The Great

...at it best when it sublimates the eternal, tone-agnostic political dilemmas – radicalism v incremental progress, choice v force – into nonsense games of one-upmanship.

Every scene, every line of Tony McNamara’s script carries its own wicked hedonism: there is always something to enjoy that’s ruder, sillier or sharper than other shows would dare to include.

This fun, adult-oriented period piece tells of the rise of the young Catherine the Great through a successful blend of historical drama and campy, slapstick humor.

...has quietly emerged as one of the best shows of the streaming era.

The series is a strange, funny, ridiculous, trundling carnival of ideas, genres, and characters. It is great in both size and quality—ambitious, reckless, and always a joy.