Sophia Bee

I utterly adore this show. It's irreverent, bawdy historical satire at it's finest. It's full of truly talented actors who offset it's silliness with glimpses of true emotion and talent. Nic Hoult is BRILLIANT and Elle Fanning brings just the perfect amount of self-righteousness and spunk to Catherine. You root for her yet you still revel when all the terrible people around her thwart her over and over. From a serious point of view for a (mostly) non-serious show, The Great plays on the theme of outsiders and how entrenched cultures can be. You're reminded again and again that this is RUSSIA, and no matter Catherine's efforts, there is something immutable about the character of the country and its people. My biggest nit pick with S1 is that it tends to be a bit too self conscious and lose the plot in place of hilarious hijinks. It's wildly entertaining but there are only so many times you can watch Peter be both horrifying and ridiculous. S2 has vastly improved this. It's still hilarious but there's also a strong plot line through the whole thing. It's also fleshed out most of the secondary characters and cut some of the more useless ones. For those who want to nitpick the historical factuality, if you hit up Wikipedia, the show is much more factual than I expected. I mean, it's NOTHING short of fiction so I was surprised to find ANYTHING remotely accurate. The Great is what Bridgerton could be if it took itself less seriously. I made it through 2 eps of that show - ugh. The Great is a total hidden gem with one of the best casts I've seen on a show in a long long time. And the music is just chef's kiss. The best use of contemporary music I've seen since Peaky Blinders, another show that's successfully blended a period piece with more modern elements. And did I say that Nic Hoult is GOLD????