With the quipping flair of Veronica Mars, the sisterhood-as-power vibe of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and plenty of philosophical musings about faith versus doubt, Netflix’s Warrior Nun is undoubtedly familiar. The methods that showrunner Simon Barry uses to adapt a series of manga novels have clear links to the works of Rob Thomas, Joss Whedon, and Alex Garland—some snark, some ass-kicking, and some God-bashing. But when the show’s impressive ensemble and commitment to thoughtfully exploring questions of individual purpose really click, they transform Warrior Nun into its own distinct experience rather than simply a derivative facsimile of those inspirations.
The Warrior Nun comic books that ran from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s provide some of the backstory for this Netflix series, which takes on medical science, the Catholic Church, and everyday patriarchy in its 10 episodes. Fans of the manga will certainly notice Barry’s significant deviations from the source material: Certain characters are diminished, various relationships are modified, and a major element of what makes the Warrior Nuns who they are is reimagined. By doing so, Barry leans into villainizing the Church and condemning how they wield power, a narrative through-line that starts out incendiary but unfortunately becomes increasingly convoluted as the season unfolds.
The premiere episode, “Psalm 46:5,” wastes no time thrusting us into a fantastical world shaped by religious ideology: As 19-year-old Ava (Alba Baptista) lies dead inside a church in present-day Spain, she informs us, through first-person narration that will continue throughout the series, “Life has a really fucked-up way of making your dreams come true.”
An orphan with quadriplegia, Ava died after growing up in a bed in a Catholic orphanage. While her body awaits the rituals necessary for burial, in another part of the church, a group of young women in tactical gear, strapped with weapons and armored with chain mail, return from a sabotaged mission. Words like “Divinium” and “bearer” are thrown around, and with the women still under attack, a glowing, metal halo is removed from the back of the group’s dying leader—and then, for safekeeping, inserted into Ava. With the halo embedded in her back, the only hint of its presence a circular-shaped scar, Ava becomes the next Warrior Nun, upsetting the line of succession for this secret position.
Now brought back to life by the energy of that artifact, Ava flees the church. Not only is Ava able to walk again after her paralysis at 12 years old, but she also has superpowers: super strength, to push away a guy bothering her at a bar, sending him crashing through a wooden table; super healing abilities, which patch her back together after she’s hit by a car; the ability to phase through solid matter, and to see things that others can’t—like skeletal figures, made out of plumes of red smoke, who prey on the weak and compromised and encourage them to do bad things. Little does Ava know that the glowing disk in her back is actually a holy object imperative to the Catholic Church’s fight against an array of CGI demons teleporting to Earth from hell, and that the young women of the Order of the Cruciform Sword (those nuns with guns) are now hunting her to get it back.
The first half of the season focuses on that pursuit and on Ava’s growth from a nonbeliever (“That shit was a bad trip, and it can’t be real” is how she dismisses the memory of her death and subsequent rebirth) to someone willing to stand with the Order of the Cruciform Sword against darkness. When Warrior Nun focuses on Ava and her relationships with the Order, the show is at its best. Although Ava is the lead—and Baptista does a charming job putting her own self-effacing spin on the archetype of a pop culture-referencing, retort-ready heroine—other characters with varying perspectives and motivations are well-developed. Toya Turner is a standout as Mary, a Black American woman affiliated with the Order who is in mourning for her friend, the preceding Warrior Nun who dies in the premiere. Turner plays the character with an initial no-nonsense intensity that is given more nuance as the season progresses, and she gets some of the liveliest dialogue. When Ava is amazed that Mary is an excellent cook, her “I have a life, you know. It’s not all exorcisms and prayer,” makes clear the way these young women make space in their lives for more than just their holy responsibility.
Equally good is Kristina Tonteri-Young as Sister Beatrice, who chose her life in service to God after her family rejected her; the show’s most enthralling hand-to-hand action sequence, à la John Wick, belongs to her. And actor Lorena Andrea adds depth to Sister Lilith, the next in line to wield the halo, who is superseded by Ava’s presence; Andrea communicates well how Lilith vacillates between disdainful smugness toward the other nuns because of her position and panicked insecurity at the possibility of her unworthiness.
