All hail the dastardly duo Mary & George

Looking for a good series to binge?

Meet my new obsession: Mary & George.

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In recent years there’s been a sway towards period dramas that lean into today’s reality. It’s part of the Bridgerton effect, and can mean things like using orchestral versions of 20th/21st century songs, or putting contemporary music on the soundtrack (see Peaky Blinders), making the dialogue feel less period, or more overtly playing with the idea of what a period drama should be, and pushing back at tropes.

This has meant shows/films with broader casting, and which move between modern and period morals to interrogate the evolution of sex, power and relationships in society.

Some series have been successful at this, like Bridgerton, as was the film The Favourite, which is a delightfully dark and strange romp.

But some aren’t so successful - take The Buccaneers on Apple TV, which I felt leaned into modern sensibilities in a way that jarred. There’s a fine line between introducing modern elements into a period show, and throwing period costumes onto characters who speak or even act like it’s the 21st century.

A new series that is really successful at this period/21st century balancing act is Mary & George, which is on Sky Atlantic (and on Now TV, where I binged the whole series over the past week).

It stars icon and legend Julianne Moore as Mary Villiers/the eventual Countess of Buckingham, who has an extremely handsome son named George, played by the extremely handsome Nicholas Galitzine (you might have seen him in Handsome Devil, Purple Hearts, Bottoms, or Red, White & Royal Blue). When their family ends up further down the social ladder than Mary would like, she tries to get George to seduce King James I (Tony Curran on top form - all pomp, paranoia and vulnerability) and make his way into the royal court. As Mary and George make their quest for power, they have to do some pretty dastardly things to maintain control.

The main characters in the show are real people (I was reading Virginia Woolf’s book Orlando during the week and George is mentioned in it - he’s called a ‘popinjay’, ie a bit of a conceited eejit), and the series is based on the book The King's Assassin by academic Benjamin Woolley.

Plenty of artistic license is taken here, but it’s also good at sticking to the truth. For example, it uses Walter Raleigh’s actual final words before his head was chopped off. What’s striking is the balance found between making the dialogue feel true to the period while feeling very modern too. How the screenwriter DC Moore has mostly done this is by having the characters say ‘fuck’, or a variation thereof, a lot. This contributes to the looseness that the whole thing has, making it feel very relatable to today, and yet it still retains the buttoned-up feeling that we associate with period dramas.

The first few episodes are wonderfully camp, which also feels very ‘today’, but seems to be a reflection of King James’ influence on culture at the time, and also of that era’s fashion - for the upper classes this meant frilly ruffs, corsets and doublets, embellished fabrics, and men wearing pearl earrings. (Iconique)

We can find more of its present day-ness in how it doesn’t shy away from sex scenes - lord knows what really went on in Jacobean bedrooms, but we do know that George was a ‘favourite’ of King James, and their letters to each other indicated an intimate relationship.

So the show knows that George’s currency is his sexuality, and it has to show us how he uses it to gain (and lose) power. As the audience, we have to feel his charisma too, and watch it at work. There’s been a lot of US-based chat in recent years about films in particular avoiding sex scenes, but Mary & George makes up for this with orgies, sex mostly between men, and all sorts of shenanigans. Sex is the beating heart (or *insert double entendre here*) of the show, and though it’s quite explicit, it feels like these scenes are necessary.

(Pic: IMDB)

Casting wise, Julianne Moore really embodies the desperation and cunning that Mary has - she makes her facial expressions say so much, and there are two scenes where she bows at another character in the most deliciously evil fashion. Who knew you could do that.

Nicholas Galitzine could have just turned up on set and looked pretty, but instead he is excellent at portraying his character’s evolution from an unsure teen to a confident young adult to a manipulative man. Like Moore, some of this is purely through how he holds himself, but he also does a brilliant job of demonstrating George’s need to adapt himself to different situations in order to get what he wants. His costuming towards the end is also really clever - it seemed to me to make him look bigger and more hulking, thus demonstrating his position in the royal court.

One of the best characters of the series is played by Irish actor/writer Mark O’Halloran, and what a treat to see him become the pock-ridden Francis Bacon. He takes on the role with relish, bringing us a Bacon who can be grubby and pitiful, and who always retains his pomposity. Niamh Algar is great as a wily sex worker called Sandie who befriends Mary, and she even gets to retain her Irish accent. Another Irish actor, Jacob McCarthy, is delightfully wicked as George’s fairly vile younger brother. The fantastic Nicola Walker is brilliant as Lady Hatton, who sees right through Mary - their battle of wits gives us some meaty scenes. Laurie Davidson’s slippery, aggrieved Earl of Somerset is another high point.

The sets in Mary & George are absolutely divine - they shot scenes in Jacobean buildings and houses, so we get to see the wood panelling, patterned drapes and ornamental details that the Jacobean era embraced. The costume design (led by Annie Symons) is stunning, and as the Sky documentary Mary & George & Me explains, is based on styles from that era with some tweaks to suit today’s body types (eg wider shoulders).

The costumes are so great that there was just one scene where an item stood out to me as a bit too modern - a (gorgeous) leather jacket that George wears, studded with pearls. But when I looked for portraits of George Villiers online, I discovered that he did indeed wear a jacket very like that. Get it, George.

(Image from Wikimedia Commons)

Galtizine has different hair and facial hair to the real-life George, which I think is a clever move. I don’t think Galitzine would have the same appeal wearing a pointy goatee and George’s real haircut. For some of the series he has a hairstyle that many men have now, but it works - unlike, for example, Margot Robbie’s anachronistic hairstyle in Babylon. When he has long hair, it’s worn plainly, whereas if he consistently had a more fancy style (like a lot of the other men in the show) I think it would make him less appealing to our 21st century eyes. (Here’s an interesting blogpost about late-17th century hair on men, just after George’s era. They loved big, bountiful wigs.)

Overall, Mary & George really balances the period elements with bringing an edginess that 2024 audiences will find moreish. The camp debauchery of the first few episodes does give way to something darker and at times less immediately sparky than what we’re presented with at the start - but I’m not sure that it’s really possible to maintain that campness as the story itself gets darker.

The ending, when it arrives, is brutally unexpected too - but is a great mix of the lust and violence we come to expect in the show.

This seven-part limited series was the dark, sexy romp that I didn’t know I needed. If you’d like to spend a few days luxuriating in the exploits of monstrous people wearing incredible clothes and arguing/coupling up in dimly-lit, impressive rooms, while marvelling at how much divilment one family can get up to, then I highly recommend Mary & George.