at every sound cue you’re trying to line up to There are a few major directors out there that have always embraced VFX to tell stories they wouldn’t have been able to tell without it They took incredible risks trying new tricks to fool the eye with stop motion and of course computer graphics from the moment it became available still surprising our eyes with something we haven’t seen before What’s the toughest thing you’ve had to face in your career and how did you overcome it What advice do you have for people aspiring to get into the VFX space The toughest thing I’ve faced is someone having preconceptions of what my abilities are whether that’s because I might seem young in age or assuming I don’t have the experience necessary But the great thing about VFX is that your work speaks for yourself If you show your work to be creatively and technically fantastic people will no longer care about how old you are or where you went to school What’s your favorite thing about your workspace and why VFX Supervisor Johnny Han discussing a VFX shot with DP Anette Haellmigk Being part of a filming crew on location as we shoot our visual effects scenes is my favorite place to be but there’s nothing quite as exhilarating as seeing hundreds of artists all working together for a single goal https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2023/06/19/filmmakers-jason-pollard-alma-herrera-pazmino-edit-tribecas-all-up-biz-with-adobe-premiere-pro https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2023/06/15/tribeca-film-rule-two-walls-cut-using-adobe-premiere-pro-frameio https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2023/06/12/editor-david-tregoning-uses-premiere-pro-frameio-edit-tribeca-film-waitress-musical-live-on-broadway Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application Enter your phone number above to have directions sent via text This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. the new HBO drama features a sprawling cast which floods the viewer with a deluge of character bios and fanciful names (“Primrose Chattoway” and “Augie Bidlow” are a representative pair.) On a more meta plane the show is a noisy collision of genres—part superhero and director Joss Whedon and the recent reports of his on-set abuse; those reports don’t appear in The Nevers itself but inevitably color the experience of watching it a trait that was arguably key to its appeal Its central mystery and inciting incident is the sudden-onset phenomenon known as the Touched Three years prior to the events of the show a significant number of Londoners—most of them women—instantly manifested seemingly magical powers and some are more useful or immediately apparent than others (Predicting the future is a practical skill; speaking in random languages no one around you can understand not so much.) The Touched unsurprisingly become the object of widespread fascination and fear The protagonists of The Nevers are residents of an orphanage that’s become a kind of safe haven from this scrutiny overseen by Lavinia Bidlow (Olivia Williams) to restate this paragraph in fewer words: Victorian Lady X-Men There are a few plot twists that arise in the four episodes of The Nevers that were shared with critics before this past weekend’s premiere the show proceeds exactly as you would expect it to based on that brief logline The Touched become a metaphor for marginalized groups that (It’s easy for the filmmakers to comment on fear of women’s empowerment when your heroes are actual women with powers.) Conservative politician Lord Massen (Pip Torrens)—who also hates labor unions and the word “employee,” which to him represents a creeping Gallic influence on British culture—whips up public resentment against the Touched; rich playboy Hugo Swann (James Norton) just wants to exploit them for profit ideally as employees at his up-and-coming sex club Like all stories that use superpowers as a stand-in for identity including both X-Men and True Blood before it The Nevers’ analogy is as shaky as it is simplistic We meet many factions in the world of The Nevers—perhaps too many given how unfocused the show starts to feel as the subplots pile up This isn’t the Touched versus the world; it’s the Touched who live at the orphanage versus renegade Touched versus a mysterious group targeting the Touched versus the political power structure with a few outliers and observers supplying even more loose threads as the closed-off and fiercely protective Amalia True; and Ann Skelly as the dreamy Irish inventor Penance Adair Penance and Amalia are a bit like the older sisters of the orphanage adults who protect their young charges while handling business of their own Each is an archetype: Amalia the ass-kicking loner But their platonic chemistry lends a certain vitality to otherwise stale tropes Skelly and Donnelly also headline some of the show’s best scenes: the action sequences which set aside overcomplicated story arcs in favor of more accessible pleasures Penance’s “turn” is a bit of a stretch—she can apparently intuit electricity which makes her good at gadgetry—but it allows her to build a getaway car that ejects from a moving carriage Amalia encounters a kind of super-soldier who can walk on water enabling a creative form of combat that’s half-submerged It’s an improvement on the likes of WandaVision whose final episode turned a showdown between two sorceresses into yet another trade-off of brightly colored CGI beams It’s an auteur-branded concept that’s suddenly missing its auteur As it stands, it’s easy to imagine the distracted viewer reaching for their phones and turning to Instagram, which is the last thing The Nevers