The historical dramas on premium cable have always had a certain salacious reputation because of the looser content restrictions. And with HBO mostly in the business of prestige productions these days, and originals on Cinemax essentially kaput, that leaves Starz to be America's primary source of steamy costume dramas like "Spartacus," "Outlander" and the new miniseries "Mary & George."
In the reign of King James I (Tony Curran), the ambitious Mary Villiers (Julianne Moore) is recently widowed and pins her hopes for the future on her second son George (Nicholas Galitzine). She intends to position him as a potential lover and advisor to the King, and eventually have him supplant the current favorite, the Earl of Somerset (Laurie Davidson). Mary and George have to contend with several enemies and allies, including Queen Anne (Trine Dyrholm), the Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon (Mark O'Halloran), and the future King Charles I (Samuel Blenkin).
The series covers events from roughly 1587 to 1628, but takes a lot of liberties with history. The whole series is predicated on King James's relationships with his favored courtiers being sexual, resulting in a lot of torrid romance. This adds a sexual dimension to most of the power games going on at court. Mary is also portrayed as being a commoner who bought her titles, and has her own female lover, a prostitute turned lady-in-waiting named Sandie (Niamh Algar). To put it bluntly, there's a lot of sex in this show, though portrayed tastefully, without much actual nudity. The visuals are designed to look like the paintings of the era - Rembrandts in particular- often dimly lit with darkened backgrounds and interiors. This helps to suggest that there's more onscreen than there actually is. The dialogue, however, is pretty filthy, with even the stuffiest characters barely bothering with snide insinuations.
The performances are good, with Julianne Moore valiantly leading the charge. However, the characters are so caught up in their machinations that there's not much room for interiority. It's often hard to parse the nature of the relationships, even the fairly straightforward ones. We know that George has some real affection for King James, and frequently chafes against his mother's control, though he's mostly on her side. We know that Mary puts all her efforts into securing the best marriages and positions for all of her children, including the mentally unstable John (Tom Victor), but perhaps the only person she truly loves is Sandie. There's enough incident and enough exciting English history going on that the series is never boring - and when it is boring, the show's creators have no issue with embellishing the truth until it's not. However, the characters remain disappointingly shallow despite ample opportunity to dig into the psyches of a passel of interesting characters.
I suspect that the series overextended itself, trying to shoehorn romantic and melodramatic tropes into the existing framework of English history. The Earl of Somerset, for instance, is the major obstacle to George's rise early in the series and should be a significant character, but the writing limits him to acting like a seventeenth century mean girl for most of his screen time. When he becomes embroiled in scandal, it unfolds far too quickly and lacks emotional impact. Perhaps the show works better for those who are more well versed in history. Tony Curran has a few good scenes as King James, but the character's behavior is so erratic from episode to episode that you can't say he really has any kind of arc. O'Halloran caught my attention with his introductory scenes as Francis Bacon, but I had trouble keeping track of his loyalties, and in the end he was treated as just another minor player, despite his importance to history.
I appreciate having this story told through a LGBT lens, though all the LGBT characters are privileged enough that their sexuality isn't any great barrier to getting what they want. However, the fact that the homosexual couplings are as matter-of-fact and as numerous as the heterosexual sex scenes we normally get in premium cable shows ought to count for something. If this seems like the kind of show you'd enjoy, be assured that the creators don't pull their punches when it comes to the sexuality. However, I was hoping for a little more substance to go along with it.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment