Once in a while, you just have to yield to temptation and watch a show that’s so bad, it’s actually good. You need to have a guilty pleasure. Something you don’t easily admit to watching, but you don’t miss a single episode and you enjoy it immensely. I might just have found mine.
It stars Michelle Trachtenberg’s doppelgänger (Adelaide Kane) as Mary, Queen of Scots, who might be one of history’s most complex and intriguing ladies, but according to The CW, she’s just a clueless, pretty teenager looking for love (cue violins). The pilot of this PG13 version of The Tudors, starts when our young Mary must travel from the convent where she grew up, to France. There, she is to wed the Dauphin, Francis (Toby Regbo), who she’s been engaged to since the age of six. Though real life Francis was abnormally short, stuttered, was constantly ill and had undescended testicles (quite a catch!), The CW Francis is a hunky, blue eyed, blonde and a bit of a playboy who falls for Mary as soon as he sees her. All is well until Francis is a douche to Mary. Enter Sebastian (Torrance Coombs), Francis’s non-existent, brooding and bastard stud of a brother to save the day (aaahhh… the plot thickens! Watch out, Jon Snow!). And so, in a move worthy of The Vampire Diaries, we’ve reached the “damsel-in-distress caught between two hot brothers” love triangle. Classic.
Francis’ mother, Queen Catherine (Megan Follows) is kind of a bitch on a power-trip (may be because of the King’s mistress, who he likes best) and has a psychic side-kick in the form of Nostradamus (no kidding) played by Rossif Sutherland (Donald’s son/Kiefer’s younger, hotter half-brother). A bit of hocus-pocus and hot Nostradamus sees blood in a vision, which can only mean that Mary will cause Francis’ death (well, duh! Obviously). So, where can we go from here? Dear old mother in law plotting a quick death for the pretty Scottish lass. Add four cute and brainless teen ladies in waiting, a creepy ghost, scandalous love affairs, juicy secrets and quite a lot of historical anachronisms, and you have the perfect teenage soap opera.
If you want a historically correct, thought-provoking show, you’ll be disappointed. Big time. But… if you are actually aware that you are tuning into The CW and all that it entails (love triangles, pretty girls, hot boys, passable performances, campy ridiculousness and just plain fun), you are in for a treat. Reign delivers. Is sort of a YA romance novel in period clothing, loosely based of the early life of Mary, Queen of Scots (“loosely” being the key word here).
Why it works?
Because it delivers what it promised. It’s fun, silly and full of predictable story lines that you just have to see how they unfold even though you know what’s going to happen before the episode begins. It has awesome shipping material (Bash + Mary for life!) and, at it’s core, it’s just the story of a girl trying to find her place in the world and standing up for herself. It’s a coming of age show.
The Recipe for Perfection
1 cute, wide-eyed girl who will, eventually, be a strong female character
2 hot, jealous brothers
1 love triangle (heck, it worked for The Vampire Diaries, Twilight and The Hunger Games. Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken, right?)
4 bubbly friends to have more love stories (I predict one will die. It’s always 4 girls total. Never 5)
2 spoonfuls of supernatural (no Vampires or Werewolves? No problem, add a hunky Nostradamus and a ghost)
The Bad Stuff
No Scottish accents. None. Zero.
Too little sizzle moments between Mary/Francis and Mary/Sebastian. I know it’s just the first episode, but come on!
Will I keep watching?
Absolutely! The Pilot managed to create a beautiful and ridiculous plot, it presented stereotypical characters played by very CW pretty, young people and it set the grounds for some fun story-lines. This is the kind of show you want to watch, after a long day at work, when you reach home and you don’t want to think about anything. The only thing you’ll be required to use your brain for is to say: oh! cute dress! However, it did seem too silly sometimes and the stories too rushed. But it’s just the pilot. I know there’s a good show somewhere in there. And the headbands were just presh!
Really. These two were separated at birth!
Interesting. I’ll put it in my list for next year