Television series

Becoming Elizabeth

Name: Becoming Elizabeth
Genre: Drama, History
Released: 2022
Cast: Alicia von Rittberg, Romola Garai, Leo Bill, John Heffernan, Jamie Parker

Period drama

Becoming Elizabeth dramatizes the treacherous years before Elizabeth I took the throne, when she was a vulnerable, intelligent teenager navigating court intrigue, sexual politics, and the constant threat of execution. It's a taut political thriller dressed in Tudor finery, less interested in pageantry than in the strategic thinking that kept her alive. For viewers who want their history smart, tense, and female-centred.

TVMaze rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy slow-burning court intrigue where the power games are the point, and you're happy to watch a teenage princess outmaneuver men far older than her with nothing but nerve and patience.

Skip it if you want battles, big set pieces or a warm, clear-cut heroine; this is talky, dense with shifting alliances and Tudor names, and it rarely pauses to let you breathe.

What it asks of you: Eight hour-long episodes make a tidy, short commitment, but each one asks you to track who is plotting against whom and keep the names straight.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Affair2014

A dissection of how power, desire and self-preservation corrupt even intelligent people. Like Becoming Elizabeth, it's built on the idea that everyone lies about their motivations, and the truth shifts depending on who's telling it.

But It's emotionally exhausting—deliberately so. By design, every character becomes harder to root for, and the repetition of scenes from different perspectives can feel gimmicky rather than illuminating.

Wolf Hall2015

BBC's adaptation of Hilary Mantel's novels captures that same claustrophobic court atmosphere where a word out of place means death. It's patient, intelligent storytelling about the minds of men grasping for immortality through power.

But It moves deliberately and assumes you're paying attention. The low-key cinematography and intricate plotting can feel slow if you're hoping for more spectacle than substance.

The Spanish Princess2019

Follows Catherine of Aragon and Joanna of Castile with the same focus on how women survived male-dominated courts through intellect and strategic silence. It's less about romance than about the grinding daily negotiation of powerlessness.

But It shares the same melancholic tone and deliberate pacing. If you found Becoming Elizabeth too restrained, this won't feel like a departure.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Becoming Elizabeth

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders1970

Both centre a girl's interior world and survival instinct against the literal and psychological architecture designed to trap her. Both understand that power for women in these contexts is never held—only temporarily seized.

A surrealist Czech film about a girl navigating a world of predatory men using only her intelligence and refusal to be caught. It's dreamlike where Becoming Elizabeth is grounded, but it captures the same experience of a young woman as prey in a world built by men.

But It's experimental and symbolist—you won't find plot clarity or conventional narrative. It operates in metaphor and image rather than dialogue, which demands a completely different mode of attention.

Mary Queen of Scots2018

Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie capture the impossible position of queens without real power—intelligent women forced into a game designed to destroy them. It has more visual swagger than Becoming Elizabeth but the same core tension.

But It simplifies some history and leans into melodrama in the final act. The film wants to be grander than the reality sometimes deserves.

Penny Dreadful2014

A different era and genre, but it shares that same atmosphere of intelligent people in genuine danger, where knowledge and strategy matter more than virtue. The sense of dread is constant and earned.

But It's gothic horror rather than political thriller. If you want historical grounding and court intrigue, the supernatural elements will feel like a distraction.

The Tudors2007

Henry VIII's reign from a different angle, with more spectacle and sex than Becoming Elizabeth allows itself. It's fun where Elizabeth is tense, and you'll understand more of the landscape Elizabeth navigates as a young woman.

But It's considerably less subtle. Where Becoming Elizabeth suggests corruption, The Tudors shows it on screen in explicit detail. The tone is more soap opera than character study.

Victoria2016

Jenna Coleman as a young queen learning to hold power, with some of the same focus on a woman's agency in a male court. It's warmer than Becoming Elizabeth but asks similar questions about duty and desire.

But It's more romantic and softer in tone. If you appreciated Becoming Elizabeth's refusal to sentimentalize Elizabeth's survival, Victoria's emotional openness might feel like a step backward.

Versailles2015

A court in constant performance, where the architecture itself is a weapon and every alliance is tactical. It has the same paranoid energy as Becoming Elizabeth, just from the perspective of the men at the top.

But It's often overwrought and sometimes lapses into unintentional camp. The dialogue can feel purple, and the drama occasionally collapses under its own weight.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford2007

Both works are structured around the psychology of people trying to survive in a space controlled by the ruthless. Both understand that being useful to a powerful person is the only armor available, and that it's never quite enough.

An obsessive meditation on the performance of power and the paranoia it breeds. Like Becoming Elizabeth, it understands that proximity to authority is danger, and that the powerful are often more afraid than their subordinates. Hypnotic and quietly devastating.

But It's a Western, not a period drama, and it's glacially slow. The runtime is nearly three hours, and it asks for patience with a story that refuses to move faster just because you want it to.