Oscar winner Moore can play bad with the best of them.
Let's not kid ourselves. "Mary and George," the seven-part historical series now dressed to thrill on Starz, is a soap opera. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Not when the sinful pleasures on display are this delicious and led by the Oscar-winning Julianne Moore, who can play bad with the best of them.
"Mary & George" is based on truth, or at least the nonfiction bestseller "The King's Assassin" by Benjamin Woolley. And if the script by D.C. Moore strays from the 17th-century facts, it's all in the name of fun, so who's complaining? There's nothing like watching ruffled collars getting ruffled. Back then -- and now -- everyone used fluid sex to win wealth and power.
That was certainly the case with Mary Villiers , who pushed her handsome second son George to seduce King James VI and I . Never mind that the king is married with nine children. No judgement on this series.For Mary and George, there are many obstacles to overcome, notably the king's current lover, Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset , who will kill to keep himself and his pregnant wife on the king's payroll. And make no mistake, the hottie earl is a formidable foe.
The intrigue is nothing you haven't seen on "The Tudors" and "The Borgias," but "Mary & George" aspires to the lofty heights of "The Favourite," the acclaimed 2018 film that starred Academy Award winner Olivia Colman as Queen Anne, the 18th-century ruler who wasn't above sleeping with her ambitious ladies in waiting, played by Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone.
Lead director Oliver Hermanus stages the renegade deviltry with unfakeable relish. And if the series gets too grave for its own good in the final episodes, "Mary & George" soars on turning what could have been a stuffy costume slog into a bawdy romp that blows the dust off history to find what's alive, kicking and relevant to the world we live in now.
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