Treasure Island Review: A Nasty, Gripping 2026 Voyage

This season introduces us to young Jim Hawkins (Tom Sweet) and his mother Bess (Hayley Atwell), who come into possession of a legendary pirate's treasure map. What starts as a family windfall quickly becomes a one-way ticket aboard a ship heading across the Atlantic, where Jim discovers that everyone around him wants the same thing he does - and most of them are willing to kill for it.

Over the course of the season, the show tracks Jim's transformation through mutiny, violence, and betrayal, ending with a version of the character who is unrecognizable from the wide-eyed kid in the opening hour. That arc is the engine of the whole thing, and it runs on dread rather than adrenaline.

Let's get the obvious out of the way: yes, it's Treasure Island again. Robert Louis Stevenson's novel has been adapted so many times that you'd be forgiven for yawning at the announcement. But this version understands something most adaptations forget - the book is not really about treasure. It's about a boy discovering that adults lie, and that survival sometimes requires becoming a little bit monstrous yourself.

Oyelowo's Long John Silver is the season's crowning achievement. He's charming, magnetic, and terrifying in the same breath - the kind of performance where a warm smile lands like a threat. There's a moment early on where he tells Jim a story and you genuinely can't tell whether he's being kind or grooming him for something worse. That ambiguity is the whole show in miniature.

Sweet holds his own as Jim, playing the character's erosion in small increments rather than big dramatic beats. Atwell is somewhat underused as Bess, though when the script gives her something to do, she reminds you why she's one of the most watchable actors working. Tomer Capone's Billy Bones is a jittery, unnerving delight, and he exits far too soon.

The production design deserves a shout-out too. The ship feels damp and claustrophobic, the kind of place where you can smell the rot through the screen. Directors of photography love to make period ships look majestic; this one looks miserable, which is exactly right.

Where the season stumbles is pacing. The first two episodes move at a crawl, loading up on setup before the voyage truly begins. And once the mutiny kicks in, some of the confrontations resolve faster than the tension warrants. There's also a nagging sense that the show is holding back its most brutal material for later seasons - you can feel it hedging in the final stretch.

But when it locks in, it locks in hard. The season's back half is some of the most compelling adventure television in recent memory, elevated by a score that knows exactly when to shut up and let silence do the work. It's a 6.158/10 show by the numbers, which feels low - this is the kind of series that will find its audience slowly and then get fiercely defended by them.

Pros:

• David Oyelowo delivers a career-best performance as Long John Silver
• Gritty, atmospheric production design that refuses to romanticize the era
• Tom Sweet's gradual transformation anchors the emotional stakes
• The back half is genuinely tense, unpredictable television

Cons:

• The opening episodes drag before the voyage properly begins
• Hayley Atwell's Bess deserves significantly more screen time
• Some confrontations resolve too quickly, undercutting built tension
• Feels like it's saving its darkest material for future seasons

Treasure Island isn't trying to be a comfort watch, and that's precisely why it works. It strips the nostalgia off a story we all think we know and replaces it with salt, blood, and moral rot. The pacing issues are real and the underuse of Atwell is a genuine frustration, but Oyelowo alone justifies the voyage. If you've been waiting for an adventure series with actual teeth - something that treats its young protagonist like a person capable of being broken rather than a plucky hero destined to win - this is it. Board the ship. Just don't expect to like everyone you meet on it.