So this series has the perfect actor and comes, in many ways, at the perfect time – ripe for the story of a woman resented on all sides for refusing to shape herself or her desires to the traditional feminine mould and becoming instead the embodiment of the writer Florence King’s note: “When a woman steps out of her place, she always steps up.” Not all of them arrange a coup d’etat removing their husbands from power and having them assassinated (she maintained plausible deniability over the latter), of course. text-align: center; } October 28, 2019. Was this review helpful to you? ‘Catherine the Great’ Comes to Life at The New Yorker Festival. Looking for something to watch? Other scenes were filmed in St Petersburg, Peterhof Palace, and Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo Russia. If she were not, questions would surely be asked in the House. Its treatment of political history is confusing; there are a lot of “Two years later … ” time jumps; it overrelies on luxurious set decoration and costuming; it has a very Game of Thrones–ish opening credit sequence. Power, said another elderly politician, is the ultimate aphrodisiac. This drama starts late in the life of Catherine the Great, I would rather have seen more about her earlier life when she first married Peter and her rise to power. award-winning turns as Elizabeths I and II. Courtiers titter behind Catherine’s back, making up stories about her epic sexual needs, but you can see how the forcefulness of her personality, and her complete embrace of her own political savvy and intellectual power, draws people into her orbit. Catherine did indeed have a string of lovers, a fact that writer Nigel Williams—also the author of a 2005 miniseries starring Mirren as Elizabeth I—embraces. Surrounded by enemies and fighting off rival challenges to her throne, Catherine’s rule is far from secure.” If you have a problem, if no one else can help you, maybe you can hire … Count Orlov and Grigor Potemkin. • This article was amended on 4 October 2019 because an earlier version referred to Prisoner Number One as Ivan IV when Ivan VI was meant. Zwischen Skandalen, Intrigen und überwältigenden Konflikten entspinnt sich eine obsessive Liebesgeschichte. Helen Mirren and Jason Clarke discuss what it took to make an 18th century Russian political love story in modern times. The other young man—the hot one—knows right away: “You just have to listen. The four-episode miniseries centers, celebrates, and complicates the empress’s robust late-in-life sexuality. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. } You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. View production, box office, & company info, Exclusive Interview – Composer Rupert Gregson-Williams on Catherine the Great, working with Adam Sandler and more, Helen Mirren movies: 12 greatest films ranked from worst to best, Jason Clarke (‘Catherine The Great’): Grigory Potemkin was ‘a titanic figure, a monumental man serving a monumental woman’ [Exclusive Video Interview], Biggest Golden Globe-Nominated Transformations Over the Years, What to Watch: IMDb's New Fall 2019 Series Guide, October TV Calendar: New and Returning Shows, Good Morning Britain: Episode dated 26 September 2019. } else { target: '#sjrating-target', She seized power from her husband Emperor Peter III who died soon after – in mysterious circumstances. You’ve run out of free articles. The army’s Lieutenant Merovitch tries to stir up trouble and finds himself decapitated, despite her insinuation of a pardon on the scaffold. background-image: url('//g-cdn.serienjunkies.de/vote/star-off-big.png'); Even more pertinently for her latest venture, she was also born Helen Mironoff, daughter of Vasily Petrovich and granddaughter of Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, a colonel in the Imperial Russian army. The miniseries depicts Empress Catherine II of Russia's reign, from 1764, two years after taking power, until her death in 1796. A madman named Pugachev claims to be the dead Peter III and is gaining support from the peasants. Hoogenboom, the historian who worked on Catherine’s memoirs, said that because HBO’s recent mini-series “gets it right in important ways,” there was space for “The Great” to have some fun. half: true, background-image: url('//g-cdn.serienjunkies.de/vote/star-on-big.png');

[3] It debuted in its entirety on HBO Go and HBO Now in the United States on 21 October 2019,[4] while HBO broadcast one part per week until 11 November 2019. Watch with HBO. }); Die Miniserie Catherine the Great handelt von Katharina der Großen (Helen Mirren), Kaiserin von Russland, am Ende ihrer Herrschaft, und beleuchtet ihre Affäre mit dem russischen Fürsten Grigori Potjomkin.