For exactly two years now, we as a society have been forced to endure a serious lack of Claire Danes on our screens. The series finale of Homeland aired on Showtime on April 26, 2020, and ever since then, she’s given us nothing. (Which is totally excusable during a global pandemic, but we miss you, Claire! We miss your soothingly deep voice and propensity for intense eye contact!)
Thankfully, our suffering will soon be over. On Tuesday, AppleTV+ shared the first trailer for the drama series The Essex Serpent. Set in Victorian England, it stars the one and only Danes—wearing period costumes and speaking in a British accent, no less.
Adapted from the novel of the same name by Sarah Perry, The Essex Serpent tells the story of a small puritanical town tormented by a mythical beast. Danes plays Cora Seaborne, a widow and amateur paleontologist who becomes fascinated by stories of the serpent and believes it’s real. She moves to Essex to investigate, connecting with the local pastor, played by Tom Hiddleston, and his family.
“The serpent is an invention,” Hiddleston’s character insists in the trailer. “A symptom of the times we live in.” The scientifically minded Cora replies, “I’d rather believe in a creature people have actually seen than an invisible God. Is that blasphemy?”
Naturally, the pair’s clash over faith gives way to something steamier by the end of the clip. Over the course of the two minutes and 40 seconds, the buttons on Hiddleston’s billowing white blouse progressively come undone to reveal a significant swath of chest hair. One second, he and Danes are shouting at each other in an empty field (these kinds of things always happen in empty fields), and the next, they’re rolling around in the grass. After all, in the post-Bridgerton TV landscape, it wouldn’t be a true period drama without some good old-fashioned hate sex.
The genre-bending show weaves in elements of horror, with its perpetually gray backdrop and pervasive sense that something sinister is slithering beneath the surface of every scene. And then there are the children who succumb to mysterious fainting spells and inexplicable bruising. Anyone who’s ever seen a horror movie knows that when weird things start happening to schoolchildren, some spooky shit is about to go down.
The Essex Serpent was adapted by Anna Symon (Deep Water, Mrs. Wilson) and directed by Clio Barnard. In addition to Danes and Hiddleston, it stars Clémence Poésy, Hayley Squire, and Frank Dillane. You can stream the first two episodes on AppleTV+ on May 13, with subsequent episodes releasing weekly.
