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The best things aboutThe Greatare also the most contradictory and the most uncomfortable.
But the show really shimmers in the spaces where those moods collide.
Containing both of those things without letting them undermine each other isThe Greats best and richest feat.
Its a show full of satin and blood and excrement and ornamental feathers, sometimes all at once.
She rides out to a battleground, hoping to bolster everyones spirits and offer them some aid.
Oh, Im so sorry, Catherine says.
Ill just … pop it in your mouth?
Its pistachio, if thats helpful.
On its own, its a nice moment of funny-sad monstrosity.
NothingThe Greatsays about Catherine before or after that scene is meant to soften those characteristics in her.
Shes naive and power hungry.
She also immediately recognizes those things about herself, and does honestly attempt to get better.
Shes galvanized by the macaron incident.
Shes furious and frustrated.
It helps that the performances are solid, and that Fannings sense of comic timing is so good.
But Hoults so good at those huzzahs.
Its a fantastic show, but I wish there were less of it!
is an argument that barely even scans.
All of it is muffled byThe Greats excessive runtime.
Catherines story feels meandering and less weighty than it should.
In some of the earlier episodes, Peter and Catherines relationship has a boggy shapelessness.
On a show thats so much about excessive luxury and pointless wealth, its narrative excess may be purposeful.
But that doesnt mean its a good idea.
Its also not historically accurate, and its not trying to be.
Theyre true toThe Greats vision of them, even though the details are all made up.
