I had high hopes for this.
The budget is clearly plenty.
The actors are of good quality.
The cinematography is decent.
But the plot, the script and the character behaviour is just plain unrealistic and silly.
Clearly an LGBTQ targeted show so that's OK if you accept that from the premise.
Historical fact it isn't and even as historical fiction it's stretching the intrinsic truth.
There's a continuous theme of England bashing. Most of it subliminal but some clear and unrepentant from the snipes from the French character at the start, to the hints from the Irish English & English men hating lesbian prostitute. Was this necessary?. Would it have been acceptable in a period of high suspicion of foreigners and catholics.
The prostitute is clearly not a devout catholic so why is she acting like an Irish radical in a Royal court that would appear to be far more tolerant and accepting than her national kinsmen back home.
There are also many questionable incidents that defy reality.
People coming and going to the Royal Court and gagging access to the King without any security checks?
The King is treated as a highly gullible clown who spent all his days rollicking with rent boys? One wonders how he found time to work on the bible. 🤔
A very minute Royal court of about 20 people and a couple of guards. Really? All Royal courts from Henry Viii onwards were very sizeable affairs rather than this close nit community of hedonists.
King James openly flaunting his sexuality to both court and people? Erm No.
In fact to this day, his sexuality is still not 100% proven by evidence. Most is circumstantial .
The Queen certainly wasn't involved in choosing his "favourites" nor was he constantly surrounded by a pack of overltly promiscuous rent boys, at least not in view of anyone not involved. Only the current favourite would have been visible to the court.
Mary is portrayed as having way to much power and access to high ranking people at the beginning of the story.
As other reviewers have pointed out, the superfluous use of sex scenes and male posterior shots suggests material filler through want of actual substance. This is always a bad sign.
Overall I felt let down and they have wasted a lot of opportunities.
The budget is clearly plenty.
The actors are of good quality.
The cinematography is decent.
But the plot, the script and the character behaviour is just plain unrealistic and silly.
Clearly an LGBTQ targeted show so that's OK if you accept that from the premise.
Historical fact it isn't and even as historical fiction it's stretching the intrinsic truth.
There's a continuous theme of England bashing. Most of it subliminal but some clear and unrepentant from the snipes from the French character at the start, to the hints from the Irish English & English men hating lesbian prostitute. Was this necessary?. Would it have been acceptable in a period of high suspicion of foreigners and catholics.
The prostitute is clearly not a devout catholic so why is she acting like an Irish radical in a Royal court that would appear to be far more tolerant and accepting than her national kinsmen back home.
There are also many questionable incidents that defy reality.
People coming and going to the Royal Court and gagging access to the King without any security checks?
The King is treated as a highly gullible clown who spent all his days rollicking with rent boys? One wonders how he found time to work on the bible. 🤔
A very minute Royal court of about 20 people and a couple of guards. Really? All Royal courts from Henry Viii onwards were very sizeable affairs rather than this close nit community of hedonists.
King James openly flaunting his sexuality to both court and people? Erm No.
In fact to this day, his sexuality is still not 100% proven by evidence. Most is circumstantial .
The Queen certainly wasn't involved in choosing his "favourites" nor was he constantly surrounded by a pack of overltly promiscuous rent boys, at least not in view of anyone not involved. Only the current favourite would have been visible to the court.
Mary is portrayed as having way to much power and access to high ranking people at the beginning of the story.
As other reviewers have pointed out, the superfluous use of sex scenes and male posterior shots suggests material filler through want of actual substance. This is always a bad sign.
Overall I felt let down and they have wasted a lot of opportunities.