Mary & George

I enjoyed episode 1 and from then on it went rapidly downhill until we eventually abandoned it at episode 3.

The sound on the dialogue was quite hard to make out without subtitles as it was very badly mixed. After straining to hear and then attempt to grasp what the convoluted plot was actually about it wasn't actually worth the effort.

Just another one of these tedious series which descend into a garbled mess after a promising start.

Who is actually approving the script? The costumes and the sets were fantastic so once again it's the writing that insults the viewers intelligence.

A wasted opportunity!

Just finished ep7. An unrelenting rush to destruction. Not even the winners could be envied. This play is about animals rutting in a political trough.

Nicholas Galitzine plays the ingenu no longer. Within the ensemble, he's a beautiful, weak, psychopathic puppet, who fails because he thinks he's cleverer than the puppet master, his mother. This is his 14th film/tv role and his grittiest. He has the range, the charisma, the acting chops to climb to the top perch. I hope he soon gets the role that will push him from 'wow' to 'superstar'.

Julianne Moore plays a woman who doesn't need to quibble about pronouns to rule. Rule? She rocks.

Tony Curran gives a sly performance, allowing a brilliant humanity to peep though cracks in the orgy.

All of the cast deserve mention, it was a flawless ensemble.

Would you enjoy a sexy romp on the Titanic as it was cracking apart and sliding under? This show was a bit like that, the atmosphere was so fraught it overpowered any loveliness in the frequent coupling.

Sky & STARZ are good at making historical dramas, not the great ones, though. Especially when STARZ writes works based on what really happened in history, the storyline is linear and one-dimensional. It never challenges itself to be something great. There are some good sides. Thanks to the effort from STARZ, I actually researched actual historical materials to delve deeper and to know in detail what really happened (The White Princess, Becoming Elizabeth, Gaslit, and etc.). The funny thing is that research and reading books are way much more interesting and exciting than watching the series made by STARZ.

'Mary & George' is the trendiest of all (maybe because it's produced the latest). Editing is straightforward and fashionable. Scenes cut to unexpected but real moments rather than explaining everything in between. My favorite scene is the very first scene of the first episode. Mary, who is still connected to George by umbilical cord says "Before I cut you free, what should I call you?". It gives me chills and sums up the whole seven episodes of the relationship between Mary and George. She never lets him free till everything including George is ruined. Iconic scene.

Practically concerned with George Villiers and his mother, Mary, as they traverse the wild post-Elizabeth 1 monarchy, and try to improve their standings in court by attaching George as the next-in-line male concubine of the King James, son of Mary Queen of Scott.

I think it was very well noted how George took advantage of the King James's and Charles I's affection. Unlike the show, it was unanimously seen unfavorably. A lot of his charms are pretty much publicized with the vast number of arts pieces centered around him. His mother was less written about, but the characterization was similar to the show - greedy and ambitious, deeply unpopular.

The writing is meant to show the messiness of it all, and it works for the most part since it is really salacious history. This was meant as a show of flesh and trashiness. It is a not that inspired if you think about it BUT its hits enough checkmark for fun tv viewing. I would say that it could have been less on the nose, with all the mother knows best storytelling AND could have made paced the storytelling for the first and last two episodes better but it is what it is.

Also, a lot of other reviews are really riled up by its historical inaccuracies BUT I think you watch this not for those reason. It was not meant to be this deep show anyhow.

Acting wise, I still find Galatzine not that good. He has his moment but I felt that he strays in moments of ineptitude. Its so glaring sometimes that he looks like he does not know what emotion should he show in a scene. He should thank god his pretty because I think that was the only prompt he stood well on. I think Moore and Curran faired better but pretty much was phoning it in with 'camp' aspect. They are in the end, somewhat of a caricature.

Overall, I think this is fair introduction to the Villiers. Reading about them a lot, and I think they are fascinating. If I would compare it to what I saw, there clearly is a huge real estate that the show jumped out off BUT this would be fun if your into this kind of material. Recommended.

Julianne Moore is wickedly delicious as Mary Villiers, a somewhat noble mother of four who had her sights set on rising above the ranks of nobility with the help of her son, George (cheeky performance from Nicholas Galitzine, who at last sinks his teeth into a real role).

Together, mother and son plot and weave their way through the depraved King Charles' court (Tony Curran effective as the king). What unveils before ones very eyes will fascinate those who seek not to judge, but watch in a perverse sense of wonderment how this all took place in the 17th century.

Creator and writer, D. C. Moore, has crafted a telling tale of what could have occurred behind the King's golden secret doors, delivering treachery of the highest order and other wild shenanigans one has to endure in order to climb that royal social ladder.