Assessment: Pitch-perfect Renegade Nell is a gem of a sequence you received’t wish to miss

Award-winning British TV author Sally Wainwright is finest identified for the dramatic sequence Completely happy Valley (2014–2023) and Gentleman Jack (2019–2022), the latter produced collectively by BBC and HBO. Wainwright partnered with Disney+ for her newest sequence, the resolutely PG-13 Renegade Nell, which is a unique beast altogether: a superb old school, swashbuckling comedian journey with a supernatural twist, that includes a sassy cross-dressing heroine compelled to show to freeway theft to outlive.

(Some spoilers beneath, however no main reveals.)

Set in 1705 throughout the reign of Queen Anne (Jodi Could, Gentleman Jack), the sequence stars Louisa Harland (Derry Ladies) as Nell Jackson. Nell is a headstrong younger girl with tomboy aptitude and a style for journey who returns dwelling to her village of Tottenham after operating off 5 years earlier than to marry one Captain Jackson towards her father’s needs. She’s now widowed and possessed of occasional supernatural abilities each time somebody threatens her, courtesy of a fairy sprite named Billy Blind (Nick Mohammed, aka Nathan from Ted Lasso), who has been tasked to guard Nell. Nell’s household thought she’d been killed on the battlefield alongside her husband, so her homecoming is a little bit of a shock.

Alas, Nell quickly runs afoul of 1 Thomas Blancheford (Jake Dunn), the louche, drunken offspring of the city’s landlord, Lord Blancheford (Pip Torrens, Preacher). Let’s simply say issues escalate, and Nell quickly finds herself on the run and framed for homicide, alongside along with her two sisters, Roxy (Bo Bragason) and George (Florence Eager), and the Blanchefords’ former groomsman, Rasselas (Enyi Okoronkwo, The Lazarus Challenge). The group will get additional help from a captivating aristocratic dandy/secret highwayman named Charles Devereaux (Frank Dillane, The Essex Serpent).

Nell simply needs to evade seize lengthy sufficient to seek out an sincere Justice of the Peace to clear her identify. Within the course of, she finds herself battling the formidable black magic of the Earl of Poynton (Adrian Lester, Euphoria) and his acolyte, Thomas’ sister, Girl Sofia (Alice Kremelberg, The Sinner), and stumbles upon a sinister plot to dethrone the queen.

The writing, pacing, and manufacturing values are top-notch, and the forged is terrific throughout the board. Lester brings a ruthless authority to Poynton’s spooky supernatural machinations, whereas Kremelberg is all seething bitter resentment and steely resolve as Girl Sofia, a superb, formidable noblewoman (additionally widowed) who is much extra certified to run the household property than her nugatory brother, but prohibited from inheriting by the legal guidelines of the time. Dillane’s Devereaux supplies a lot of the witty repartee and comedian reduction, as does Joely Richardson’s (The Sandman) newspaper magnate, Girl Eularia Moggerhanger. And Ashna Rabheru (Crimson Rose) is pleasant as a spoiled younger aristocrat, Polly Honeycombe, with a full of life romantic creativeness who longs for one thing extra in life than an organized marriage.

Nevertheless it’s Harland’s sensational portrayal of Nell that anchors all of it. This can be a function that requires her to be a tricky rebellious tomboy in a single scene and sport a complicated accent and fancy costume in one other; to steadiness motion comedy with moments of real concern and heartbreaking tragedy. It is also a extremely bodily function: Harland underwent a number of months of stunt coaching previous to filming. She does all of it with refreshingly unpretentious aplomb.

Renegade Nell retains the motion flowing and correctly by no means takes itself too severely. Certain, there may be injustice, class warfare, and powerful clever ladies chafing inside the strict confines of conventional binary gender roles—and Polly Honeycombe undoubtedly qualifies as bicurious. However Wainwright by no means lets the story get slowed down in heavy-handed symbolism or didacticism. Even Nell’s cross-dressing is dealt with with the lightest contact. Requested to touch upon her character’s gender politics, Harland advised the Guardian that there was no ulterior motive or agenda: “Why does she costume as a person? To move as a person.” Easy as that.

Will we see extra of feisty Nell and her delightfully eccentric compatriots? That is as much as Disney. There are many questions left unanswered and undoubtedly extra tales to inform, each previous and current. Collection director Ben Taylor advised Radio Instances simply after the premiere {that a} second season was at present being written and that it will seemingly contain some form of time bounce (on condition that among the youthful actors will visibly age), choosing up with the varied surviving characters from the place they left off within the first season. However Disney has but to substantiate this. This is hoping this sequence finds the broader viewers it so richly deserves. We’re rooting for you, Nelly… err, Nell.

Renegade Nell is now streaming on Disney+.