Overview
In general, 2020 wasn't a great year. When it came to streaming new TV shows — something we all did, and much more than we normally would — it was an excellent year, however. Plenty of top-notch fresh releases joined everyone's must-see and favourites lists, and helped fill all of those hours spent at home, including a particularly delightful (and satirical, and also savage) jump back to 18th-century Russia.
That show: The Great. It takes its title from its central figure, empress Catherine the Great. It's filled with lavish period-appropriate costumes, wigs, sets and decor. And, it explores an immensely famous time that had a significant impact upon the world. Normally, that'd all smack of a certain kind of drama — you know the type — however this is firmly a comedy as well.
Starring Elle Fanning (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) as the eponymous ruler and Nicholas Hoult (Those Who Wish Me Dead) as her husband Peter III, The Great is full of witty, laugh-out-loud lines, sports an irreverent and often cheeky mood, and has ample fun with real-life details — much in the way that Oscar-winner The Favourite did with British royalty on the big screen. That comparison couldn't actually be more fitting, with that film's BAFTA-winning screenwriter, Australian Tony McNamara, using his skills to pen The Great as well.
Across its ten-episode, very easy-to-binge, immensely hilarious first season, the series immersed viewers in Catherine and Peter's hardly happy marriage, all the day-to-day dramas in the Russian court, and her plans to push him aside and become the country's ruler in her own right. Thankfully, it didn't finish telling that tale, with a second season due to arrive later this year. In Australia, it'll land on November 20, at the same time as it hits — and a fresh new trailer that teases everything viewers can look forward to has just dropped.
Here's five things that should take your fancy: Catherine and Peter slinging sharp banter back and forth, her preference for eating chicken over sex, the word "huzzah", more chaotic antics and Gillian Anderson falling off a chair. Because starring in everything from The X-Files and Hannibal to The Crown and Sex Education isn't enough for latter, she pops up here as Catherine's mother. If you weren't already hooked on all things The Great, that's obviously an excellent — and great, naturally — reason to start watching.
Check out the first trailer for The Great's second season below:
The Great's second season will be available to stream in Australia via Stan on November 20.