When the nuns interact with each other, Warrior Nun feels focused in its world-building. The script can sometimes lean too much on mythological and religious exposition as the nuns explain their mission to Ava, but the actors have such good chemistry that their various pairings—Mary and Ava, Ava and Beatrice, Mary and Lilith—work, and the smartly choreographed fight scenes are well-placed. The time the series spends on various subplots, though, dilutes that decisiveness. Much screen time is given to the battle between the Church’s Cardinal Duretti (Joaquim de Almeida) and a genius scientist, Dr. Jillian Salvius (Thekla Reuten), who is attempting to build a pathway to another parallel world. (Yes, this brings to mind author Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series and its accompanying BBC/HBO show.) This side narrative is a way for Warrior Nun to shine a light on the Church’s documented stance of disapproval toward scientific curiosity and discovery. But the series can’t quite find a balance for the arguments between the cardinal and Dr. Salvius, Ava’s hero journey, and the shifting alliances within the Order itself; certain episodes drag when featuring Salvius’ company, Arq-Tech. By the end of the first season, the religion versus science conflict in particular feels unfulfilled, and a cliffhanger that is meant to be emotional lands with a thud.
To whom or what do we owe our lives? Are our decisions truly our own? What if God got free will and destiny wrong? Warrior Nun is built around the tension of the masculine versus the feminine, and the show devotes itself to portraying the Catholic Church as a patriarchal institution meant to subjugate women and discourage them from wondering about the answers to such questions. It’s disappointing, then, how often the show relies on male characters, even ones outside of the Church, to validate Ava’s actions or provide her with guidance. For as effectively as Warrior Nun builds female togetherness, it fails at developing mentorship. And by the final two episodes, “2 Corinthians 10:4” and “Revelations 2:10,” the plot has indulged in so many last-minute twists and turns that the narrative feels dangerously close to being overwhelmed. But before then, the binge-ability of Warrior Nun comes from strongly coordinated action sequences, Baptista’s energetic performance of the scripts’ snappiest dialogue (her “Are you there, God? It’s me, Ava,” is a particular highlight), and a layered perspective that works to pinpoint the difference between respectful devotion and unthinking obedience.
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Netflix’s scheduling baffles me at times. For example here, here they are dropping this show a week before The Old Guard comes out. And while the two are distinct, their marketings do overlap with Theron’s starpower probably drawing away some attention from this.
Series vs. Movie. I don’t think people will be hampered and not think they can’t do both.
I don’t know that Netflix has ever shown that much discretion in their scheduling—other than a few items it’s basically do or die for anything on the service. That said, they also cultivate binging, so yeah, one series and one movie don’t necessarily take the much more commitment out of the typical interested subscriber.
It’s on Netflix forever. This isn’t appointment television or limited time in a theater. You can literally watch it whenever you want until Netflix goes out business.
Is this show trying to make Catholicism cool?
Doesn’t it…pop?Same what you like about Kevin Smith, but by Christ- Buddy Christ, even – he knew what he was doing getting Carlin chew the hell out of the scenery as Cardinal Glick:
This review has me confused whether they’re glorifying it or attacking it. How can it be a patriarchal institution when it’s enlisting an army of exclusively female warriors and bestowing them superpowers?
The same way the original dudes who created the Slayer were patriarchal. We’ll force this power on a woman, but we’ll subtly kneecap her so she isn’t SO powerful that she can threaten us. And we’ll do this so WE don’t have to deal with some ugly/dangerous chore, possibly of our own making.
From what I understand about pop-feminism as it applies to YA fiction, patriarchal hierarchies and toxic masculinity is ok, provided it benefits a inwardly beautiful, but shy, young brunette girl in some way, while providing her with plenty of chances for drama, being the centre of attention/universe (even though she repeatedly states she hates that), and the feeling torn apart by the simultaneous romantic affections of two near-identical smouldering bad boys who only differ in the colour of their eyes that smoulder smoulderingly (one has green, one has blue), until one has the good grace to get himself killed so the protagonist doesn’t have to, like, take an active role in her life for once. Of course, it’s ok, because she Never Asked For This, Never Wanted Any Of This. Having it thrust upon her absolves her of any and all responsibility for actions after.
They need to repent and submit to the pope.
Haven’t watched it yet, but I noticed that 3 of the 10 episodes are 40 minutes or less. Artists are finally starting to figure out that a drama doesn’t have to be 45 minutes long with 3 act breaks (and a comedy doesn’t need to be 22 minutes long with 2 act breaks) when you are creating for a streaming platform. Also, I like that they made some shorter episodes. Tell your story and be done with it. If that takes 37 minutes, don’t make it take 50.Now I just hope they aren’t following the streaming trend of the first season being just a half season that sets up the real story.
I agree lmao reminds me of the boring episodes of the Netflix marvel series that were like 58 minutes with 39 minutes worth of story that could have been told
Too tied to the traditional 13 episodes too. Even for the first Jessica Jones, which is one of my favorites, I remember thinking “oh, that’s a good episode. We’re right at the end, huh?” Cue three more episodes.
