When it comes to The Great we must always remember that the series was born as an adaptation of the play written in 2008 by the creator Tony McNamara, and that Yorgos Lanthimos hired McNamara in 2014 to rewrite the script of the favoritejust after reading an early version of the pilot of the future TV series. So, of that broad strand of period drama ahistorical who play with the past and reinvent it without embarrassment, The Great is one of the progenitors, and probably still the best – just look at for comparison Marie Antoinettethe recent creation of Deborah Davis, first screenwriter of favorite.
Coming to the third season, The Great maintains its comic panache in representing the imperial court of Russia, unapologetically dedicated to intrigue, depravity and dehumanization of its subjects but now under the command of the enlightened sovereign par excellence, Catherine II the Great, who has read all of Diderot, keeps Voltaire at court and proposes radical reforms such as making murder illegal. At the end of the previous season Caterina (Elle Fanning) had stabbed Pugachev, her husband Peter’s (Nicholas Hoult) doppelganger in her back, and once she realized the exchange she realized she was still in love with him. In the first episode Caterina and Peter are sitting side by side on a sofa, in a parody of modern couple counseling which, of course, turns out to be a dialogue with a sorceress and ends in a bizarre and ineffective ritual.
The first half of the season is based on the constant attempt to find a compromise between Catherine’s reforming rationality and Peter’s indomitable wild instinct, a conflict present both in their dynamic as a couple and in Russian society. Further on, the tone changes radically, but we won’t say anything else to avoid it spoiler. The witty dialogues and spectacular costumes remain, and compared to the previous season there is a better orchestration of the supporting characters, who offer additional points of interest to the always splendid chemistry between Fanning and Hoult. The Greatwhich in Italy had been imported by the disappeared Starzplay, will be published weekly on the newly arrived MGM+ platform, which has collected some Lionsgate and Starz series.
Tony McNamara The Great 3 MGM+
