Sunday, October 20, 2013

Reign (Episode 1)


Reign is a 2013 TV series, airing on the CW network, on Mary Queen of Scots stay at the French court during the 1550s. The show premiered on October 17th to an audience of 1.98 million.

Adelaide Kane as Mary, Queen of Scots

Nostradamus has just had a startling premonition on the coming of the arrival of Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary has been staying at a convent in France for her protection since the age of 9. After one of the nuns was poisoned, the nuns decide to send Mary to the French court. It is high time that she meet and marry the Dauphin of France.

The French court is abuzz with the upcoming marriage between Princess Elisabeth and Philip II of Spain when Mary arrives with her gaggle of ladies-in-waiting. Mary is greeted by her father-in-law, Henry II of France, accompanied by his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, and illegitimate son, Sebastian. When Catherine arrives, Nostradamus tells her the meaning behind his dream; Mary will cause Francis's death. While Mary and Francis get along well, Francis has a mistress that controls his heart. Mary becomes introduced to Sebastian "Basch", after her dog goes missing.

Mary's lady-in-waiting, Lola, is in love with the son of a servant raised high by the name of Collin. They seek permission from Catherine de Medici to marry which Catherine grants, although at an unseen price. Before leaving for the wedding celebrations that night, Mary receives a warning not to drink the wine. Collin is the one to offer it. 

At the wedding, Mary and her ladies-in-waiting, lose their inhibitions and dance the night away. Later that evening, the group sneak in to see the consummation of the marriage. The girls then run off, their emotions having been stirred up from what they have seen. One of her group has a dalliance with King Henry. Mary and Francis have an argument over whether or not love plays a role in their upcoming marriage.

That night, Mary awakes to have Collin standing over her. She screams for help and he is dragged away and executed. Lola is much distressed over the loss of her love and blames Mary for her sorrows. Mary finds solace in Basch, who finds her lost dog. The next day, Mary and Francis get into another argument relating to the matters of the previous night. Francis is close to admitting his feelings but stop shorts.

It is revealed that it is Catherine de Medici and Nostradamus orchestrated the entire plot.

I give this episode 1/5. Let us start off by saying THIS SHOW IS INCREDIBLY HISTORICALLY INACCURATE. The White Queen is the Elizabeth R compared to Reign. There are so many things wrong with this, I do not know where to begin. The clothing and the mannerism are completely wrong. I complete agree with Catherine de Medici when she said, "We've got a bunch of Scots in".  They creates of the show chose to romanticize every character and in doing so ruins any grain of credibility it has. It's only slightly creepy that they painted the wedding night between a 13 year old Elisabeth and 30 some year old Phillip as one filled with passion. Nostradamus was no hunk, Francis was no dashing figure and Basch, the man on horseback, never existed. The forced love triangle was bland and boring. The acting was simply dreadful, absolutely cringe worthy. I will continue to review episodes weekly but I am not optimistic for the future.

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