Science and faith fight it out in 'The Essex Serpent,' with Tom Hiddleston and Clare Danes

Misinformation and willful ignorance are a powerfully dangerous combination, as the Apple TV+ series “The Essex Serpent” reminds.

Sounds like it could be a documentary about the Arizona “Audit.” It’s not. It’s actually a British-as-all-get-out six-episode series with Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes, both in fine form.

And it’s set in Victorian England.

Our problems are not new problems. But they are problems, and always have been. The time or place don’t matter if the truth is under assault. That has consequences for everyone.

But “The Essex Serpent” isn’t a full-on political allegory, though it works as one. It’s also a downbeat love story steeped in loss and longing, with some mythology thrown in for good measure.

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Anna Symon wrote the series, based on Sarah Perry's novel

There’s a lot going on here, in other words, but Anna Symon, who wrote the series that is based on Sarah Perry’s novel, prevents the strands of the story from unraveling.

Danes plays Cora Seaborne, a woman of London society whose abusive husband dies. She sees a story in a newspaper about tales of a sea creature near Aldwinter, Essex, claiming victims. An amateur paleontologist, she is intrigued, so she packs up her son and her friend and quasi-housekeeper Martha (Hayley Squires) and moves to the town.

She’s greeted like any outsider would be in a close-knit, closed-off community — about as welcome as a sea monster. A tragedy compounds suspicion.

But Cora strikes up a friendship with Will Ransome (Hiddleston), a vicar who has found a place for science and reason alongside his considerable faith. Will is happily married to Stella (Clémence Poésy), who also befriends Cora.

Will’s anti-serpent stance — he denies its existence, saying it’s just superstition and fear — goes against the thinking of most of his parishioners and pretty much everyone else in town. They’re led by Matthew Evansford (a brilliant Michael Jibson), who preaches to anyone who will listen, as well as anyone who won’t, that the serpent has reappeared after years away to feed on their sins. They see this as happening in a literal fashion, when some residents go missing or, worse, turn up dead in the water.

The debate between Cora and Will about the serpent is largely an intellectual one. She wants to believe in it, or some version of it (she actually thinks it might be some kind of ancient creature that was isolated enough to miss out on evolution).

The debate between Matthew and Will is anything but intellectual. Matthew represents the last gasp of faith over reason — or so we might have thought. Science takes a back seat as superstition, rumor and fear mix together to form a kind of toxic cocktail of panic. It prevents people from making good decisions.

That sounds so sadly familiar.

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There’s obvious chemistry between Will and Cora, which they alternately deny and allow to come to the surface. Meanwhile Frank Dillane (Luke Garrett), a brilliant London surgeon — just ask him — tries to win Cora over. She’s either oblivious or ignoring his advances, parking him squarely in the “just friends” zone. He pays visits to Aldwinter, always in hopes of luring Cora back to London.

Frank’s friend and fellow doctor George Spencer (Jamael Westman) obviously loves Martha, who is too busy becoming a hard-line Communist to bother with him as anything more than a useful political ally. George gives it a good go, though, and Westman brings an unfailing optimism to a put-upon character.

The acting is uniformly good, and in some ways unexpected. Garrett is delightful, the perfect mix of arrogance and self-doubt, the latter of which leads him to overcompensate with boasts. Yet somehow it’s more winning than off-putting. He knows he’s fighting an uphill battle with Cora, but he keeps trying.

Hiddleston is always good. Loki remains a favorite character, but it’s nice to see him take a break from non-stop chaos (though he’s so good at it) and get back to more serious acting. Here he does a 180; Will Ransome is so repressed around Cora at times he seems to be wrestling the words out of him mouth. He’s beaten his emotions back so far it’s a shock when they occasionally burst forth.

Danes easily navigates Cora’s complexities. Abused for years, she seems unsure of what, exactly she wants. Cora comes off as someone trying out life again, eager to sample all of it. That can be frustrating to other characters. It can be frustrating to viewers. But it’s a fascinating performance.

“The Essex Serpent” slithers along, exploring all of these areas and probably a couple more, always keeping in mind that the fight for truth in whatever its form is never easy.

'The Essex Serpent'

Streaming on Apple TV+ on May 13.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tom Hiddleston, Clare Danes debate in 'The Essex Serpent' on Apple TV+