Me too lol
I just finished watching this. The run times are more about them having really poor pacing and plot just meandering.You might be better off waiting for a season 2. Not going to spoil anything, but those ten episodes could have been 1-2 episodes and the show doesn’t really get going until the last few episodes.
After 2 episodes, can’t disagree. It’s fine so far, but I am thinking “get on with it” a little.
God agrees:
I think you’re being too kind. DH is into this show, but 4 episodes in I am bored to tears and nearly fell asleep at one point. It’s hard to believe that a show with a premise like warrior nuns managed to be so uninteresting. I feel like pacing is an issue for most of the new Netflix series, but this one is doing a particularly bad job so far. It doesn’t help that so few of the female leads are developed and/or likable.
I agree. In particular, I thought Ava’s “running away” phase lasted entirely too long. As a protagonist, I found her childish and annoying, so maybe that’s a realistic portrayal of a young adult? Mary and Beatrice are my favorite characters.
I recently got into Prime’s Homecoming. It’s a suspense drama with a new story each season, and the episodes are half an hour each. 10 episodes first season, 7 episodes the second. Very ideal. Given how tough it is coming up with idea for a movie, writing it, and making it, a 10 hour TV show every year seems inevitable for decline in quality.
Homecoming is great.
That sounds like a great development, but I wouldn’t lump the blame on artists but on the market. A lot of it the structure is undoubtedly habit by now, but also because things are written and in development before they’re bought in many cases. Netflix buys material originally developed for broadcast tv that it labels original, so a bunch of their offerings have those breaks, and it has an obsession with length—which since binging is the norm and the basic metric benefits them. So their Marvel shows were strictly forced to have thirteen episodes and each be an hour long. I think Mindhunter was the first one that seemed to shake it by having one extremely short episode by comparison, but since it was a David Fincher project they likely were more inclined to let him do what he wanted.I think right now you can see it the most clearly in the documentaries they produce—all many episodes long, few of them as sharp or tight as a regular episode of Frontline for all those hours.
You’re right about the lengths of shows on streaming services in theory, but if I understand correctly, in practice, in some cases, the streamer doesn’t buy the worldwide rights to the show, and the producers end up selling the rights to a traditional “linear” broadcaster somewhere. And often traditional broadcasters want a traditional length, or at least a more consistent length across episodes. That said, this seems to be less common lately. Was surprised to find that the very good Korean Netflix show Kingdom (not that Kingdom… no not that one either… the one with the hats and the zombies) had an episode that was only about 30-35 minutes long towards the end of its run, but it made sense, so more power to them.
Unless this warrior nun flies, I will say “Good day sir!”
It would be cool if they had Sally Field guest star
She does! Kinda.
SOMEONE CALL Sally Fields!!!
With the quipping flair of Veronica Mars…That’s all I needed to hear.
Or Nah.
Ya ever noticed on movies or tv shows that feature humans vs demons or the devil, nothing from heaven ever comes to help? Maybe the occasional holy weapon but never any angels or divine intervention. Yes shows like Supernatural does have their angels and God show up but they are just as bad as the demons! But anyways, looks fun. I love shows where females are the protagonist and do a lot of ass kicking.And I coulda swear that the lead girl who plays Ava looks like a young Ellen Page.
Oh yes, ty. A whooooooole lot like Ellen Page. Which is *almost* enough to make me interested. But Catholicism, ew.
I was thinking Ellen Page, too! With a dash of Jennifer Lawrence.
Literally the same exact combination I was thinking of as well.
Must crush Catholicism, rrr rrr!
Haha I watched it over the weekend and it was fun. I never let shows or movies with religion turn me off to watching them. Even though I’m not a religious person, its always interesting how Hollywood portrays it.
I literally thought “oh wow, Ellen Page has gotten a Buffy-esque series? Must watch!”
They already CGI-cloned Ellen Page for the Last of Us video game…
Lol, no: https://www.eurogamer.net/changes-to-the-last-of-us-ellie-and-announcement-of-ellen-page-in-beyond-are-complete-coincidence
Ya ever noticed on movies or tv shows that feature humans vs demons or the devil, nothing from heaven ever comes to help? Maybe the occasional holy weapon but never any angels or divine intervention.HE’S AN ABSENTEE LANDLAAAAAAAAAAAWD!!!!!!…hoo-ha!
Maybe George Michael had it right:“And you cling to the things they sold you
Did you cover your eyes when they told you
That he can’t come back
‘Cause he has no children to come back for”
‘The mind is its own place, and of itselfCan make a heaven of hell; a hell of heaven.’There’s no such thing as an incorruptibly good person. Heaven would be just as capable of producing dicks as Hell is.
