First of all, can we just award the Best Actor Emmy to Nicholas Hoult for his madcap performance as Peter III?
How about some more for Elle Fanning as Catherine, Adam Godley as the Archbishop, and maybe nominations for Sachs Dhawan as Count Orlo and the brilliant Douglas Hodge as Peters beleaguered military chief.
That is how brilliant “The Great” is. Fantastic acting, and the comedic touch belies the seriousness of the ominous tone that haunts the entire storyline. Best binge watch of 2020, without question.
I watched half of the first episode before giving up; I don’t think I chuckled even once. I don’t know what it was that rubbed me the wrong way – it seemed like it was written by the Comedrytron 5000.
I do expect to see a lot of award love for this show. Before this Elle Fanning was just another young actor to me, now I see her as one of the really talented ones. I agree with the assessment of other performances, but it really gets down to the writing. Such great characters on the page, it’s a wee bit easier for the actors to bring to life.
Can we just spend a minute discussing the historical accuracy? Woo boy, I know they make a point of saying it’s not really true, but you know how people watch things like this and walk away thinking it’s mostly accurate. Yeah, they really really colored outside the lines, so to speak. I won’t list everything, but for starters, they were married for 18 years before he ascended to the throne. He was only in office 6 months before she overthrew him, but they were not newlyweds. Personality-wise, they totally made Peter into a frat-bro wild man, whereas in real life he was more of an overgrown arrested development nerd child. And the sex stuff, there is some support for the idea that IRL Peter was a virgin due to physical dis-function, but where’s the fun in that, yah?
Anywho, yes the show is great and wildly entertaining, in spite of being mostly made up.
On the contrary, I was disappointed that the first half of the first episode was nothing but zaniness. There was basically no introduction of any of the characters before diving into fairly corny jokes. (The wife is dissatisfied by sex with her husband and he’s only interested in talking about sports with his buddy! Groundbreaking!)
I am a big ol’ history nerd, with a deep love/fascination for Russian history in particular.
I will admit, I don’t know enough of the Romanov era to know how truthful they were with things, but I know enough to know they are playing fast and loose with a LOT of details.
That said, I love it. It’s funny, charming, sexy, and amazingly well written, with a depth in some of the characters that I didn’t realize until rewatching bits and pieces.
Last year I picked it up as a random fluffball show that I could watch while doing laundry, that nobody else in my house would be interested in. But it turned out to be way better than I expected, and I got my wife hooked, and I had to find another laundry show.
Season 3 is just as full of appalled laughter, maybe even more than before. Elle Fanning is a national treasure, and Nicholas Hoult is born for the role.