Apple TV+’s new six-part limited series, The Essex Serpent, based on Sarah Perry’s bestselling and award-winning 2016 novel of the same name,1 is a bit more nuanced than the standard prestige television fare, being less a series of intersecting parallel plots and more about combustible characters with nebulous motivations who collide at key points. Emmy Award-winning Homeland (2011–2020) alumna Claire Danes leads the cast as the fiercely headstrong emotional train wreck that is Cora Seaborne, supported primarily by Tom Hiddleston as the earnest but blundering local pastor, Will Ransome. The heavily metaphorical plot about a potential sea serpent haunting the waters of Essex, England in 1890 is far less significant to the actual narrative, which is more interested in the connection formed between these two emotionally compromised people.

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Cole Burgett about his online-exclusive, “The Essex Serpent: By Tongue of Brute“. **Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for The Essex Serpent.** 

Locked articles are online exclusive content that are only available to subscribers. There are three subscription options to access our online exclusive content.

1. Subscribe ($33.50) to the print edition of the Christian Research Journal which includes all online exclusive content.

2. Pay a monthly fee ($4.99) for Christian Research Journal online exclusive content. This does not include online versions of current print edition articles or receiving the print issues.

3. Pay an annual  fee ($24.99) for Christian Research Journal online exclusive content. This does not include online versions of current print edition articles or receiving the print issues.

For more information and to subscribe please click here.

Note online-exclusives are eventually made available to the public at regular intervals but to gain access to read it when it’s originally posted subscribing at the link above is the best option.

When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our ever growing database of over 1,500 articles, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

Another way you can support our online articles is by leaving us a tip. A tip is just a small amount, like $3, $5, or $10 which is the cost for some of a latte, lunch out, or coffee drink. To leave a tip, click here

Other articles and podcasts featuring this author

Episode 297 Why are we down here still working in the dark? (A Web TV Series Review of Severance)

Why are we down here still working in the dark? (A Web TV Series Review of Severance)

Episode 295 Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Freedom of Forgiveness (A Series Review of Obi-Wan Kenobi)

Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Freedom of Forgiveness (A Series Review of Obi Wan Kenobi)

Episode 283: When the Hurlyburly’s Done: A Review of Everything Everywhere All at Once

When the Hurlyburly’s Done: A Review of Everything Everywhere All at Once