SPOILERS AHEAD…..I THINK the show actually ends up on ‘Heaven doesn’t exist and there aren’t any angels. There are two(?) groups of demon like beings who are fighting each other and humans are occasionally pawns in the middle.’
And Alba Baptista has this uncanny ability to go from looking just like Ellen Page to just like Jennifer Lawrence and back depending on the lighting and whether her hair is back or loose.
Yeah I finished the series over the weekend. Interesting how that one “demon” was playing everyone but still didn’t get what it’s motivations were.
You mean like in real life when God doesn’t help when shit goes all to hell?
2020!!
Heh – my one-line review for this was “Warrior Nun – Buffy without the wit, but added f-bombs, and a rather convoluted mythology, plus Ellen Page’s non-union Mexican equivalent – i.e. not without its pleasures.”
“God dammit Alba, down in front! We’re trying to play Mortal Kombat on the projector here!”
Catholicism is demonic. We should make its adherents wear some sort of marker so they can be easily identified.
Wrapping up The Order, and now I have this and Cursed to look forward to. Netflix is delivering the fantasy this summer.
Sounds like another sleeper hit for Netflix, nitpicks and shortcomings aside. I’ve been meaning to watch lost in space & outer banks as well my brother keeps recommending them
Lost in Space is worth it for Mina Sundwall (Penny). And I didn’t hate Parker Posey’s character for every minute she was on screen in the 2nd season, so there’s that.
I never did get to Lost in Space S2, but Parker Posey is, far too often, the best part of whatever project she’s in. In Lost in Space, it’s between her and the robot. I kinda keep hoping the robot’s gonna accidentally step on Will’s head.
Lmao noted. Thanks
Watch the newest season of Legends of Tomorrow to enjoy Sundwall in a series where everything else is not a void of suck
Only 15m in but going to watch and wow…I remember buying the Warrior Nun comic as it came out back in the day. At one point they even put together a fancy package that included a piece of film and I think a cell of some test work they did for an animated film that never seemed to happen. Slight regrets I do not have the fancy box set but I sold it many years back so that diminishes my regrets. I do remember bits and pieces of the manga so even having only watched 15 minutes it is immediately obvious that the show deviates a whole lot from the source material.
I’ve been watching the show today, and while I can’t say it’s all that good, it’s also not very bad. And I’ve spent a lot of time in the part of Spain they filmed in and it’s been very amusing spotting places I’ve been (the Warrior Nuns’ church is in Ronda, a mountaintop town that was the last Moorish fortress in Spain, and the church Ava was resuscitated in is in the old town in Marbella, as is the fancy house JC and his friends were squatting in. But the docks Ava and JC meet up at in episode 4 is in Malága…)I’m also left wondering why every Irish person in the show is horrible?
I ended up really liking this show, but my biggest critique is that it could have taken half as long to get where it was going. The cliffhanger at the end also feels a bit more like daring Netflix not to give them a second season. I think they will get one? Theoretically, they can then hit the ground running and use the next 10 episodes more effectively. Honestly though, worth it for Shotgun Mary alone.
I really like Beatrice and Camila, but Mary is good too. I do NOT like Lilith
Beatrice is great, and Camilla is adorable (she has one of the best scene entrances in the whole season), and Lilith… has potential. She’s way more interesting to me by the end of the season.
The Lilith 2.0 we get later in the season is a big improvement
Having finished the show now, I agree it meandered a lot, and there’s probably a half-dozen ways they could have done things to end with a similar cliffhanger and had more plot progression.But at the same time, Episode 6 was basically a travelogue to show how beautiful Ronda is (let down slightly by them not telling you the name of the town). I have a gigantic poster that’s basically the same vista Mary and Ava saw when Ava first saw the bridge. And I’m totally here for that.
“I’m also left wondering why every Irish person in the show is horrible?” .Well fuck that then I’m out.
To be fair, there are only two Irish characters in the show, and one of them is a nun, so she’s guaranteed to be horrible. (My mother-in-law is probably the staunchest Catholic I know and even she loathes nuns)
I actually liked the irish security guard/fixer guy before he got booted off a cliff – He had a lot of presence for a bit part, too much in fact; I thought there was no way she would kill him, he’s clearly going to be a recurring character. But no.
