REVIEW: The Luminaries – Season 1, Episode 5 “Paradox”

"You're not a convict, Francis; you're a captain. I need a captain."

Television Reviews

*SPOILERS*

“Paradox” starts with a literal bang as Anna’s gunshot somehow hits Emery instead of herself. Meanwhile, it’s more scheming with Lydia as she insists that she and Francis must beat Lauderback. She knows they’ll both go to jail if Lauderback and Crosbie figure out what she and Francis pulled on them. Mr. Mannering tells Anna to go back to work to pay off her debts and, shockingly, she does it. Emery buys time with Anna, and all he says is that he wants to help her and never wants to have to tell her it’s too late. In the future, Anna tells her laudanum dealer that she killed Emery, not Crosbie. Lauderback is informed that his luggage arrived ahead of him, but he missed it. Mr. Mannering tries to talk Lydia into letting Anna live, but she responds with accusations of his own behavior. He asks why she doesn’t just take Crosbie’s money and leave, to which she replies that it’s not that simple. Mr. Mannering goes to Chinatown to find out how Emery got the gold. A Mr. Moody from Ireland enters a bar with the men of the town. He has a story to tell of what happened to Emery aboard Francis’ ship.

In the past, Anna tells Emery it’s not too late, and, together, they take a walk. Francis forces Crosbie to drink a vial of laudanum. Anna sleeps with Emery but then leaves, searching for Crosbie. Emery wakes up but, rather than looking for Anna, takes a hit from a pipe. Francis frames the murder scene, leaving Anna and Lauderback there with Crosbie’s dead body. In the present, the men explain the mystery to Mr. Moody and ask what he knows about Crosbie, Emery, and Francis. The Godspeed crashes, and Emery comes ashore, alive but still bleeding. Emery sees some of Anna’s memories, with Lydia offering to do a reading. Emery removes the bullet from his own chest with a simple knife. Anna disembarks on a small boat and falls asleep in response to Emery’s smoking. In the streets at night, Lauderback confronts Carver for theft and forgery, but the policeman doesn’t take a side. In jail once more, Anna sees a body and asks if it’s Emery, and nobody responds. Mr. Moody comes to see Anna and tells her about what he saw. A large cut appears on Anna’s hand, telling her that Emery is indeed alive.

The Luminaries remains a boring, confusing, and just downright weird show. “Paradox” is worse than usual because its dim lighting makes it difficult to tell who’s onscreen or what they’re up to. It’s bad enough to write a story so dull and seemingly pointless, but the majority of “Paradox” is shot in almost complete darkness. If this were only done in a couple of scenes, I would think it was intentional to obscure figures and add to the mystery. However, I had trouble making out most of this episode, and that’s just annoying. Several scenes in the episode also just made no sense to me. Midway through, basically every male character we’ve seen thus far assembles in a parlor where they question Mr. Moody. Lydia’s narration aligning each man’s astrological sign with a particular concept such as marriage, money, etc., came out of nowhere. It seems like this was supposed to be some big, mind-blowing moment with the way it was staged and the slow, dramatic narration. But we’ve barely seen most of these men, and only three or four are even major characters in the show so far.

I also get the impression that they’re trying to connect Lydia’s astrology nonsense with the connection between Anna and Emery. I don’t think this really works because Lydia is a liar and manipulator who seemingly doesn’t believe any of the crap she tells people in her parlor. The relationship between the leads is presented sincerely (if not very well or interestingly). Maybe they’re trying to contrast the sincerity of the heroes against the cunning villainess. That seems like a good idea, but if that’s the intent, it doesn’t shine through. It looks like they’re just doing this weird, meta thing where Lydia unknowingly perfectly describes what Anna and Emery share as astral twins.

When I first saw the promotional material for The Luminaries, my first thought was, “Eva Green has a new show, yay!” But in all seriousness, the next thing I noticed was that the show sounded like magical realism. The setting is historical, and the overall story could happen, but the circumstances of the central relationship sounded fantastical. Thus far, I’ve been disappointed in the show, as that has not been the case at all. I didn’t think magical realism is necessarily better than historical fiction, just that the show was falsely advertised. But now I’m yet again confused, as there IS a magical element to Anna and Emery’s romance. When Anna tries to kill herself, it’s Emery who is hit by the bullet. Similarly, at the end of “Paradox,” Emery cuts his hand by accident, and Anna obtains a bad cut.

And, of course, there’s the scene I mentioned with Moody and the men of the town. Moody says that what he saw with Emery was like an echo of what happened with Anna onshore at the time. This show doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be or to do. From the very beginning, I’ve disliked almost everything about this show. The flipping between timelines is confusing, the characters aren’t likable, and the story itself is boring and inconsequential. As it gets closer to the end, some things are starting to make sense, like who really killed Crosbie. The problem with this is that I don’t care about Crosbie, or Francis, or even Anna and Emery. Their time would have been better served making us like the characters early on and then plunging them into the mystery and tragedy.

The Luminaries is a show I just don’t get, and I only get more frustrated as the end draws near. “Paradox” is poorly lit and desaturated of color, leaving little to draw the eye. The characters and story remain every bit as dull as ever. The only part of this episode I genuinely enjoyed was when Eva Green was behind that lacy curtain smoking. It looked great, and it made me think of other, better projects in which she’s started.