The CW has jumped on the historical drama train with Reign, a highly fictionalised look at the early years of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots during her years at the French court. With three episodes under its belt, the series is already establishing itself as wildly historically inaccurate, yet strangely entertaining, in the sort of way that compels you to sneakily catch up when you realise there’s a new episode up.
As a network, the CW very much focuses on teen and young adult-oriented programming: this is the network that brought us Gossip Girl, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, and real-life ballet drama Breaking Pointe (which, truly, if you love ballet drama (and who doesn’t) you absolutely must watch). If you’re looking for deep, innovative, creative television, this is definitely the wrong network for it, but if you’re in search of entertaining froth, the CW is most likely your jam. The romance-driven dramas attract scads of fans, and many a Tumblr meme has revolved around the latest shocking revelation on the CW.
Branching out into historical dramas makes sense from a market perspective, given their popularity, but it’s an odd fit with the CW. I was intrigued by the premise of Reign, as Mary was a fascinating figure in history, but I was also…concerned, to say the least, about how the CW would execute it. I needn’t have worried: the network was absolutely true to form, and proceeded to adapt a bare ghosting of the actual history, slap a couple prom dresses on it, and call it good.
Historically speaking, Reign is a hot mess. People who didn’t exist have suddenly become major characters, dates have been moved around, and all sorts of anachronisms bedeck the scripts, set dressings, and more. The costuming in particular is rather spectacularly inaccurate; it truly does look as though someone raided the Ren Faire rack at the prom dress store and cut loose on set. While the young actresses look fetching in their frocks, they’re most decidedly not period, but then again, neither is anything else, so, really, why quibble?
The real Mary was a challenging, fascinating, and complex figure. She lived a life that was in many ways a litany of frustrations as she attempted to carve out a space for herself in a world dominated by men, even as Elizabeth I was doing just that, very successfully (much to Mary’s ultimate grave dismay) in England. One of the things that makes her appealing as the subject of a drama is her comparative lack of pop culture exposure, paired with the ultimate tragedy that her life became. Like many women of her era, her story did not end well.
But, like many women of her era, she was also extremely canny and skilled at getting the best out of her environment, which is something the series seems to be just starting to bring out. If it can strengthen this part of depiction instead of turning her into a love-lorn sheep, the series might actually get interesting. A Mary triumphant would be a reminder that this bold, assertive woman led a very interesting life.
After struggling in France and Scotland for autonomy, Mary ultimately found herself imprisoned for almost 20 years before being executed after being implicated in an assassination plot. Almost half her life was spent imprisoned, leaving relatively few years for the kind of hijinks and young love the CW seems determined to bring out in Reign; presumably viewers are at least familiar enough with her story to know how it ends, even if they don’t have the precise details. Thus, they know that the events of Reign are rather bittersweet in nature.
Exploring her survival while she lived under arrest would actually make for a much more interesting, albeit slow and process-driven, drama, but of course the CW wants to show dancing, frocks, and the glittering French court. Reign delivers in spades, with a very large helping of romance as well to keep things lively for everyone; the series comes complete with romantic rivalries, assignations with kings, devious plotting, foolish dreams of better futures, and even saucy masturbation scenes in castle hallways. In addition, the series has heavily relied on Nostradamus to add the mystical angle, which now seems obligatory.
For what it is, and where it airs, Reign is average fare. Think of it as popcorn drama: this is not the kind of television that breaks boundaries or spurs reams of commentary, but it is the kind of television that can be entertaining. If you lower expectations, you might even find it enjoyable. Don’t come to Reign expecting flawless adherence (or even loose respect for) history, come to it expecting an overwrought romantic drama.
If you like overwrought romantic dramas, or can at least enjoy them for the entertainment factor, you’ll probably find yourself enjoying Reign (at the very least, you can make a drinking game out of ‘spot the anachronism,’ although you might end up with alcohol poisoning within minutes). If you like your television a bit more high brow, or insist on embedded social commentary, thoughtfully-written scripts, and other petty matters, you may not be able to appreciate Reign for what it is.
This is not the sort of television show that is so bad it’s good; it’s not meant to be campy, and it does take itself seriously. Either you love it because you embrace it, or because you love making fun of it so much that tuning in is one of the highlights of your week.
Photo by carlo piana, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.