I was greatly looking forward to this mini-series series with Helen Mirren. As a fan of Russian history, and Catherine the Great, who I have been fascinated with my whole life, I had hoped to learn more then from the books I have read. But this is mundane. And I'm not even half an hour into episode 1, and I've lost interest, sorry to say. Being from HBO, I thought it would be fantastic, but it's quite disappointing.