Reviews

I'm generally a fan of historical fiction and am not naive as to where most fall in terms of historical accuracy. For Ekaterina, I have heard it is much closer to history than most, though I cannot confirm it for myself as I personally have little knowledge of Russia's history. But the costuming and sets are stunning and the story feels more political with every choice having ramifications on the European field than most tend to go into. They tend to simply seek power for power's sake. But in Ekaterina, the political side feels much more relevant.

And if that's not enough to convince any fan of historical drams, then watch it simply for the character of Empress Elizaveta. The actress dominated every scene as the real Empress likely did in life.

I'm generally a fan of Tudor history and have seen most of what's out there from The Tudors to the White Queen. This was by far one of the absolute best because it dispensed with the grand set designs and overly sweeping costumes which, in others version, completely disguises the fact that the Tudor court was an auction of women. Whether daughter, sister, niece, women were the commodity to be traded for lands, property, and most important of all, titles. Lesser lords traded their women to greater lords in a way to scramble to the top of power. When a queen became pregnant, all the lords began bringing their newest female relatives to court to try to snag him. Same when a queen delivered a girl. They all knew - and they all played - and the women paid.

For something passing itself off as a documentary, there is not much historical accuracy in this wanna-be docu-drama. When Crassus defeated Spartacus, Pompey was in Spain fighting Sertorius and Caesar was in the East under the general Lucullus - hence the rumor by his enemies that he prostituted himself to the King of Nicomedes for a fleet of ships. Caesar's daughter Julia, at this point in history was approximately 5 years old, not the almost full-grown woman presented here. Why these alleged documentaries insist on fabricating stories when the actual, real history is so much more intriguing, I'll never understand.