After the complete disappointment I felt after watching the first episode of The Irregulars on Netflix, I didn't really feel like getting excited over The Nevers, but I was very pleasantly surprised!
For me, the pacing of the character introduction felt just right, revealing only a little at a time about them using dramatic music and no words spoken by anyone until the two central female characters came together onscreen. Fight scenes were well choreographed (in my untrained opinion as a viewer at least - but isn't that what should count?) and exciting to watch, the language was believable and the situations decidedly more adult than The Irregulars. The use of CGI was not obtrusive enough that I was ever drawn out of the story and back to reality.
I am not going to sit here and pull the show apart for its politics or apparent misogeny - the Victorian era was rife with both anyway - to me, it felt appropriate to the time and the story being told.
I really liked the show, for me it delivered everything I could have asked of a Victorian steampunk fantasy and I look forward to watching the rest of the season.