June 1, 2025

🎬 TV Review: Taboo – Season 2 (2025) – The Devil Returns to Claim His Empire
Starring Tom Hardy, Jessie Buckley, Stephen Graham, and Mark Gatiss
Created by Steven Knight, Tom Hardy, and Chips Hardy
Directed by Kristoffer Nyholm

“I have a use for you. And a plan for them.” – James Delaney

After a nearly eight-year wait cloaked in smoke, whispers, and fan speculation, Taboo returns — and it’s every bit as hypnotic, savage, and beautifully unholy as we remembered. Season 2 plunges us back into the murky, blood-stained world of James Keziah Delaney (Tom Hardy), now across the Atlantic and deep in the shadowy underbelly of 19th-century America.

Delaney, presumed dead by many, resurfaces in New York with a new objective: dismantle the growing power of the fledgling East India factions in the colonies and ignite something darker — a revolution from within. The scars on his back may have faded, but his vengeance has not. He’s more dangerous, more calculated… and more haunted than ever.

Tom Hardy delivers a mesmerizing performance — all whispered threats, primal rage, and poetic stillness. This isn’t just a character. It’s a force of nature with a top hat and a vendetta. Every growled word feels like prophecy, every glance, a storm warning.

Joining him is Jessie Buckley as a cunning political agent with secrets that even Delaney doesn’t see coming, and Stephen Graham as a savage mercenary who may be ally or enemy — or both. Mark Gatiss returns as the Prince Regent, now more unhinged and paranoid, as Delaney’s name once again spreads like smoke through the corridors of power.

The production is lush, grimy, and poetic — filled with fog-choked docks, flickering lanterns, blood-soaked parlors, and whispered oaths made in secret societies. Max Richter’s haunting score returns, adding dread and melancholy to every frame.

Final Verdict:
Taboo: Season 2 isn’t just a sequel — it’s a descent. A descent into power, madness, legacy, and liberation. It’s James Delaney unleashed on a new continent, carrying old ghosts and making new enemies.
Wicked. Brilliant. Unmissable.
The devil is back — and he’s building an empire of ruin.