[astrohip]

Catherine the Great is a British-American miniseries in four parts written by Nigel Williams and directed by Philip Martin for Sky Atlantic and HBO Miniseries. It stars Helen Mirren as the titular Catherine the Great. The miniseries premiered in its entirety on 3 October 2019 on Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom. It will premiere on 21 October 2019 on HBO in the United States. (wiki)

The first episode was last night on HBO (Mon Oct 21), and the other three eps will air over the next three Mondays. I haven't watched it yet, but wanted to get a thread started.

The majority of filming took place in Lithuania, due to scenery of the country and favourable film tax incentives - Vilnius, Pažaislis monastery and Trakai Island Castle. A large part of filming, in particular the episodes happening in the throne room, many corridor episodes, the cross-dressing ball at the end of Episode 1, the scenes that take place on the stairs outside the palace, have been filmed in Rundāle Palace in Latvia. Other scenes have been filmed in St Petersburg and Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo Russia.

 

[Jeeters]

I watched the first half, maybe a bit more. Was interrupted and had to stop, but plan on going back to it. For what I saw so far of the story, I was mostly "meh", but willing to continue to give it a chance. The palace scenery is absolutely stunning. There's a brief outdoor scene with a *huge* cascading water fountain in the distance and I was like, "that thing's for real? not cgi?"

I found Mirren's age disorienting. I don't know much about Catherine but I do know that she had a several decades long reign. The miniseries starts with her having very recently assumed power, so it's odd seeing a 70+ years old looking Catherine and thinking that she still has 30 or 40 years to go. I just checked Wikipedia and it shows she assumed power in her 30s.

 

[Steveknj]

I watched the first half, maybe a bit more. Was interrupted and had to stop, but plan on going back to it. For what I saw so far of the story, I was mostly "meh", but willing to continue to give it a chance. The palace scenery is absolutely stunning. There's a brief outdoor scene with a *huge* cascading water fountain in the distance and I was like, "that thing's for real? not cgi?"

I found Mirren's age disorienting. I don't know much about Catherine but I do know that she had a several decades long reign. The miniseries starts with her having very recently assumed power, so it's odd seeing a 70+ years old looking Catherine and thinking that she still has 30 or 40 years to go. I just checked Wikipedia and it shows she assumed power in her 30s.

I wonder why they just didn't bring in a younger actress to play Catherine when she was younger? Star power perhaps? I have this recorded and will get to watch it eventually.