TV Review: NAUTILUS Series Premiere

Geek Girl Authority

19-06-2025

A new adaptation of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea sails on to our screens. AMC and AMC+ debut the 10-episode series, Nautilus , with a different take on the classic science-fiction story. Get ready for a rip-roaring adventure under the seas, with a cast of colorful characters, set against the backdrop of Imperial treachery. Poster of AMC's Nautilus, featuring Shazad Latif, Georgia Flood, Thierry Fremont, and Tyrone Ngatai. Image courtesy AMC/AMC+ About Nautilus
In its two-episode premiere, Nautilus introduces us to our protagonists, the enigmatic and very wronged Nemo (Shazad Latif), the fiery Humility Lucas (Georgia Flood), as well as beleaguered scientist and engineer behind the creation of the titular submarine, Benoit (Thierry Fremont).
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Alongside these characters are two lots of supporting casts — there are a bunch of East India Mercantile Company men who are after Nemo, and then there's the Nautilus crew, made up mostly of formerly enslaved men from numerous nations including Boniface (Pacharo Mzembe) and Kai (Tyrone Ngatai), as well as Humility's aid Loti (Céline Menville), and young Blaster (Kayden Price) who was an errand boy on a Company ship.
Nautilus throws the viewer into the action almost from the get-go. It's 1857, and the East India Mercantile Company has pillaged and plundered nations around the world. We're introduced to Nemo, a prisoner of the EIMC. He's been plotting an escape with a few of the other 'convicts,' and when an opportunity presents itself, a group of them take control of the Nautilus and escape.
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During their escape, Nemo spots a Company ship. Fearing an attack, Nemo attacks first, and that's how he meets Humility. She's sailing to meet her fiancé in Bombay, and chafes against the sexist rules of the era. Luckily, albeit involuntarily, she soon gets her wish to postpone her marriage by joining the Nautilus adventure.
But the underwater crew's travails don't end there. Nemo is out for vengeance, and the crew struggles with his wayward demands. The crew isn't trained to run a submarine either, which makes repairs and perils all the more hazardous. And, of course, the EIMC wants their submarine back, Nemo gone, and Humility returned to her fiancé. How Nautilus Departs From the Book
Adaptations always take liberties with the source material. It's a necessity in many ways — because of the medium of story, the sensibilities of the time, and to keep audiences interested. Nautilus is no different. The cast of characters doesn't resemble the original books.
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The upside is, we have characters from different origins and ethnicities, plus three female characters, all of whom have a role to play in the proceedings. It's especially great to see Nautilus lean into Nemo's Indian origins. Shazad Latif is a British actor who has Pakistani heritage.
I'm glad that Nautilus doesn't shy away from the anti-Imperialism commentary of the original book and its sequel, The Mysterious Island . It's not a coincidence that the show begins in 1857, the year India rebelled against the East India Company. The show begins with a rebellion that sets of the proceedings.
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What doesn't work in Nautilus are some of the choices around Nemo. In the book, he is introduced as a mysterious scientist and engineer, the wealthy creator of the Nautilus who seeks vengeance and has a love for exploration.
The show chooses to introduce Nemo as disheveled and captive, which plants the foundation for his vengeance, but also robs him of his grandeur. We've seen many characters of color introduced in pop culture this way, and the whole point of book-Nemo is that he subverts that assumption.
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The other issue is that Nemo isn't the creator of the Nautilus. Not directly — he has to feed information to Benoit. Once again, that strips away the agency Nemo had in the book. Nemo's supposed to be a great engineer and futurist, yet in the first episode of Nautilus , he can't fix his own ship.
Nemo keeps turning to Humility for engineering help. Now, it's fantastic to have a female character flexing her STEM skills, especially in a period show. But Humility's smarts come at the cost of Nemo's brilliance. This type of trope-subversion is humorous when the characters are evenly matched in status. But Nemo is a man of color; he doesn't need to be shown up by a white person, even if she's a woman who is undermined by her own people. A Rollicking Adventure
The other major criticism is the presentation of the EIMC. All the Company men are so cartoonishly evil. You can't take them seriously. I'd argue that's the point, but they're such a yawn-worthy intrusion away from the crew of the Nautilus.
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While these issues will grate on some viewers (like myself), the first two episodes were a lot of fun. Nautilus evokes the fun of first watching Pirates of the Caribbean (with seemingly less problematic people involved) and Our Flag Means Death . It's not quite as irreverent as those properties, but it captures the tension and spectacle of traveling the high seas.
The sets of the Nautilus are particularly arresting. The gorgeous steampunk machinery is exactly how one expects the Nautilus to look. However, the CGI water and animals should have been more vividly rendered — they're a tad flat against the practical sets of the submarine.
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The first two episodes end on cliffhangers, and I am champing at the bit to watch the rest. The weekly rollout is going to be deliciously painful.
The tensions of the plot are multi-fold. All the characters have different motivations and end goals; these pull them in different directions, all while they're trapped in a restrictive environment. There's the additional stress of being chased by the EIMC while chasing vengeance. And, of course, the sea is a character all on its own, being as unpredictable as can be.
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Fortunately, the show undercuts the tensions with silly humor that inveigles its way in at the most needed moments. Nautilus may not be perfect, but the premiere promises a rollicking good romp, with flawed characters and dark backstories. This show is definitely worth hopping aboard for.
Nautilus premieres on AMC and AMC+ starting Sunday, June 29.
Book Review: JUST EMILIA Monita has been championing diversity, inclusivity, and representation in entertainment media through her work for over a decade. She is a contributor at Bam Smack Pow, and her bylines have appeared on 3-time Eisner Award-winning publication Women Write About Comics, Geek Girl Authority, HuffPost, Reactormag.com (formerly tor.com), Soundsphere/Screensphere, FanSided's Show Snob, and Vocal. She was also a TV/Movies features writer at Collider.com. Alongside her twin, Monita co-hosts the pop culture podcast Stereo Geeks.