I was intrigued and excited by the ads running up to the debut of this series. The first few minutes of the initial episode promised historical authenticity. It quickly veered into a disappointingly predictable teen soap opera.
Mary Stuart's life, even if only while at the court of Henry II, is filled with enough sex, intrigue and blood to fill several seasons of a series. Catherine De Medici was her mother-in-law. Diane De Poitiers, the kings mistress was 20 years his senior! The war of the Reformation was literally being fought beneath her balcony at times, with heads rolling and bond fires blazing.
Yet, the writers fail to mine the rich, actual story connected to Mary,Queen of Scots and prance into ridiculous plot lines, conversations, and clothing fit more for a 21st century adolescent drama than the story around a girl whose existence made several countries unstable for decades.
The production values are high, and it's a delightful show visually. If the story had been made without any pretense of basis on historical characters it could have been sold as fantasy, and I'd have had no problem with it. I just couldn't get past the anachronisms week after week: the roles of women in that society; the clothing and hair styles, while beautiful today, that would have been grounds for being burned alive; "Diane is shopping in Paris";pagan blood rituals....
It's frustrating to see such obviously high production capital put into such a poorly written show.
Mary Stuart's life, even if only while at the court of Henry II, is filled with enough sex, intrigue and blood to fill several seasons of a series. Catherine De Medici was her mother-in-law. Diane De Poitiers, the kings mistress was 20 years his senior! The war of the Reformation was literally being fought beneath her balcony at times, with heads rolling and bond fires blazing.
Yet, the writers fail to mine the rich, actual story connected to Mary,Queen of Scots and prance into ridiculous plot lines, conversations, and clothing fit more for a 21st century adolescent drama than the story around a girl whose existence made several countries unstable for decades.
The production values are high, and it's a delightful show visually. If the story had been made without any pretense of basis on historical characters it could have been sold as fantasy, and I'd have had no problem with it. I just couldn't get past the anachronisms week after week: the roles of women in that society; the clothing and hair styles, while beautiful today, that would have been grounds for being burned alive; "Diane is shopping in Paris";pagan blood rituals....
It's frustrating to see such obviously high production capital put into such a poorly written show.