Huzzah for "The Great"

"The Great," covering the rise to power of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, is pointedly self-described as "an occasionally true story." In fact, there's not much of "The Great" that resembles actual history except the broadest outlines. The series starts with Catherine (Elle Fanning) arriving at the Russian court after growing up an impoverished German noble, full of progressive ideals and dreams of bettering Russia. These dreams are quickly dashed when she meets her new husband, Peter III (Nicholas Hoult), a childish, narcissist reprobate with little regard for his subjects. Catherine tries her best to settle into court life, but is increasingly appalled at Peter's poor leadership and casual abuse of power. After considering her options, she decides to work toward a coup to take power for herself.

Written by Tony McNamara, who also wrote "The Favourite," "The Great" is played as the blackest black comedy. Peter is constantly abusing people, is often totally oblivious to his incompetence, and devotes most of his energies to having the best time possible. He has sex with anyone he wants, including his best friend Grigor's (Gwilym Lee) very willing wife Georgina (Charity Wakefiend). Catherine's early attempts at reform tend to go terribly awry, and end up further subjugating people or causing unintended tragedy. There's a lot of sex and bawdiness in the series, but the show draws the line at actual nudity. Likewise, while "The Great" covers similar thematic ground as "The Favourite," with its focus on the vulgar excesses and absurd privilege of the ruling class, its narrative is more traditional. Catherine never stops being morally forthright, and we already know that she wins in the end.

On the other hand, this Catherine is clearly invented. The real Catherine the Great didn't spearhead the coup of Peter III, and was actually less of a progressive and a reformer than her husband. Likewise, nearly all the other characters and relationships in the show are totally made up. The only supporting figures based on actual people are Peter's Aunt Elizabeth (Belinda Bromilow) and Catherine's first major ally, Count Orlo (Sacha Dhawan), and they're portrayed as a wacky eccentric and a nervous bureaucrat respectively. Other characters include Catherine's sarcastic maid Marial (Phoebe Fox), her assigned lover Leo (Sebastian de Souza), and members of Peter's inner circle, the Archbishop (Adam Godley) and General Velementov (Douglas Hodge).

However, the point of the show is its inaccuracy. There's colorblind casting, so you have black and South-Asian Russian nobles in the mix, and everyone speaks with British accents. There are major honking anachronisms in just about every episode. "The Great" is not interested in Catherine the Great's life as it really was, but as a jumping off point for a big, juicy allegory about an inept government heading a country mired in corruption. It takes more inspiration from the Trump administration and episodes of "Veep" than the Russian court. However, because the series is so frank in showing Peter's rampant vices and celebration of his own ignorance, it feels more honest and clear-eyed about the politics of tyranny than a traditional piece of historical fiction. And it's certainly funnier.

This could have all fallen apart if the cast weren't up to snuff, but fortunately the assembled comic talents all bring their A game. Elle Fanning's Catherine is mostly the voice of reason and straight woman to the madness going on at court, but she's a very compelling and sympathetic character, with her own considerable faults. Her monologue about her expectations for her wedding night is fantastic stuff. However, the clear MVP of the series is Nicholas Hoult, whose Peter III is essentially an oblivious frat boy who has been handed all the power, and it's made him a monster. Still, he's frequently so genial and weirdly innocent in his monstrosity that he's kinda likeable in spite of it. Surely, he's not totally irredeemable, right?

The show's writing initially seems a little shaky on filling ten episodes, and there are slower stretches as Catherine vacillates between whether she should kill Peter or better him. Fortunately, there's some smart use of the ensemble, and many of the subplots yield good things. Even the romance that develops between Catherine and Leo, while very predictable, has some good twists and turns. McNamara is very good at turning very stressful situations into very absurd ones, and the dialogue is full of great zingers. One of the best episodes involves Peter and Catherine meeting the Swedish royals, who are essentially blonder doubles of themselves, and Peter gets a great rant about the Russian approach to warfare.

My one major complaint with "The Great" is that it's currently being billed as a miniseries, but functions better as the first season of an ongoing series. The finale, in particular, is a cliffhanger that leaves far too many questions unanswered, whether you know the relevant history or not.

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