Trailer for the series "Mary and George"/Sky
For gossip lovers - well, those to whom slander actually speaks - the British royal family is the gift that never stops giving. Only in recent months has the world raised its eyes to the palace in the hope of finding out what happened to Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, who disappeared from the radar and only after a series of clumsy attempts at concealment such as 'the strange case of the family photo and the disappearing fingers', was it revealed that she had cancer and would have to undergo a series of treatments ( Good health, Kate). Even earlier we found out about King Charles's prostate cancer, that until he finally gets to sit on the ruler's chair towards the age of 80, it seems that he will not get to enjoy it for a long time. Not to mention the bitter rivalry between Princes William and Harry who do not exactly maintain close friendships as their late mother, Diana Spencer, aspired, and wait, all this and we still haven't gotten to the main news generator - Meghan Markle. In short, there is never a dull moment with these guys and if you are familiar with royal history, it turns out that they are even more boring compared to their near and far relatives. So, it's no wonder that every few months on average a new semi-historical drama appears on our screens, which deals directly or indirectly with the British aristocracy.
"Mary and George", all seven episodes of which recently appeared on HOT and yes, is the new entrant to the genre. The mini-series created by the British DC Moore for the Sky and Starz networks (this in England and the other in the USA), brings the story of Mary Villiers (the wonderful Julianne Moore) and the complex, not to mention morbid, relationship she had with her second son George (The Rising Star Nicholas Glitzin, "Red, White and Royal Blue") Mary, who lived between the 16th and 17th centuries, married a man of higher status than herself and bore him two sons, John and George, and was widowed at a young age ( Not so sad, the trash hit her), and as a result she was expected to lose her position and the comfortable life that came with it.
Very quickly she realizes that George (Glitzin), the handsome man who is on the continuum between straight and really not straight, can be her ticket back to the life of the aristocracy - and not just any aristocracy, she tries to match him, not to mention - pimp him, in order to who will become the "special friend" of King James (also excellent Tony Curran) who is known to be not only attracted to women. After sending George to study in France, where she hoped that some of the charm of high society would stick to him, she finds a loophole that will hopefully allow her to push her son into the king's bed and along the way will make her a real duchess. George, who unlike his mother actually starts the series as an innocent and quite idealistic young man, realizes very quickly that the good looks he is endowed with are a particularly valuable commodity and he uses it even at the cost of being perceived as less intelligent than he is. There is an interesting gender reversal here in the story we are used to hearing through beautiful young women.
From the very first minutes of "Mary and George", two things are revealed that will accompany the viewers further: first, Mary was a terrible mother and, in general, a not very nice woman. When the midwives drop little George from their hands, she is not anxious for his safety, but wants to know which one of them screwed up and dropped him so that she will also be the one to pick him up (when they say that it's roughly both of them, she asks that roughly both of them pick him up). Later, when George hangs himself in the forest after being forbidden to have contact with one of the maids, Mary takes him down from the rope and immediately after making sure he is alive it is important for her to explain to him that she is disappointed, not angry. The second, although it is a historical series (it is loosely based on a non-fiction book called "The King's Assassin"), but it is evident that the creators took a rather free hand in describing the period: the speech here is everyday and devoid of pathos, the sex fills the screen and the pace of events is quite dizzying.
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Yes, "Mary and George" belongs to the relatively new generation of period dramas, the ones that elegantly walk the seam between telenovela, intrigue in the corridors of power and muslin dresses. It can be placed in one line alongside series like "Bridgerton", "Katrina" and "The Tudor Dynasty" which may deserve initial credit for turning the royal family into a lusty soap opera, but the truth is that most of all it reminded me of the excellent film "The Favorite" of Yorgos Lanthymus, who dealt with Queen Anne and the two women who competed for her heart, thanks to the dark humor, the atmosphere that makes the viewer uncomfortable on purpose and the LGBT plot lines.
There are those and let me call them by name - homophobes, who already criticize "Mary and George" for this that it features same-sex relationships and multiple sex scenes between men (don't worry, Mary herself is also attracted to women, so there's lesbian sex here too), and claims that she imposes 'progressive agendas' on history, but the truth is that these are precisely where the series is more Clinging to reality: After all, King James himself was almost erased from the history of the royal house because he was known as someone who was not only in the forefront of his mind. So the fact that we live in an era that allows us to present these historical figures in all their complexities and does not try to whitewash reality is more of a historical correction .
But this gender/political weight can be taken off the shoulders of "Mary and George" because in the end it is evident that its creators came to entertain and amuse the viewers and not to give us a history lesson. Yes, the sex plays a major role here and the casting of Glitzin tries to wink at a young audience, but there is mainly an equally exemplary performance by Julianne Moore who proves again and again that it was not by chance that she became one of the most respected and decorated actresses of her generation. She manages to take the character of Mary, that egocentric, manipulative and uninhibited woman and turn her into a character that evokes empathy and even sympathy for moments. In many ways she presents her as someone who was ahead of her time and understood that on the way to power, power and dominance - all that matters is the bottom line and not how you got there. There are those who will say that this moral corruption also faithfully represents our lives, in Israel 2024 far from England. Whether you think so or not, "Mary and George" can provide you with a few hours of welcome escapism.
"Mary and George" is available in full on Bites and Hot.