Before there was The House of Windsor
Move over, The Crown! Why The Great is the racy royal drama you need to watch
Initially released on streaming service StarzPlay in the UK, its first season aired weekly on Channel 4 in early 2021. It hit audiences like a shot of vodka to the throat, with wild party scenes, grisly fights and a punchy script packed with waggish one-liners (“women are for seeding, not reading”). Having already received acclaim – and two Emmy nominations – in the US, it quickly became a word-of-mouth hit across the Atlantic.
The plot also proved compelling. Season one saw the dazzlingly intelligent, progressive Catherine leave Germany for Russia, finding herself utterly repulsed by the casually violent yet pitifully dim Peter. Unperturbed, she tried to fulfil her duties, even keeping her cool when her new love served the head of a Swedish soldier on a silver platter for dinner. Soon – not long after Peter’s failed attempt to drown her – Catherine resolved to transform Russia by taking over as empress, forming a motley crew to stage a coup. There was just one more problem: she was pregnant. When Peter captured her lover, however, Catherine was further fuelled by rage, and the gunshot signal was fired.
The second season picks up four months later, with the civil war at a standstill. As bored children kick a decapitated head around as entertainment, it’s clear that not much has changed. Peter eventually abdicates because … well, he’s very hungry. “I bait him out of hiding with roasted food,” explains Fanning. “It’s really easy – he’s a simple, simple man.” And just like that, Catherine has the power she so badly wanted: “Now what are you going to do with it? Are you even going to be a good leader? That’s something she’s grappling with – becoming a mother both to Russia and to her own child.”
Convinced that this is a temporary state of affairs, and excited about becoming a father, Peter willingly becomes Catherine’s prisoner in his rooms, where she also uses him as her willing sexual servant. . .Amid all the chaos and shifting power dynamics in Peter’s playground, Catherine receives a visit from her mother Joanna (Gillian Anderson). . .As well as establishing herself as the stern matriarch who turns Catherine from a ballsy empress to an obedient child, Anderson embraces the fun of the series, taking on a very silly storyline that provides some of the biggest laughs. Not one to be outdone, Peter also boasts a celebrity dad – Jason Isaacs – in a short but standout scene that explains why he ended up the way he is.
The arrival of both parents is significant, as Catherine and Peter spend the season preparing to welcome baby Paul (“That was the real name of their first born!” Fanning laughs. “We do play with history, but that time it was totally true. Paul – it’s too good that it can’t be made up.”) The imminent birth even brings out a new side of Peter, one that almost makes you warm to him. Referring to the aforementioned “real” teddy bear, Hoult explains that Peter is “not good at showing it, but he does really try and love Paul. It is an endearing thing, him wanting to be a dad.”
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