should want. Nothing breaks a fantasy faster than letting unpleasant realities intrude. An earlier version of this piece stated that the showrunner was switched partway through production; the showrunner was switched in postproduction. ArchiveWe’ve been around since Brady was a QB It’s the penultimate episode of part one of season one of The Nevers Part two of season one of The Nevers has yet to start filming and won’t be helmed by Joss Whedon when it does the series is not exactly pick-up-and-play material: The world is appealingly elaborate but its characters are messy and the plot is octopine the British screenwriter and first-time showrunner tapped to replace Whedon can excavate what’s working (Amalia and Penance’s repartee Hugo Swann’s cocksure smarm) from what isn’t (a longer list) But after watching “Hanged,” a much tidier episode than we’ve come to expect It’s feeling less like we’re nearing some arbitrary halfway point and more like the end of a lengthy prologue the glowing blue orb that’s lodged underground and maybe has something inky swimming inside it finally Or some word that sounds like “galanthee.” Gullanthy What I would give for a nice chalkboard session in which Mrs and then explains her step-by-step plan to dig it up all we glean from her morning standup with Penance is that the best access point is under the Royal Military Army base Rom’s gang needs a big drill and a bigger diversion Maladie is convicted on 15 counts of murder and sentenced with public execution the first since the practice was banned in the 1860s The hanging incites dissension amongst Lord Massen’s cabal and now the orphanage is twice as full as it was before they sullied their hands Her Majesty’s Government introduced the Certification Act (all touched have to register with the local constable) and the Blue Badge Act (all touched have to wear ribbons announcing themselves); the undocumented forfeit their legal rights But it’s not enough for Lord Massen to see the touched brought to heel Maladie’s public hanging will be “a bloodletting,” Massen says desperately invoking a procedure already in the process of being discredited There’s just one problem with using Penance’s supercharged rock drill while the carnival of Maladie’s untimely end has them all looking the other way: Penance wants to stop the execution Amalia objects to the side-mission for some solidly pragmatic reasons which promises to explain the presence of the touched in London But she’s being hanged because she’s touched the Scooby Gang can’t be in two places at once (though that would be a sick turn) Amalia and Penance stand on opposite sides of the courtyard Cousens because that’s apparently back on again the sex scenes between them are disappointing It’s all … punctuated … heavy breathing … and talking … between kisses — just do it right and catch me up on the plot over a post-coital cig The Amalia/Penance face-off isn’t the emotional crescendo it wants to be because no one’s drawing real sides here even if some of the girls go to the movies when she told everyone they were going to the mall that day But it is a rewarding glimpse into what makes Amalia’s first lieutenant tick Penance laments the violence of her inventions But when hateful purists string up rows of nooses outside the orphanage Penance goes back to the lab committed to the fight for good Only a person with such scruples should have access to her powerful turn We make inroads to understanding the philanthropist Lavinia Bidlow She wanted to reverse-engineer a cure for the touched; now the two reminisce about ice skating with Hugo Swann as children which means Lavinia didn’t always get around by wheelchair Lavinia finally shows some sisterly affection here but I’m starting to like Lavinia for more than her high-lace collars She’s the one female regular who isn’t touched which makes me extra curious to learn how the touched were chosen popular media has played a role in how The Nevers tells its story We first learn of Maladie from a newsie’s holler in episode one the orphans read aloud the pro-touched newspaper column of Effie Boyle Boyle’s been low-key hanging around Frank Mundi’s office since last episode; this week she overhears yet another clash between Frank and Hugo Swann whose Ferryman’s Club — another form of exploitation as entertainment — is facing pushback as the tide turns against the touched Every episode conspires to throw Hugo and Frank into conflict and nothing ever comes of it but what exactly is the scope of their previous relationship and why is it relevant who now works special events security as well as homicide investigations decides to limit how many people can watch the execution parsing a difference between “public” and “packed.” He tells some minion to lock the doors at 400 spectators Anytime a character ostentatiously locks a door or does the opposite it’s safe to assume they’ve made the wrong choice The child laborers in the Beggar King’s sweatshop have been making Maladie Barbies that come complete with their own gallows Real life Maladie is trotted out to her noose to boos and taunts but I’m guessing it has something to do with whatever Amalia’s clique is doing up at the Royal Army site They start to put their elaborate rescue in action “She wanted people to see,” Mundi observes a few moments before it dawns on him what a bad idea those locked doors were the Colonel — Maladie’s henchman who could make you believe his lies — arranged some retaliation He electrocutes anyone gripping the gate at the front row of the execution and the current ripples through the throng and sometimes I’d really like to know what the bodycount is on this show Harriet