Is James Delaney Simply a Misunderstood Good Guy?

Published January 17, 2017 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hello Hosts,

I enjoyed the Taboo pilot and your recap episode. I am hoping you get enough fan mail that you can add a river rant segment. Here is my contribution.

I am very interested to see how far the show is willing to go when it comes to being taboo, specifically in regards to James as an antihero. They have already portrayed their central character as a bad man with a dark past, but how bad and how dark remains to be seen. I think this question will be answered when we learn what happened on the slave ship.

I am worried the show will lead us to believe that he did something horrible, but it will turn out he feels guilty because he failed trying to save them. So all the mystery surrounding his misdeeds will deflate and he’ll just be a misunderstood good guy.

I think that would be a cop out, but I can’t see them going the other way either. Even on a dark show like this, I can’t see the audience accepting the protagonist committing mass murder of innocent slaves.

We have had immoral central characters on TV before nothing that extreme, to my memory. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Jeff from Massachusetts

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