Television series

The Great

Name: The Great
Genre: Drama, Comedy, History
Released: 2020
Cast: Elle Fanning, Phoebe Fox, Gwilym Lee, Adam Godley, Belinda Bromilow

Tony McNamara's deliriously anachronistic take on Catherine the Great's rise to power, all F-bombs and velvet and casual brutality. Elle Fanning plays her as a wide-eyed idealist trapped in Nicholas Hoult's gleefully monstrous court. It's fast, filthy, funny, and surprisingly moving underneath the farce — for anyone who likes their history with the corset laces cut loose.

TVMaze rating

7.3

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The Favourite2018

Same writer, same DNA — vicious court comedy, absurd power games, and women scheming their way around useless men. If you loved The Great's voice, this is where it came from.

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Dickinson2019

Another gloriously anachronistic historical comedy-drama that treats the past as a costume for very modern feelings, with the same reckless, giddy energy.

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Harlots2017no page yet

Bawdy, sharp-tongued, female-run period drama that shares The Great's appetite for sex, power, and dark comedy among people the history books ignored.

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Ivan the Terrible, Part I1944

Same country, same subject — a foreign-seeming autocrat seizing control of a paranoid Russian court — but seventy-six years earlier and shot as tragic myth instead of farce.

Eisenstein's towering, operatic Soviet epic about a Russian ruler consolidating absolute power — the same terrain as The Great, played with total, monumental seriousness.

But Black-and-white, stylised, and deliberately theatrical — nothing here winks at the camera.

Catherine the Great2019no page yet

Helen Mirren plays the same woman decades later in power, in a straighter, more prestige-drama take — fascinating to watch as a companion piece.

But Sincere where The Great is satirical; if you came for jokes, there aren't many.

The Serpent Queen2022

Catherine de' Medici gets the same irreverent, fourth-wall-breaking treatment — a foreign queen manipulating a court that despises her, with real wit.

But Leans harder into narration and stylised violence; less farce, more thriller.

Reign2013

Mary, Queen of Scots reimagined as a teen soap — pure trashy pleasure if you want the palace intrigue without the intellectual pretense.

But Genuinely silly in a way The Great only pretends to be; historical accuracy is not the point.

Versailles2015

Lavish, sexed-up, politically savvy French court drama with the same appetite for scandal dressed in gorgeous fabric.

But Plays its intrigue straighter and slower — less quippy, more soapy melodrama.

Marie Antoinette2006

Sofia Coppola's candy-colored, anachronistic vision of a young foreign queen adrift in a decadent, absurd court — mood over history, just like The Great.

But Dreamy and slow where The Great is manic; more about atmosphere than plot.

The Crown2016

For the palace politics and the slow-burn character studies of people trapped by power and duty, minus the swearing and the sex.

But Restrained, dignified, almost the tonal opposite — no farce, no anachronism, no fun with the rules.

I, Claudius1976

The same engine — an outsider navigating a court of monsters to survive and rule — reworked in a much older TV format, all wigs and long speeches instead of jump cuts and swearing.

The BBC's legendary miniseries about Roman imperial power, poisonings, and palace madness — stagey, theatrical, and packed with performances as big as the scheming.

But Studio-bound sets and 1970s pacing; you'll need patience for the slow, dialogue-heavy build.

The Death of Stalin2017

Same court-comedy machinery — absurd men, real menace, jokes as a coping mechanism for horror — but transplanted to Soviet Russia and refusing to let you enjoy the violence.

A pitch-black political farce about the scramble for power after a dictator's death, with the same instinct that comedy is the only honest way to tell this story.

But Grounded in real 20th-century terror rather than fictionalised fun — the laughs curdle fast.