Despite Sophie Turner’s Best Efforts, The CW’s Joan Isn’t as Much Fun as It Should Be

For many of us, Sophie Turner was always the unsung hero of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Her performance as the series’ long-suffering Sansa Stark was layered, compelling, and one of the final season’s few true highlights. Following Thrones’ conclusion Turner became more well known for her dating life and friendship with megastar Taylor Swift than her onscreen television work—though her cameo was far and away the funniest moment in the Netflix comedy Do Revenge and her supporting turn in HBO’s The Staircase saw her perform opposite big name talent like Colin Firth and Toni Collette. (We  just won’t talk about how  the X-Men franchise wasted her turn as a young Jean Grey, okay?) But, if we’re honest, many of us were just waiting for her to land the proper television starring role she deserved. 

Unfortunately, if The CW’s drama Joan is anything to go by, we’re all going to have to keep waiting a bit longer. Because while Turner does her best, Joan is a drama that can’t quite decide what it wants to be, often choosing the safest and least interesting path by which to tell the story of its notorious central figure. A British import from U.K. network ITV, the biographical series ostensibly follows the story of infamous real-life jewel thief, Joan Hannington, a woman who rose from obscurity to become known as the “Godmother” of London’s criminal underworld. And the series’ six episodes (all of which were made available for review) do ultimately serve as an origin story of sorts, laying the groundwork for the woman—-and criminal mastermind—Joan will someday become. But the show doesn’t take her story far enough, failing to show us why this particular woman’s life was so extraordinary (or worthy of an ITV drama in the first place.)

The story begins in London in 1985. Joan (Turner) lives with her young daughter Kelly and a vaguely abusive boyfriend, who is clearly involved in a variety of illegal activities. (At least if the sudden appearance of fur coats and fancy cars her family could never afford on their own are anything to go by.) But when a man with a gun breaks into their home and threatens the life of her daughter, Joan realizes she must leave in order to make a fresh start for them both. But without a home, a job, or a stable place to live, she’s forced to turn Kelly over to emergency care, who place the girl with a foster family. 

What follows is Joan’s attempt to start over, though for every positive choice she makes it seems as though it’s followed by two more steps backward. After getting fired from her sister’s salon and arrested for stealing a car to visit Kelly, Joan ultimately finds work in a jeweler’s shop, inspired by her love of sparkly things and genuine interest in learning more about diamonds and what makes them valuable. But when a rash decision leads her to steal a handful of loose stones, she meets Boisie Hannington (Frank Dillane), a high-end antiques dealer who uses his shop as a front for smuggling stolen goods. He convinces her to help him with an illegal smuggling job, and the two begin a relationship that will change both their lives forever. 

Unfortunately, Joan is not as glamorous or transgressive as its subject matter or initial marketing materials might have led you to believe. The real Hannigan was famous for wearing disguises to pass off fake checks, stealing diamonds by swallowing them whole, and crafting elaborate schemes to switch out expensive rings with carefully constructed fakes right under the noses of shop assistants. The show named after her is certainly at its most entertaining when Turner’s swapping wigs and faking new accents, gleefully shoplifting and scheming her way through a handful of small jewelry heists to make ends meet. But while the tension during these scenes is genuine and Turner’s collection of wigs is certainly fun, there really aren’t enough of them. 

As a result, Joan often feels more like a domestic thriller than it does a true crime drama, and while its focus on its titular character’s struggle to reunite with her daughter is emotionally fraught, there’s not much here that feels new or exciting. The show pokes at some interesting ideas about female ambition and the challenges of being taken seriously in a man’s world—even when that world is full of criminals—but it never really takes any of them far enough, choosing instead to default back to Joan’s relationship drama with Boisie and the question of how she’ll ever manage to reclaim Kelly from foster care.

Joan’s final frames promise us some of the peak antiheroine vibes we’ve been told to expect, but they also serve as little more than a teaser for a potential second season that may or may not come to pass. As a result, Joan Harrington’s story feels strangely dull and unfinished, and while interested parties can always dive into the memoir written by the woman herself, it’s frustrating that Turner only gets to play some of the safest and least controversial aspects of her life story.

To her credit, Turner does a lot with what she’s given, centering Joan’s inner steel and sharp intelligence throughout her performance. She excels at portraying her character’s adaptable nature and utter faith in her own ability, whether it comes to gleefully conning those around her or her determination to get her daughter back. Her Joan’s north star is undoubtedly her love for Kelly, and the moments when she starts to question whether her lifestyle is still the safest or best option for her are genuinely gut-wrenching. It’s a better performance than this drama often deserves, and one worth tuning in to see, though many viewers will likely find themselves wondering what might have been had the show leaned in a bit harder into showing us Joan’s rough edges. Maybe Season 2, should it exist, will. 

Joan premieres Wednesday, October 2 on The CW.

Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter @LacyMB.

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