User reviews

The Great was so much better than I expected it to be. I went into it not expecting much but after a few episodes I couldn't stop watching it. I binged all three seasons as fast as I could. I promise you that you'll laugh out loud at least a few times every episode. While the entire cast is good in this is, Nicholas Hoult is the best part of this show. Every time he talks he made made me laugh. He also has the best character arc on the show. You go from not liking his character to rooting for him. Hoult is already a star from other stuff he's done but this takes him to another level. If you're looking for a new show to just have good time then this is it.

I've heard so many good things about The Great ever since it first came out a few years ago but I kept putting it off for some reason. I'm just finishing Season 2 now and I'm actually mad at myself for putting it off for so long. It's freaking hilarious! There's not a weak link on the entire cast but Nicholas Hoult and Belinda Bromilow are the ones that really make this series so good. Hoult & Elle Fanning were both nominated for Emmy's for their work here but Bromilow should've been too. It's obviously not historically accurate, it even says it in the beginning credits, but who cares? It's a comedy. If you want to laugh then go watch this.

While apparently even historically inaccurate compared to an old Marlene Dietrich movie, The Great is a fantastically entertaining piece of nonsense with Elle Fanning giving a quirky, very funny performance as Catherine and Nicholas Hoult giving a funny, infuriating one as Peter (also a shout out to Phoebe Fox's snarky servant).

The series is consistently entertaining, generally funny, sometimes shocking or horrific, and often just plain nuts. Catherine is an interesting character, both smart and foolish, both strategic and inept, but always moving forward with a blind, frequently insane determination. She's not always sympathetic, and her mistakes are costly, but she's never less than fascinating.

The last episode is a little confusing, and ends on a cliffhanger which doesn't help, but overall the series is wonderful and I look forward to seeing how it all plays out in the next season.

I love the history of Catherine the Great, and this isn't it. However it is hilarious, smart, sarcastic, and almost resembling her story.

I wanted to hate it, but I loved it. I hope they keep it going.

This has been one of the best shows of the year. I binged watched it over the weekend and it was great. It is loosely based on history but has an entertaining twist and the ending cries for a second season. Elle Fanning does a great job as well as the other characters. Some you immediately like, some you hate but all of them grow on you as the season progresses.

The way how they play and remastering the history is genius! As being Russian, I find this show absurdly brilliant and funny. That's interesting to follow how the show is portraying current narratives with well known facts from 18 century, as it all together creates absolutely masterpiece satire Universe!

Great acting, costumes, picture and the soundtrack! I find it a bit similar to Sofia Coppola´s Marie Antoinette, which is also my fave :) Thanks for refreshing and please throw us the new season asap. Hazzah!

First off, the good; Great writing, acting, sets... extremely entertaining. Fun even. Well above average.

The bad; Was there anything here historically accurate beyond a Russian emperor named Catherine that took over and ruled Russia? I didn't see much. And so much of the inaccuracy was pointless and unnecessary... like Peter's father died when he was quite young, and he wasn't Peter the Great. It was his grandfather. And it doesn't stop there... For those of us who enjoy History and historical fiction, it was a bit odd and detracted from the immersion.

The profanity; I'm no prude and have no issues with the F bomb, but some of the later episodes had dialogue where it was nearly every other word. Again, this detracts from the immersion. It's jarring.

Political correctness; I have no issues with multi cultural actors. It is called acting for a reason. But painting an empire that had already had female leaders as some sort of boy's club that needed saving by idealistic young Catherine? Not even close to real, and again, slightly annoying. Catherine was a tomboy, loved horses, shooting, hunting, etc. She was not a dainty little thing dreaming about art and education. That movement had already been started in Russia years earlier, some of which was expanded by Peter, and some subsequently rescinded by Catherine.

I did like the way they explained the old gossip about her sleeping with her horse. Clever, and could very likely be what happened in reality.

With just a bit more effort in the writing to be true to History and the actual characters, this could've easily been a 9 or 10. I'm not expecting 100% accuracy, but something higher than 5% would've been nice.

Who the hell cares if this show is not historically correct? This isn't the History Channel, this is a comedy. I've seen far too many period pieces take themselves far too seriously. It's a genre well-trodden, but hardly ever done with wit like this.

If you can't see that this is the funniest show on television, your sense of humor must be broken.

