CinemaSerf

Feb 23, 2022

This is a terribly sterile, unsexy and over-scripted series rescued - at times - by Megan Follows as the manipulative Catherine de Medici but otherwise having little to recommend it to anyone. Based, very loosely, on the early life of Mary, Queen of Scots (Adelaide Kane) at the court of King Henry II, where she has been betrothed since an infant to the Dauphin (Toby Regbo). The series uses a considerable degree of cinematic licence as we follow her well documented trials and tribulations as she navigates the conspiracies of the French court; but it does it without any soul - or passion. It needn't have been an HBO romp-along; but there are just way too many 'pretty' actors delivering pedestrian scripts; set-piece plots and mysteries. Even when things do get a touch romantic (they never get raunchy) we take comfort in a folk-style soundtrack and some lovely shots of what are, admittedly, some fine locations. Follows makes sure that there are plenty of conspiracies to keep up her end of the bargain, but Regbo and the gorgeous, but totally pointless character of "Bash" (Torrance Coombs) seem there to add looks but little else to this really mediocre telling of what must have been an extremely eventful few years in peril and love for such an enigmatic Queen.