Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley

If you are looking for an exhaustive look at the Romanov dynasty of Russia, then you may want to skip "Empire of the Tsars". While it's a good show, it's not complete and in order to be so, the program would have to include several more episodes. Instead, it's an overview of the more important Romanovs--with particular emphasis on Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and how the later incompetent Tsars lost control of the nation by refusing to make meaningful change. As such, it's an excellent history lesson for the average person--a person that doesn't need every name and date but just coverage of the highlights.

I noticed that one reviewer really, really hated the host, Lucy Worsley, and the language was very harsh. While I agree she is NOT a typical host and seems decidedly working class in her language and style, the criticism seems unfair. I actually enjoyed her modern and somewhat less professorial and professional manner. Well worth seeing overall.

To me this "documentary" was more biased, rather than a documentary. On top why would Lucy make faces as if she's considering Russians a lower class nation, as is the typical mindset in Western World?

I was excited to watch this show because I don't really know much about Russian history and was looking forward to it. Lucy totally ruined the show. She is obviously anti-Russian and considers Russians to be lower people than herself. However, she is the one who is rude (interrupting the historian at the Tretyakov gallery) and with low class manners, recording and talking during the church service (just one example of crassness). She seems to be the worst person to do a documentary on another country (it seems like she just visited Russia for the first time for this documentary). Maybe Brits will enjoy this documentary because it keeps saying West is superior to Russia. Look somewhere else for a good history show, because this one only offers Lucy's uneducated personal commenting, and she even blocks the beautiful russian scenery and architecture with herself in most of the frames.

*I am not a Russian, and don't care much about either Britain or Russia, but Lucy's narrative is disgusting.*

The series represents especially England as a great inspiration for Peter the a Great. The Dutch, however, are seem to be marginalised. Make no mistake: Saint-Petersburg is inspired by Amsterdam, The Netherlands, as the tsar lived there for some time. Not that either of them states should be trumpeting about it, because tsar Peter did horrible things, as we all know by now. However, it does feel a little wobbly, and uneven; it's only the English (not even British) angle one gets to see. More information about it all would be brilliant.

Also, this 'documentary' can't seem to find its way between being serious or funny. So it mashed up both. Most BBC series are one or the other, and they usually shine in their own way. I can name millions of documentaries from both BBC or foreign broadcasters that grabs you from the moment you start watching; so intriguing, so exciting, so brilliant to watch! However, this is mismatched, and one can't understand whether to take this seriously or as some sort of satire.

Make no mistake: this could've been a brilliant documentary, with a significant impact on how to see Russia today compared to how it was with the Romanovs. But it just doesn't bring it home. It stays between the lines of 'interesting' and 'funny'. It doesn't do anyone or anybody any favour; there's much more to tell. In the best case, it might bring people to get inspired to do research about this dynasty (and the Russia before and after that). But other than that, it's pretty much the same of how Discovery Channel or NGC are making their documentaries right now. Easy on the facts, much more action or, as in this case, humour. And that's a pity, because how many moments are there to investigate this all?

All and all: rather pleasant to watch, but not a 'must see'.

The way Romanov was pronounced bothered me throughout the 'series'. She kept saying /Románov/ instead of /Rómanov/.