After a strange event in 1896, a minority of mostly women find themselves “touched” with strange and sometimes dangerous powers. Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) is their leader, and fights to protect all the ‘Touched’ girls she can find — but strangers are seeking the girls for their own ends, and the Establishment is uneasy… by Helen O'Hara | Posted on HBO won a frenzied bidding war to make The Nevers, and it’s easy to see why everyone wanted it. The premise — a female-skewing, Victorian X-Men from the creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer — is rich in possibility for visual dazzle and a fresh take on an era where men’s stories too often dominate. And partly, it delivers on that promise. But on this evidence, the match was an uneasy one even before Joss Whedon left the show (replaced by Philippa Goslett), because HBO’s fondness for sex and violence sits awkwardly alongside a story that otherwise skews teenage.