Period dramas span a wide range of shows, including everything from romances to war stories. This variety gives fans almost too many options to watch, and though several have become well known, others inevitably fly under the radar. One such example is Apple TV‘s The Essex Serpent. The 2022 miniseries is an unpredictable entry in the genre, but even four years out from its release, it’s one that period drama fans shouldn’t miss.
Adapted from Sarah Perry‘s novel of the same name, the Apple TV miniseries stars Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston, whose performances set the show apart. Beyond its recognizable leading duo, the series distinguishes itself with a slowly building tension as the story unfolds and shifts, making it impossible to stop watching. Consisting of just six episodes, The Essex Serpent is an easy binge for genre fans that will not disappoint.
What Is ‘The Essex Serpent’ About?
The Essex Serpent is a Victorian-era gothic romance centered around Cora Seaborne (Danes), a newly widowed woman and a paleontology enthusiast. Rather than mourning the death of her abusive husband, Cora uses her newfound freedom to indulge her scientific interests by investigating reports of the Essex Serpent, a mythical creature said to be preying on the village of Aldwinter. Packing up her son, Frankie (Michael Jibson), and her companion, Martha (Hayley Squires), Cora travels to Aldwinter to see what she can uncover.
Once in Aldwinter, Cora learns that the residents fully believe the creature is responsible for local tragedies — except for the village’s skeptical vicar, Will (Hiddleston), who forges an intellectual bond with Cora. The possibility of anything more is risky, considering Will is already married to Stella (Clémence Poésy), yet the love triangle that forms between them holds its own surprises. As locals disappear and disaster mounts, the villagers grow suspicious of Cora despite her attempts to help. Rather than the creature story it initially seems to be, The Essex Serpent focuses on deeper themes to create a character-driven narrative with slowly building tension.
‘The Essex Serpent’ Thrives Because of Its Characters
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Image via Apple TVThe Essex Serpent‘s main narrative obstacle isn’t the potential existence of the titular creature itself, but the dangerous hysteria in Aldwinter as well as the complicated romance between Cora and Will, both of which take time to build. Ultimately, the characters are the story’s greatest strength, with the series relying on their complex emotional journeys to carry the show. Thanks to the talented cast, especially standouts Danes and Hiddleston, the miniseries explores layered people that make The Essex Serpent a rewarding watch.
Four love stories, four completely different ideas of what it means to
be somebody’s person. This is the one that matches how you actually fall, and what it would ask of
you.
You do not fall for strangers. You fall for the person you have
already been talking to for years, which is the slowest and by some distance the most
durable way anybody has found to do this.
- When Harry Met Sally made the case that the best romance is an argument you enjoy,
conducted over a decade, by two people refusing to admit what is happening. - You want to be known rather than swept away. Somebody who remembers your worst story is
doing better work than anybody arriving with flowers. - The film is unusually honest about timing. These two are wrong for each other repeatedly
until suddenly they are not, and neither of them engineered it. - You would still be talking about everything at eighty. That is the entire promise.
You want a partner, not an audience. Somebody who wants their own
life as badly as you want yours, and who would never ask you to be smaller to make the
relationship easier.
- This is the rare romance where both people have a real career and the film takes both of
them equally seriously. - You would rather be pushed than protected. The right person for you is also a bit of a
rival, and that never entirely goes away. - It understands the actual problem in ambitious relationships. Not whether you love each
other, but whose turn it is this year. - You would still be competing at forty. That is how you would know it was working.
The intensity was never the problem. The secrecy is. You are
drawn to a love that lives entirely in private, and to the particular ache of wanting
somebody you are not supposed to want.
- Heated Rivalry runs on the oldest engine in romance: two people on opposite sides,
meeting in secret, getting far more attached than either of them planned. - You keep your private life genuinely private, and something in you finds hidden things
more real than public ones. - The tension is not only between the two of them. It is between what they have and what
it would cost either one to say it out loud. - Years of this, and the whole story is really about whether either of them will finally
stop hiding.
You do not do this cautiously. When it happens for you it is
immediate and total and it rearranges everything, and you would not accept a smaller version
of it.
- Titanic gave us the biggest romance in film history and then made it last about five
days, which is precisely the point of it. - You measure love by intensity rather than duration. A few days of the real thing beats
decades of something merely comfortable. - The film is not only about the romance. It is about a woman who went on to live an
enormous life afterwards because of it. - You would still be telling this story at a hundred years old, and telling it exactly the
same way.
While there’s plenty to set The Essex Serpent apart, Danes’ character is a highlight. Subverting the expectations of a traditional Victorian heroine, Cora’s deep belief in science and natural skepticism make her compelling to watch. Additionally, the story makes no secret of her abusive marriage, but allows her to escape following her husband’s death and pursue her own intellectual interests. The Essex Serpent may have been overlooked, but it isn’t lacking in surprising twists and turns, and its short format rewards any period drama fan looking for a thrilling weekend binge.
The Essex Serpent
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