Helen Mirren won an Oscar, deservedly, for playing Elizabeth II in “The Queen” in 2007. Morgan, of course, has moved on to “The Crown,” where he has seemingly endless time to tell the story of Elizabeth II. Nigel Williams and Philip Martin, the writer and director of “Catherine the Great” (Williams wrote the mini-series “Elizabeth I” for Mirren; Martin has directed seven episodes of “The Crown”), don’t have that luxury. It’s a reasonable decision (if not entirely true to the historical record), but even with performers as capable as Mirren and Clarke, the relationship never approaches the romantic velocity it needs to carry the series. It plays like a dime-store “Dangerous Liaisons,” with a touch of “Amadeus” in Joseph Quinn’s twitchy performance as Catherine’s ineffectual son.

Source: New York Times October 20, 2019 17:03 UTC