is injured in the stampede that follows and she’d surely have been trampled to death if Effie Boyle didn’t stop to save her In the streets just beyond the hanging grounds just enough fabricated mayhem to convince Londoners that Massen’s extraordinary measures are necessary Before you can process the bedlam that just broke out I don’t know how much it’s reasonable to ask a person to remember week to week but there was a Maladie devotee who confessed to hacking off her toe in devotion It seems now she’s made a darker contribution But if that’s not Maladie on the other end of the noose Mundi pieces it together like Chazz Palminteri in The Usual Suspects by looking around his office walls a little too late and Boyle is the girl who turned up dead in the underground tunnels all the way back in the series premiere How is it possible she could predict the chain of events that would fill the space between the episodes Maybe she killed Effie for some other unknown revenge and saw opportunity later Mal isn’t dead and the only person who knows it is the one getting credit for her capture we’ll find out what happened to Bonfire Annie’s leg By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. 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Please try again later. by Tasha Robinson Link Image: HBOEntertainmentBehind the scenes on The Nevers’ stunning lake fight sequence“All the actors are completely real the whole time.” LinkTasha Robinson is Polygon’s entertainment editor HBO’s Victorian adventure series The Nevers fully comes into its own in episode 3 “Ignition,” during a terrific fight sequence that starts out of nowhere Series protagonist Amalia True is one of “the Touched,” people who gained unearthly powers from a supernatural event so in “Ignition,” directed by David Semel and written by Kevin Lau she’s suddenly waylaid during a carriage ride A hulking adversary named Odium comes after her — and as he calmly walks out onto the surface of the water to reach her Amalia (played by Laura Donnelly) can’t surface to fight Odium (Martyn Ford) without him stomping her face or slashing at her with a heavy chain and hook And she can’t stay underwater for long without drowning The battle that follows is fast and frenzied and frequently captured in shots where Donnelly is swimming under the water while Ford appears to stand on the surface above her It’s the kind of sequence that prompts “How did they do that?” questions So Polygon went to Nevers VFX supervisor Johnny Han to ask The most surprising thing Han tells Polygon is that the sequence doesn’t use digital actor replacement at all and very few of the shots use stunt doubles digital trickery to combine the above-water action with the underwater action or digital replacements for the performers “All the actors — and we’re really proud of this — are completely real the whole time,” Han says “We kept the option of digital doubles in our back pocket if it didn’t end up looking so great I cannot tell you how hard she worked through that and never blinked an eye at what she was put through save for two or three shots that were on wires “It was physically really challenging,” Donnelly tells Polygon I’d never done any kind of diving or anything so I had to spend two days training just to learn So I was in a wetsuit in the underwater stage at Pinewood Studios and I learned how to go five meters under in the breather and the goggles and everything they expect you to take the breather and the goggles off and you just have to swim 25 feet across the tank That was probably the single most intimidating thing I’ve ever had to do for work.” so it was impossible to do it all outdoors: “It wasn’t just about not putting actors into freezing water we may not be able to put anyone in the water.’” But the crew did get the opening and closing shots of the fight on location and it’ll help you believe the sequence.” For that opening shot Ford walked out onto a hidden platform under the surface of the actual lake and the water surface was digitally replaced ‘Why don’t we just do the full sequence with a hidden platform?’” Han says and he walks out to the shore as if he’s walking on water and make it true to Odium’s character?” He and his team wanted the water’s response to Odium to be distinctive and to strongly suggest the supernatural effect of his powers I had this idea that the water should behave almost like he’s got a special magnetic field around him or a field that changes the behavior of water,” Han says They used real water physics to inspire the movement of bubbles and eddies in the water but also experimented with memory-foam mattresses and trampolines to inspire the visual effect of the water recoiling from Odium’s presence there was a trampoline park “literally across the street from our studios,” where he and his team could go for visual inspiration the water would really feel like it’s responding to him While Ford was on location for that opening shot Donnelly was digitally added after the fact — all her action for the sequence was shot in that tank where she was trained A special camera that could be positioned on the water’s surface was used to capture the shots where Amalia is underwater ducking Odium’s swinging chain or interacting with him from below That let the effects crew get a split-screen effect for the two actors without digitally compositing them into the same shot by simultaneously capturing the action above and below the surface “We were able to use a special underwater housing for the camera that was specially balanced weight-wise,” Han says and you can move a camera and a crane really easily So we had a special housing that let the camera easily go above and below water so it didn’t create a big splash or an air-bubble every time we went underwater.” “We’re really proud of these shots,” Han says we all feel that sequence really works because we didn’t do too much CG to replace the water and add the lake with the green screen Every shot feels like a cameraman was actually doing it because the cameraman really did operate it.” For some of the shots looking up from underwater an overhead white screen was used instead of a green screen “With the way water distorts and refracts the image behind it it would be very tricky to extract the green Little things like that help — any freebie we get on set we’ll take every opportunity … So we had a system where we could interchange it between white and green pretty much like a stage curtain we could just pull back and forth.” Han says one of the biggest challenges in planning the sequence with stunt coordinator Rowley Irlam and special effects supervisor Mike Dawson was in designing the sequence to surprise viewers while teaching them more about the abilities of the Touched “How do you make it something that tells the story of their powers and isn’t just a generic fight sequence?” Han says the answer was in having Amalia use Odium’s power against him by using his inability to break the water’s surface against him and strangling him from below the surface with his own chain because we wanted him to actually be leaning into the water We didn’t want him to look like he had a flat back we wanted him to really feel like he was dipping into the water Han says most of the digital tinkering with that sequence was in replacing the green screen with the location and digitally creating a new surface for the water “The water’s reaction toward him struggling that has all been replaced to be more active to make it look like he’s really struggling the water’s really lapping and splashing against him.” Donnelly says that in spite of the physical demands of the sequence “I used to be a gymnast when I was younger so I’m quite familiar with throwing myself up into the air and hopefully not landing on my head,” she says Martyn Ford is not only the biggest man on the planet We had a lot of fun as I tried to climb up him dripping wet and in Victorian garb.” Han feels the sequence works because so little of it is digital that the reality of it plays for the audience “Imagine what the sequence would have looked like if we did do it all in CG,” he says “Often what happens is that you get really crazy camera moves that feel supernatural The interesting thing about visual effects is you sometimes can go in too many different directions The unlimited canvas is often your downfall because there’s sort of an arrogant way of thinking that says ‘We can dream up something better than reality.’ But when when you have something to anchor it with For more behind-the-scenes footage of the fight, watch HBO’s featurette on the episode. The best of Polygon in your inbox, every Friday. Joss Whedon walked away from this romp about women given superpowers by a spaceship serial killers – and silly plot threads flapping in the breeze verbal and misogynistic abuse and toxicity on his sets (first from Justice League’s Ray Fisher and Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Charisma Carpenter He departed the production after helming the first six of 10 episodes citing personal reasons arising from the pandemic and was replaced as showrunner by Philippa Goslett His name has been conspicuous by its absence on the publicity material for the show but he is on the credits as not just the creator but the director of three episodes three years before the story really gets going an alien ship swept over London – possibly England depending on the budget – scattering points of light that landed on some people But there are a lot of subplots that need anchoring and you don’t leave a talent like Williams with nothing to do but smile at fundraising soirees for long but are not limited to: a police detective and former boxing legend Frank Mundi (Ben Chaplin) in pursuit of a serial-killer Touched called Maladie (Amy Manson playing mad in a steampunk-fantasy milieu with no more than the necessary amount of ham); a gang of burlap-masked kidnappers roaming the streets; a demented scientist experimenting on Touched bodies and brains; an underground sex club run by debauched aristocrat Hugo Swan (James Norton slightly cringemaking but I’m glad he’s having fun) with blackmail material on everyone an ordinary crime gang headed by the Beggar King (Nick Frost) who may be trading information about the Touched while also selling information about anti-Touched entities to Amalia who either knows or is paranoically convinced that the Touched are the avatars of a malevolent anti-imperial force who ingeniously “came at us through our women” He can often be found sitting round a table with the patriarchy discussing how the prime minister should be made to deal with these newly powerful creatures whatever reputation damage accrues to their creator) cannot follow through on his metaphors A marginalised group – Victorian women – are becoming powerful When Penance invents an amplifier for a Touched we are invited to think about how a stigmatised group rallies the power of unity and (mirrored more prosaically by men labouring for Massen) unionisation – but we are not taken further down the road Mess can be fun and, viewed as a steampunky romp, The Nevers is that. Long stretches could be Enola Holmes for grownups or Penny Dreadful for children But it could – tightened and focused – be so much more Can yet another woman clear up yet another man’s mess?