A Fantasy of "My Lady Jane"

Spoilers for the first episode ahead.

I'm generally less interested in costume drama romances like "Bridgerton," and more interested in historical dramas, especially if they're funny ones like "The Great" or "The Serpent Queen."  "My Lady Jane," an irreverent reimagining of the brief reign of Jane Grey in Tudor era England, is trying to be both.  Lady Jane Grey (Emily Bader), cousin to the sickly King Edward VI (Jordan Peters), wants to be independent and pursue her knowledge of horticulture and medicine.  Unfortunately her scheming mother, Lady Frances (Anna Chancellor), insists on marrying her off to the dissolute Guildford Dudley (Edward Bluemel), son of the wealthy Lord Dudley (Rob Brydon).  

The narrator (Oliver Chris), who is simultaneously sassy and snooty, informs us from the outset that we're deviating from history.  The show has color-blind casting and modern vulgarities being thrown around left and right, which is pretty common these days.  More significantly, "My Lady Jane" has also decided to dump the Protestant/Catholic divide, and introduce Ethians as a persecuted minority instead - Ethians being people who can magically turn into animals at will.  Jane's bestie Susannah (Máiréad Tyers) is revealed to be one.  Several other major characters turn out to be Ethians over the course of the season as well, but I'll leave you to figure out which ones.  Jane, of course, is on the side of the Ethians, and when she becomes embroiled in the battle for the crown, this pits her against Ethian-hating Princess Mary (Kate O'Flynn) and her devious lover Lord Seymour (Dominic Cooper), the chief villains.

Created by Gemma Burgess, "My Lady Jane" is juggling a lot.  Simplifying real history to the bones, some of the material can come across as very watered down and pandering.  "My Lady Jane" is a lot lighter on the satire than something like "The Great," and content to stick to pretty pedestrian girl-power themes and feel-good fantasy scenarios where love conquers all.  However, the writing takes pains to avoid getting too cute.  The narrator cattily mocks everyone, including Jane, for their bad decisions, and drops regular self-aware, metatextual quips - maybe too many depending on your taste.  The show is also not scared of being a romance.  I like that there's a lot of sex and relationship drama going on.  Jane and Guildford take the slow burn approach, with a lot of the usual longing looks and steamy close-ups.  It's the most trite part of the show, but it works because the lead actors have plenty of chemistry.  Meanwhile Guildford's idiot brother Stan (Henry Ashton) is smitten with Jane's mother, and Jane's sister Katherine (Isabella Brownson) and King Edward get their own romantic subplots.  Because of the Ethian business, we also get some "Ladyhawke" scenarios, which I find irresistible.    

Best of all, the show is consistently funny.  Many of the performances are positively cartoonish, with the scenery frequently getting chewed.  I particularly enjoyed Jane's youngest sister Margaret (Robyn Betteridge), a little girl who is developing worrying psychopathic tendencies.  Rob Brydon, Kate O'Flynn, Dominic Cooper, and Jim Broadbent as the nasty Duke of Leicester skillfully shoulder a lot of the farce.  Then there's Anna Chancellor as Jane's mother, who is probably my favorite of the cast, for embodying a very shrewd, very unsentimental power player who tends to show her love by repeatedly ruining her daughters lives.  

The production values are good - not great, but good enough.  The fight scenes and the special effects are pretty limited but strategically handled, and the best thing I can say about the Tudor-era setting is that it's obviously exaggerated, but much less distracting than what we usually see in these kinds of comedic alt-historical shows.  One creative choice that I do take issue with is the use of a lot of classic rock covers on the soundtrack, because it's been done far too often and frequently better.     

"My Lady Jane" was  canceled after its first season, but it wraps up nicely and works fine as a miniseries.  Frankly, I don't think a continuation is needed at all.  It's definitely worth a watch if you like this kind of lighter, fluffier genre show.  History buffs, however, are warned to approach with caution.  

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