I have just completed watching season three of Ekaterina. All together, they span the years 1745 to 1782. That leaves 14 years of the reign of Catherine the Great for additional seasons. I know there were three wars in those years and who knows how many lovers and court intrigues.
Season One looks at the years from Ektarina's arrival in Russia in 1745 until shortly after she is crowned empress in 1762. I used Google often to figure out who the characters were and to see if the events being described took place as they were being described (of course, this ruins any chance of being surprised). From what I could tell they were so that season was historically accurate. Julia Aug was great as Empress Elizabeth (she also played a major role in another period piece that I recommend, Love in Chains). Marina Aleksandrova is also good as Ektarina. I do wonder if her profession of love for Peter III was genuine because she was a naive romantic or feigned as part of her quest for power.
Season Two picks up from the end of Season One and takes ends with the 1782 unveiling of a statue of Peter the Great. There are two notable variations from facts. The first and most annoying was the appearance of hot air balloons fifteen years or so before they existed. Worse, they added nothing to the story. The other deviation was that, in the show, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire died of smallpox not long before the end of the Russo-Turkish War. He died of a heart attack but the change in facts is poetic justice in the show as the story had the Sultan attempting to assassinate Ektarina by sending her a gift of smallpox infected face powder. The Empress never learned that but after the death of a noble woman who opened the gift, she got inoculated against smallpox. The show conflates two English doctors. One, at the request of Ektarina, travelled to Russia to give her, her son and others the treatment. The other did not arrive until a year later to become the court physician. The show does not point out how very dangerous that procedure was at the time. It relied upon using live smallpox virus and not the cowpox version developed decades later.
All of Season Three takes place within the period covered by Season two and only goes to December 1775. The focus is on three threats to Catherine - war with the Turks, the Pugachev Rebellion and a woman claiming to be the granddaughter of Peter the Great. While the first two seasons seem to be historically accurate, the third season goes off the rails. The major events described took place but the characters involved were changed significantly. It's still a good story.
I learned that everyone in the series who has a first name and last name can be googled. There may not be a lot of details about a few of those but they were real. It is worth checking Google about some of these otherwise, you won't get it. At least if you're not an American like me.
Case in point...the Empress and Potemkin visited a flea infested inn on their way south. Two army officers had been sent there just in case but as they did not expect the arrival to happen, they got drunk. Upon the arrival of the royal party, the drunkards were questioned by the Empress. She laughed at the last name of one of them. The show failed to explain the humor to those of us with limited knowledge of the Russian language. His last name, romanized, was Budov. In Czech it means building but in Russian it is a synonym for intercourse. The other soldier was his cousin (a detail omitted by the show). In an attempt to get out of trouble, he recited a poem to the Empress. Potemkin was unhappy that she let him go unpunished. She said as long as he could stay away from a bottle he would be famous for his poetry. He was Gavrila Derzhavin, a poet who eventually became Minister of Justice.
The CGI in the show are not good. There are quite a few errors in the English subtitles. Some of them are pretty easy to figure out but it is still a pain. The use of multiple languages is fine but if it is supposed to be a native speaker of that language he/she should sound like one. French and Italian don't roll their R's. The only thing worse than hearing French with a Russian accent is hearing it with an American one. Part of the third season takes place in Naples and folks that are supposed to be Italian had their dialogue dubbed. It was very disconcerting.
Overall, I certainly enjoyed the show and will watch the next seasons if and when they come out.
One of the reviewers here said you should know Russian history before you watch this. That's not true. But it is helpful. Russian/Ukrainian historical dramas I have watched (or will) The Golden Horde Sophia Godunov (there are many. I watched the 2019 tv series) Peter the Great (I am just starting that four episode series on Amazon Prime) Life of a Mistress Love in Chains
The last two are about serfdom and have a similar premise - a serf girl is raised inside a noble home like a daughter. Of the two, Life of a Mistress is better. "Mistress" is in the sense of a woman head of an estate, not a man's extramarital play thing.
Season One looks at the years from Ektarina's arrival in Russia in 1745 until shortly after she is crowned empress in 1762. I used Google often to figure out who the characters were and to see if the events being described took place as they were being described (of course, this ruins any chance of being surprised). From what I could tell they were so that season was historically accurate. Julia Aug was great as Empress Elizabeth (she also played a major role in another period piece that I recommend, Love in Chains). Marina Aleksandrova is also good as Ektarina. I do wonder if her profession of love for Peter III was genuine because she was a naive romantic or feigned as part of her quest for power.
Season Two picks up from the end of Season One and takes ends with the 1782 unveiling of a statue of Peter the Great. There are two notable variations from facts. The first and most annoying was the appearance of hot air balloons fifteen years or so before they existed. Worse, they added nothing to the story. The other deviation was that, in the show, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire died of smallpox not long before the end of the Russo-Turkish War. He died of a heart attack but the change in facts is poetic justice in the show as the story had the Sultan attempting to assassinate Ektarina by sending her a gift of smallpox infected face powder. The Empress never learned that but after the death of a noble woman who opened the gift, she got inoculated against smallpox. The show conflates two English doctors. One, at the request of Ektarina, travelled to Russia to give her, her son and others the treatment. The other did not arrive until a year later to become the court physician. The show does not point out how very dangerous that procedure was at the time. It relied upon using live smallpox virus and not the cowpox version developed decades later.
All of Season Three takes place within the period covered by Season two and only goes to December 1775. The focus is on three threats to Catherine - war with the Turks, the Pugachev Rebellion and a woman claiming to be the granddaughter of Peter the Great. While the first two seasons seem to be historically accurate, the third season goes off the rails. The major events described took place but the characters involved were changed significantly. It's still a good story.
I learned that everyone in the series who has a first name and last name can be googled. There may not be a lot of details about a few of those but they were real. It is worth checking Google about some of these otherwise, you won't get it. At least if you're not an American like me.
Case in point...the Empress and Potemkin visited a flea infested inn on their way south. Two army officers had been sent there just in case but as they did not expect the arrival to happen, they got drunk. Upon the arrival of the royal party, the drunkards were questioned by the Empress. She laughed at the last name of one of them. The show failed to explain the humor to those of us with limited knowledge of the Russian language. His last name, romanized, was Budov. In Czech it means building but in Russian it is a synonym for intercourse. The other soldier was his cousin (a detail omitted by the show). In an attempt to get out of trouble, he recited a poem to the Empress. Potemkin was unhappy that she let him go unpunished. She said as long as he could stay away from a bottle he would be famous for his poetry. He was Gavrila Derzhavin, a poet who eventually became Minister of Justice.
The CGI in the show are not good. There are quite a few errors in the English subtitles. Some of them are pretty easy to figure out but it is still a pain. The use of multiple languages is fine but if it is supposed to be a native speaker of that language he/she should sound like one. French and Italian don't roll their R's. The only thing worse than hearing French with a Russian accent is hearing it with an American one. Part of the third season takes place in Naples and folks that are supposed to be Italian had their dialogue dubbed. It was very disconcerting.
Overall, I certainly enjoyed the show and will watch the next seasons if and when they come out.
One of the reviewers here said you should know Russian history before you watch this. That's not true. But it is helpful. Russian/Ukrainian historical dramas I have watched (or will) The Golden Horde Sophia Godunov (there are many. I watched the 2019 tv series) Peter the Great (I am just starting that four episode series on Amazon Prime) Life of a Mistress Love in Chains
The last two are about serfdom and have a similar premise - a serf girl is raised inside a noble home like a daughter. Of the two, Life of a Mistress is better. "Mistress" is in the sense of a woman head of an estate, not a man's extramarital play thing.