This show went massively downhill. So many of the episodes in S3 were just all over the place and had just random crap happening.

I had a few laughs here and there throughout the season, but overall, it pales in comparison to S1 and S2.

There was no overarching main storyline that was actually interesting/intriguing to keep you captivated and caring about the characters...

It's almost like a completely different show.

Also nice one completely ripping off the dumb Wednesday dance at the end of the final ep. I guess the writers were like oh that weird quirky dance was really well received, lets also do that. It was just extremely lame and cringe.

What a joke of a show. It's just not funny. It makes fun of domestic violence, infidelities, religion... It depicts Russians as stupid, vulgar savages. I am not pro Russian in any way, and I understand that it not historically correct, but even for me it was too much. despite any political situation, making such tv show is just low and unethical. I just don't get why if one wants to make comedy period series it needs to be done at the expense of any cultures and nations. Just create the show about fictional country and be done with it!

This fabulous lush historical satire has far and away the sharpest dialogue of any show I can remember seeing on any platform. It is delivered mostly rapid-fire as in the screwball comedy films of the 1930s. It also has the best players delivering the lines from top to bottom of the cast. And finally, it has the most adorable chemistry between a female and male lead that I have seen since Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as Mickey and Mallory in "Natural Born Killers" (1994)... not to mention the most bizarre chemistry between a man and his mother since Norman Bates, and the most adorable chemistry between a woman and a frog... ever... really. Plus it has a menu that would make Wolfgang Puck seethe with jealousy. And just enough sex to keep adults dull enough to be looking for something else interested.

Quirky humour, great acting, certainly not trying to be historically accurate! Possibly the humour isn't slapstick enough for the initial reviewers. It's definitely worth the watch.

So just to get this out of the way: this show is anything but historically accurate. If you want one more like that, Russia-1's Ekaterina is like that.

But anyways, if you really want to find this show incredibly funny, read up on the history of Catherine the Great.

Also, to the person who did the editing for Season 1 Episode 8, why would you use "The Sacred War"?! I know historical accuracy wasn't on the table, but for gods sake don't intentionally mix up the eras (The Sacred War was written in 1941).

This is the best series I have seen this year- no, in the past few years. The script is simply brilliant, the acting amazing (all the actors are brilliant in their roles), the dialogue smart and witty, the directing and the cinematography top-notch, and... I can't say anything bad about it. This series is absolutely brilliant and I can't wait for season 2! I truly hope more people will watch this amazing series.

I'm old enough to remember a time when Elle Fanning was just Dakota Fanning's adorable little sister. I think we may have arrived at a time when Dakota is known as Elle's sister. Elle has done some other really good work. But she really comes into her own, and I mean into her own, with The Great. This superbly written comedy based very loosely and hilariously on the life of Catherine the Great has Elle playing her as a young woman/girl who first comes from Germany to find herself the wife of Russian Czar Peter, played with gut laughing vacuity and yet, oddly charm, by Nicholas Hoult. Catherine is a bright and well educated woman who is faced with a Russian court that is, well, neither. And from there the comedy ensues. And, while the entire cast is brilliant, the show hinges on Elle Fanning's ability to be funny. And does she ever deliver. Her timing and her performance are note perfect. I've seen her handle drama extremely well. But comedy is a different animal. It is actually very hard for an attractive person to be funny because they're just not funny to look at and we have a weird tendency to take attractive people seriously. And Elle Fanning has grown to be a very beautiful young woman. It seems odd and unfair to say that a beautiful person has anything to overcome but, when it comes to playing comedy, they really do. Comedy, to do it well, as any actor would tell you, is actually very difficult. It requires timing and pathos and just the right balance between energy and constraint. And Elle Fanning, at this young age, shows herself to be a master at it. The show itself is brilliant. Fall off your seat funny. Not titter funny but legitimately hilarious. You'd be a fool not to watch it. Or a member of the show's version of the Russian court.

I will never shut up about just how good this show is. Elle Fanning is stunning. Nicholas Hoult is so ridiculously charming. He deftly walks a tightrope between loathsome and lovable, I've never seen anything like it. The entire cast is exceptional but Tony McNamara's dialogue is the true star. Strong, smart female characters and friendships are the core of the show. It's feminist without being girlbossy, which is so rare. The show is exceptionally funny yet at moments so poignant. It kills me that this show is as underrated as it is. You're wasting your own time not watching it!

