Ekaterina (2014)
Series-1 of Ekaterina has the sub-title "The rise of Catherine the great"
I watched the Ekaterina Series-1 via Amazon-Prime-Video with English subtitles as I do not speak Russian or German.
The historical saga of Catherine The Great of Russia has been depicted on screen several times over the decades. Two recent Russian produced television series dating from 2014 (Ekaterina) and 2015 (Catherine the great) compete for viewers in the international content-streaming market. Additionally the American HBO and UK based Sky channels have a series (in English) telling this saga. But I only wanted to see the Russian productions because it is really a Russian story for Russians to tell. So I watched both series and both excelled in different ways. If you have the time then I recommend to try both series.
What follows below is a comparison between the 2014 (Ekaterina) and the 2015 (Catherine The Great). Both series come from different television channels in Russia and are in the Russian language. I cannot comment on the historical accuracy of either of the Russian produced TV series.
In short the 2014 series Ekaterina has a better script but less style than the 2015 series, it covers much more territory/history/characters in fewer episodes. The 2015 series is more lavish, has better locations, has a better score, slower pace, less geopolitical content and with stronger characterisations, despite relying on artifical devices such as Catherine's mother appearing in mirrors.
Ekaterina has more political substance but less style than the 2015 series. The series differ on which supporting characters get focus, they differ on implied paternity of the Catherine's first child and many other details. But the Ekaterina series is significantly more geopolitical in its content and scope, and portrays Pyotr III in a more sympathetic light than the 2015 series. Some sentiments echo to this very day. Ekaterina has some explanatory commentary (spoken delivery in English in my region). Ekaterina also devotes some time to Ivan VI in several scenes, which the 2015 series does not.
Ekaterina shows much more of empress Elizabeta backstory (compared to the 2015 series), details of her health struggles, her attempts to conceive and secret marriage, her penance for the victims of her own coup, her relations with the clergy and church, the awareness among her subjects of her imprisionment of the boy-emperor she usurped and imprisioned and her fearless autocratic rule.
Ekaterina makes it easier to identify characters because most of the time they are not wearning wigs (unlike in the 2015 series when characters are constantly begwigged or unwigged sometimes making recognition difficult and confusing when reading subtitles is necessary).
The score for Ekaterina is less powerful, less emotive, less stirring than the 2015 series, and both the title sequence and closing credits are very short indeed.
Ekaterina also has English subtitles with some disused English words for which a dictionary is sometimes necessary. Clearly the subtitles are not done by a native speaker of English, so that is an annoying distraction shared by both series. Ekaterina has interstitials between some scenes/locations with Cyrillic-only text and dates (no English translation on such scene transitions ) so English speaking viewers may not know the location name, or month name, even when it is important. Additionally there are a few scenes where characters are seen to write legible Cyrillic text on which the camera dwells - with no English translation of the depicted text.
For Ekaterina , the locations, interiors are less splendid, less lavish than the 2015 series, and some of the frozen snowbound or icebound St. Petersburg outdoor scenes or Peterhof background look rather faked on a big screen in 1080p resolution.
The episodes for Series-1 of Ekaterina number 10 each of varying duration (40mins - 65mins), while the 2015 series has 12 episodes each of approximately 48 minutes in duration.
