Alison Stine

The show has learned from the mistakes of its first season, which had a very slow start. The initial episode of the current season feels as heart-pumping as a blockbuster action movie.

Meandering, ponderous and lacking tension, "The Essex Serpent" is in desperate need of more bite.

It has to balance them [the girls from season one] with all the boys. A lot of boys. It doesn't balance very well, and the second season seems to undo a lot of the good of the first and muddle its message.

Overall, the show struggles under the weight of its history lessons, how to balance them with action and how to convey them to what may be an unfamiliar audience.

"Gaslit" is a little dull, the light of its stars muddled under a huge cast and the heavy weight of history, which it reveals in uneven starts and stops. Over the course of the seven episodes given for review, it sparks the most when the minor characters are allowed to take the stage.

Flashes of dark humor and just plain surrealness keep the show from stalling, but it's a slow burn with many burning questions. Throughout the crowding subplots, it's hard not to think: Can we just get back to that giant hole in the ground, please?