We loved seasons 1 & 2 - the writing was clever and engaging. Season 3 is a non-stop slapstick rant of sexual references and over acted personalities. At times, the tone feels more like a Mel Brooks or Monty Python film.

We are trying to make it through to episode 4 but are struggling to get there.

As always, the costume and production design are exceptional. The sets are lovely. The budget must be significant so its a shame that the writing and direction has turned a marathon-worthy series into an irritating show of silliness and nonsensical plot lines.

We are hoping for a season 4 with better writing and think we are likely to stop watching season 3 and hope for the best next year.

I wasn't sure I would like it at first, but so glad I continued to watch. Some of the best acting from the entire cast that I've ever seen. I wonder how many takes they had to do, as quite a few scenes had me literally laughing out loud! The script was written so well, sudden, unexpected bursts of vulgarity in the midst of speaking so eloquently..😂. This show is something new and different. It has inspired me so much, that I am actually taking the time to write about it....and I watch a lot of TV!!!

Visually, great set and costumes. Elle Fanning and Hoult are great actors. But thats about it. All the episodes are just repetitive, the stort barely evolves at all. and even when the actors are great, one gets sick of Hoults character Peter who is just, disgusting, even if they try to make it seem its bc ge has mommy issues. And Elles character Catherine one grows super tired of aswell, the naivity and the inactions. Its just frustration, meaningless plots and a lot of thrusting. A nice package but its empty or rancid inside.

A real waste of time and also talent.

Season 1 was incredible, pretty consistently witty, clever & exciting from start to finish - like Game of Thrones as a Comedy, starring the amazing Elle Fanning.

Season 2 turned into a season of Gossip Girl, starting with ep 1.

I thought surely there must be new writers at work, and it seems what has happened is Tony McNamara used to be the lead writer, and used to work with Vanessa Alexander's support, and often a third writer to round things out. In season 2, Vanessa Alexander takes the lead - and it isn't completely jarring, but it takes the snarky, pop culture cheapness that used to garnish the show as an accent, are now being served up as the main course. All sense of gravity and balance is lost, and it's just a glib quip fest without substance or emotional weight. The show has become a vampire, lost all of its soul in season 2. Watching the same bodies perform in the same places, in the same costumes, surreally superficial, trashily modern versions of their earlier selves is really disappointing. Like a YA rewrite of a Nabokov novel.

And beyond the dwindling quality of the dialogue, the plot also suffered. It stopped making sense - despite all the dialogue exposition walking us through it - it walked us through logic the way a toddler might. And while, with Peter's somewhat childish character being what it is, that would have made sense for him, Catherine simultaneously is now written as 1) dumber, less logical, incapable of effective negotiation or leadership, 2) instantly being thrown into several situation as the Woman for the Job, just to give her more screen time, when another character could have done said job more effectively given their experience. Like, she is being increasingly treated as Superwoman, and looked up to, but also being (I think, accidentally) written as less intelligent, less confident. And whether it's deliberate or not, it doesn't play well - because the premise is that Russia is a bloodthirsty country, and no one would cowtow to her if she were really showing this level of incompetence and vulnerability. It stretches the stylized glittery oversaturated quality of the show far beyond credulity; knocks it off the thin line it walked between too silly, gentle & trivial and too grim, violent & somber. Now the violence is ever more trivialized, the emotions are shallow, and the discussions are as sordid yet trivial as 2 trailer park baby mamas on their smoke break at Circle K. The beauty & inspiration is gone. And since V. Alexander was the lead writer for the whole season, god knows where we'll find these poor characters and plot by season 3, even if more talented writers are allowed to try to salvage it.

I'm starting to lose hope in humanity when I see that this piece of garbage is rated 8.1...This is not a satire, but a sad, juvenile attempt of a humour, most probably meant to amuse prepubescent school boys or morons with an IQ below 80. I don't recommend losing time with this piece of crap, it's an insult to everyone's intelligence.

I have never laughed so much at a show. The humour, the brilliance, the madnesses. It is so well acted! Nicholas Hoult is hilarious. The chemistry between him & Elle Fanning is obvious, a better match couldn't be had. Aunt Elizabeth (Belinda Bromilow) is pure gold, one of the best characters. I cant wait for another season.