I also find it kind of funny that despite the fact that almost the whole cast are fluent in Spanish and/or have Spanish heritage, and the show is set in Spain, that almost nobody speaks Spanish or even has a Spanish accent. I’ve only watched the first 3 so far but I find it a little weird that Ava has apparently been living in a Spanish orphanage since she was 7 but speaks no Spanish – and they don’t even imply that she’s American and just ended up in Spain somehow. And apparently all the nuns in a Spanish order are all either British or American…
“Can we skip ahead to the part where this makes sense?”Can we skip ahead to the part where the quips are amusing?
Taking Silly to a new level.Through the Religious Life, the Church provided medieval European women with their only real opportunity for education and advancement. Reformed Protestants, on the other hand, took 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 verbatim.
In my experience, Netflix doesn’t make demons of Catholicism; Catholics do.
huh?Mout of my country is in the process of removing the church , and I’m no fan of it , but assuming all catholics = evil is a bit dumb.
In Mout country…church remove YOU!
Tried to watch the first episode and got bored after the first 10 minutes – programs like these; nasty nuns, too powerful demons, weak G-d, etc. are only one of the many reasons I’m so glad I’m JEWISH!
Wow! What a way to end it! Not with a cliffhanger, but mid-scene! I really hope it’s renewed now. If you’re watching it and finding it slow, it accelerates as it goes, episode 10 moves at machine gun pace.
If it does not get renewed that will be one of the all-time worst unresolved season finales, with literally everything up in the air I felt especially bad for Dr Jillian in the finale despite everything she did all season being idiotic and her hovering between sympathetic and villainous and eventually landing on “useless” Mother Superion and Lilith however both came up pretty big in the finale & I hope are more in the mix with the main sisters in the prospective next season
I feel like maybe I should have been into the comic to appreciate the show, because I couldn’t get past the first episode. Wooden performance from the lead, and some of the most stilted dialogue in a modern show. And for a show that’s supposed to be all about subverting religious tropes, it doesn’t seem to understand the tropes it wants to subvert in the first place.
Am I missing something? Is there some hidden brilliance if you can make it through the slog of the first episode?
My main issue with it so far is that the Church is relatively benign/good. Total immersion breaker.
The nun who runs the orphanage that Ava was raised/ imprisoned in is as evil and sadistic as you could possibly want
She’s doing the best she can with the money she has. Not too much evil there, at least in the first episode. Does she come back later on.
She does
One person and she’s treated as an abberation instead of the rule. It’s just not realistic.
If she crosses paths with Battle Pope, I’m sold.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Pope
Did they have to make Mary a woman version of Omar just because she’s blackLooking the source material I think they improved a lot especially the costumes, hope it gets renewed, I think there’s a chance to be great
Most of the costumes, yeah… but that cropped leather jacket with chain mail pauldrons that Ava is wearing at the end seemed straight out of an 80’s music video.
Just watched it. Nah. If this were more like Buffy, it would actually be good.
Not a single word on how on earth Ben Dunn and Antarctic Press managed to swing a deal to get this show made… Dunn has an infamously bad reputation when it comes to cutting licensing deals.
Her Eurotrash almost-boyfriend got dropped hard both by Ava & the show. Not a complaint, just an observation. Given the chemistry and connection between Ava and Beatrice in the later episodes & Ava’s reaction to Beatrice coming out to her, I think there is obvious potential there
regarding the episode title “Psalm 46:5,”i am reasonably sure that while one refers to an individual Psalm in the singular – i.e. “Psalm 46″ – when one refers to the biblical Book as a whole (as when one offers a scripural reference) one refers to “Psalms 46:5″.
I am reasonably certain that, upon reading this, heads will roll both at Netflix and in Europe at large.
The wife and I binged this over the course of two days and, while we liked it, we were really struck with how long they stretched out Ava’s unwillingness to become the warrior nun and halo-bearer. I mean, I get that she spent the majority of her life confined in a bed (from the age of 7, not 12) and that she just wants to live a normal life. But after the first encounter with the Terask and realizing that it is hunting her, and the understanding that the thing inside of her that they are hunting is literally giving her life and “super powers” and that only through the use of those powers can these things be destroyed before killing everyone they come into contact with, you would think she would come around quicker. But she keeps going off like she can just escape and be “normal”. The longer they stretched out that narrative, the more unbelievable that reaction became. And the more stupid and selfish Ava seemed. I was glad when she finally came around, but it took FOREVER, and if they keep up with that “character trait” in season 2, I might have to bow out.
really liked the location, EU makes it so easy for those historic locations, surprised that the Vatican allowed them to film in so many churches. and the really diverse cast was cool especially because many of the actors had mixed backgrounds too, one thing that I hope Netflix do is take advantage that they produce in the entire world and make it common to bring those ‘local’ actors to interact with each other in ‘international’ shows