Joss Whedon’s name in the credits may be the worst thing about The Nevers, a Victorian-era Steampunk adventure series that premiered Sunday on HBO Max.

The problematic Whedon created the series and served as writer/director/showrunner until November 2020, when he stepped down, citing exhaustion. He completed the first six episodes of the season, though, which will be released in two parts by the streamer.

Whether Whedon left because of actual exhaustion or his now-infamous on-set bad behavior, he left his imprint on the show. (British screenwriter Phillippa Goslett replaced him as showrunner for the remaining 7 episodes.)

The Nevers is classic Whedon, featuring a group of super-powered women who must battle forces both supernatural and mundane. The official description of the show says that “in the last years of Victoria’s reign, London is beset by the ‘Touched’: people – mostly women – who suddenly manifest abnormal abilities – some charming, some very disturbing.”

The leader of the community of is Amalia True (Laura Donnelly, Outlander), a widow who is both tight-lipped and quick-fisted, along with her partner, Penance Adair (Ann Skelly, Red Rock), a brilliant young inventor. They collect and protect the Touched, offering them shelter in a converted orphanage. Along with their superpowered proteges, the orphanage is home to staff like Dr Horatio Cousens (Zackary Momoh) who, due to their race, are just as marginalized in society.

Amalia and Penance are the public face of the group (known as ‘The Nevers’ because they, according to the show, “never should have existed) who are deeply unpopular with just about everyone, from the British government to the so-called normal people, who didn’t receive the gift. The Nevers face nemeses such as Lord Massen, (Pip Torrens) who represents the government, Declan Orran, (Nick Frost, Shaun of the Dead) the self-styled “Beggar King” who is the leader of the criminal element in London, and detective Frank Mundi, (Ben Chaplin) who is investigating brutal murders that seem to be perpetrated by one of the Touched.

There’s another foe they must fight: Maladie (Amy Manson) is another one of the Touched, introduced in an incredibly dramatic fashion as an entity of pure chaotic evil. Maladie and Amalia both take an interest in Mary Brighton, (Eleanor Tomlinson) a singer with a very special gift. Maladie kidnaps her, and Amalia is determined to fight to get her back.

While the show may lean too heavily on typical Whedonesque girl-power story-telling devices, the steampunk aesthetic is visually striking, the characters are interesting and the multiple storylines have the potential to be very satisfying as they develop. James Norton (Grantchester) as the pansexual hedonist Hugo Swan is particularly intriguing; his character may be the link between all the disparate elements of the story.

The mystery of how the people became the Touched is solved at the end of episode one in a beautiful, if CGI-heavy sequence that reveals a lot of the motivation for how characters, both Touched and untouched, behave.

Whedon’s show credits serve as an unpleasant reminder of all the wrongs he has (allegedly) done in the name of his art. Despite that, the show’s debut was wildly successful. The Nevers drew over 1.4 million viewers across linear telecasts and digital during its premiere on Sunday night. The show scored the best debut for a new original series on HBO Max drawing more viewers than the streamers other originals, including Misha Green’s horror drama Lovecraft Country and David E. Kelley’s psychological thriller The Undoing. This number will likely increase significantly as viewing across HBO’s platforms and additional telecasts are added to the total.

The Nevers is a fascinating adventure with a lot of potential. It airs Sunday nights on HBO Max.