# Do Russians like "The Great"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-russians-like-the-great/958770>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 2, 2022, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-russians-like-the-great/958770 "2022-02-02T02:55:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-russians-like-the-great/958770/1 "2022-02-02T02:55:49Z")

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We’re happily in the middle of the second season of _The Great_, a show I idly started watching as something to do while folding laundry and have become completely enchanted by. For those unfamiliar, it’s a blood-and-sex-soaked comedy about Catherine the Great and her husband Peter, and it’s brilliantly written and acted and almost completely historically inaccurate.

And I was wondering: is it well-known in Russia? Do Russians tend to hate it, or love it, or both? Does anyone know? It’s almost impossible to Google this question.

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-russians-like-the-great/958770/2 "2022-02-02T03:26:56Z")

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My Google Fu also failed me. I tried to find a mention of it on RT, but no go.

Then I thought to check whether Hulu is even available in Russia. Turns out it’s not available outside the U.S. at all - you have use a VPN. Since _The Great_ is a Hulu exclusive, its viewership there is probably limited.

Pure conjecture though.

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**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-russians-like-the-great/958770/3 "2022-02-02T09:27:14Z")

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I was in Moscow for three months before coming back to Canada in December. I heard no mention of it, but my own viewing of TV was pretty limited.

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**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-russians-like-the-great/958770/4 "2022-02-02T09:28:49Z")

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The one thing that annoys me about The Great, and this is probably a Scandinavian thing, is that while it is super ahistorical, most of the main characters have their counterparts in history and the events have a sprinkling of history to them, and then they just invent some Swedish royals and a republican revolution out of whole cloth!

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**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-russians-like-the-great/958770/5 "2022-02-02T10:45:46Z")

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> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#):
>
> Since _The Great_ is a Hulu exclusive, its viewership there is probably limited.

When the services advertise this, it means in a particular geography. In Canada where Hulu is not available, The Great is on Amazon Prime.

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2022, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-russians-like-the-great/958770/6 "2022-02-02T19:04:05Z")

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Ignorance fought!

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**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-russians-like-the-great/958770/7 "2022-02-03T06:01:47Z")

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I don’t know how they feel about The Great, but I know Russians love [The Great 8](https://twitter.com/ovi8).