Ekaterina

I have long been a student of Russian history and have seen a few Catherine II projects over the years. Catching Ekaterina on Amazon Prime was an incredible treat. My husband loved it as well and knows nothing of Russian history.

It's gripping, haunting, and some scenes will just stick with you (namely, in Season 3). The casting is fantastic: Catherine's many lovers are appropriately, sublimely sexy and Yuliya Aug is FANTASTIC as Empress Elizaveta. She really sets the tone as this powerful, intense presence throughout Catherine's introduction to Russia.

Season 2 features Sergei Kotalkov as advisor Nikita Panin who is the powerhouse of the season. Less scenery chewing than Elizaveta but engrossing. The world expands beyond Catherine to include others such as her illegitimate child, Alexei; Catherine's Lady in Waiting, Sofia Stepanova (played by Lyubava Greshnova) is the other MVP.

The problem with Season 2 is it covers a VERY large part of Catherine's reign, so much so Season 3 is actually a flashback which is very jarring at first.

Season 3 takes some strong historical liberties to expand our characters and humanize them. Nikita Panin has another stellar season with a softer side, Catherine has a couple of stellar(!) scenes, Alexei Orlov gets his time to shine, and they try to retcon Paul's wife (hideous villain in S2!) which makes no sense with how they portrayed her in S2, but I'll take it.

The most powerful performance is that of the "second" Elizaveta Peteovna, played by Angelina Strechina. Incredible. The finale of S3 will leave you feeling something, that's for sure.

I also liked how they would dub the actors in different languages appropriate for the location: Frederick II of Prussia would speak German. In Naples it's dubbed in Italian. The Poles in Polish, et cet. It adds a bit of immersion and I enjoyed it; in fact there is a funny and heartwarming scene between a Russian and German character in S3 that plays on this fact. So you're watching it subtitled one English but can hear the two different languages.

Only criticisms are that the special effects/fighting scenes are pretty weak, even by S3 when you can tell they got a better budget. Also, the Potemkin+Catherine love theme is waaaaay overused. They needed a second theme in S2. :)

You'll learn a lot and enjoy the show along the way. If you enjoyed the intrigue of Game of Thrones, you'll enjoy Ekaterina.

My review is based on s1 only. I know s2 is available but in the US. I was watching it in native Russian with English subs. I think subs were above average but still didn't portray the rich dialogue. Many words that I have long forgotten made me smile when they were spoken.

As far as story. I think ep 1 was a bit slow, after that it picked up the pace. I do not know how accurate it was historically as I am no expert, and I def think some things were romanticized, but overall I think it was well done. I also felt last ep could have been full length with much more detail on 2 main events, hence why it's 7/10 not 8/10.

As to what others been saying about the Petr the 3rd, his main undoing was clearly outlined and I have no pity for him for that reason. Whether he got a fair shake or not, who knows, but at least they dealt with it rather bluntly, which is not usual for such a series.

I'm a Englishman that loves the European royal family stories. This one is a fantastic Intoduction to the romanovs. It's cracks along at a good pace which works along the game of thrones theme treachery scheming, torture etc. Some licence with the truth as all these shows like the white queen or the Tudors, but helps the story lines. The second series has more money spent on it and looks like they have tried to use the original palaces, which gives it an authentic look. An advert to visit st Petersburg really rather than Russian propaganda...

Many negative reviews have nothing to do with the series but with hatred of Russians per say. As a native Russian speaker and a fluent English speaker, I can tell you that a lot of words in Russian can not be translated into English with the presice translation, for a mere reason that they don't exist in English. The series being set in Saint Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1711, and while being one of the youngest European capitals is still older then the whole country of United States of America. So before giving negative comments and low scores, read the history of Russian empire, and perhaps then you will comprehend the series.

Ekaterina (2014) Series-1 of Ekaterina has the sub-title "The rise of Catherine the great" I watched the Ekaterina Series-1 via Amazon-Prime-Video with English subtitles as I do not speak Russian or German.

The historical saga of Catherine The Great of Russia has been depicted on screen several times over the decades. Two recent Russian produced television series dating from 2014 (Ekaterina) and 2015 (Catherine the great) compete for viewers in the international content-streaming market. Additionally the American HBO and UK based Sky channels have a series (in English) telling this saga. But I only wanted to see the Russian productions because it is really a Russian story for Russians to tell. So I watched both series and both excelled in different ways. If you have the time then I recommend to try both series.

What follows below is a comparison between the 2014 (Ekaterina) and the 2015 (Catherine The Great). Both series come from different television channels in Russia and are in the Russian language. I cannot comment on the historical accuracy of either of the Russian produced TV series.

In short the 2014 series Ekaterina has a better script but less style than the 2015 series, it covers much more territory/history/characters in fewer episodes. The 2015 series is more lavish, has better locations, has a better score, slower pace, less geopolitical content and with stronger characterisations, despite relying on artifical devices such as Catherine's mother appearing in mirrors.

Ekaterina has more political substance but less style than the 2015 series. The series differ on which supporting characters get focus, they differ on implied paternity of the Catherine's first child and many other details. But the Ekaterina series is significantly more geopolitical in its content and scope, and portrays Pyotr III in a more sympathetic light than the 2015 series. Some sentiments echo to this very day. Ekaterina has some explanatory commentary (spoken delivery in English in my region). Ekaterina also devotes some time to Ivan VI in several scenes, which the 2015 series does not.

Ekaterina shows much more of empress Elizabeta backstory (compared to the 2015 series), details of her health struggles, her attempts to conceive and secret marriage, her penance for the victims of her own coup, her relations with the clergy and church, the awareness among her subjects of her imprisionment of the boy-emperor she usurped and imprisioned and her fearless autocratic rule.

Ekaterina makes it easier to identify characters because most of the time they are not wearning wigs (unlike in the 2015 series when characters are constantly begwigged or unwigged sometimes making recognition difficult and confusing when reading subtitles is necessary).

The score for Ekaterina is less powerful, less emotive, less stirring than the 2015 series, and both the title sequence and closing credits are very short indeed.

Ekaterina also has English subtitles with some disused English words for which a dictionary is sometimes necessary. Clearly the subtitles are not done by a native speaker of English, so that is an annoying distraction shared by both series. Ekaterina has interstitials between some scenes/locations with Cyrillic-only text and dates (no English translation on such scene transitions ) so English speaking viewers may not know the location name, or month name, even when it is important. Additionally there are a few scenes where characters are seen to write legible Cyrillic text on which the camera dwells - with no English translation of the depicted text.

For Ekaterina , the locations, interiors are less splendid, less lavish than the 2015 series, and some of the frozen snowbound or icebound St. Petersburg outdoor scenes or Peterhof background look rather faked on a big screen in 1080p resolution.

The episodes for Series-1 of Ekaterina number 10 each of varying duration (40mins - 65mins), while the 2015 series has 12 episodes each of approximately 48 minutes in duration.