Through its first three episodes, Apple TV+’s new drama See is a roller coaster of a show. No hour went by without my checking my watch, giggling at several ridiculous performance choices and writing down multiple nonsensical plot points in my notes. Yet no hour went by without a concept or two that I found intriguing, a sH๏τ or two that I found breathtaking or an action scene that I found ambitious.
As you’ll find is a trend with this first batch of Apple TV+ originals, See isn’t close to a good show thus far, but it does just enough to make you believe that under the right circumstances, there might be a good show here somewhere, eventually.
Created by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders), a reliable generator of interesting ideas, See explains in introductory text that it’s set centuries after a virus in the 21st century decimated the planet’s human population and left the two million-ish survivors unable to see. As the story begins, the remaining vestiges of humanity have condensed into insular tribes and the very idea of sight is considered the stuff of witchcraft, an unimaginable thing to be feared and not sought out.
Our hero is Baba Voss (Jason Momoa), a well-intentioned warrior hiding from his shady and mysterious past. Baba Voss, long desirous of an heir — not hair, mind you, because no Jason Momoa character could possibly be desirous of better hair than Jason Momoa possesses — is newly married to Maghra (Hera Hilmar), a woman who recently arrived at the tribe pregnant with another man’s baby. That man is the notorious Jerlamarel (Joshua Henry), who is generally off-screen because he’s wanted under charges of witchcraft and rumors that he has the gift of light or something. Midwife Paris (Alfre Woodard) is quick to suspect that Maghra’s baby (or babies) would have similar powers. And if they don’t, there isn’t much show here.
Pursuing Jerlamarel to the limited ends of the earth is Tamacti Jun (Christian Camargo), a tax collector and witch-hunter for Queen Kane (Sylvia Hoeks), ruler of a somewhat more advanced clan than the one Baba Voss leads. Queen Kane, who communes with God through orgasms in a way that has to be seen multiple times to be believed, is determined to capture Jerlamarel, and it stands to reason that she isn’t going to be pᴀssive about the possibility that he now has kids to worry about as well.
