Long may she reign

Reign: Season 1

Rating: 4/5

History buffs, look away now. Avert your eyes and don’t be a buzzkill to ruin television’s top guilty pleasure, the CW’s interpretation of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots. It must have been a rather bold decision, choosing to base an entire series around the English period drama concept, focusing on an individual who clearly is not someone who comes up as a daily conversation topic across the Atlantic, let alone here in the U.K. And yet the channel whose main audience target is teenagers, has done remarkably well. Giving the tale a suitable twist, _Reign _is a deceptively well-polished drama that makes it okay to have the well worn-out storytelling mechanism of a love triangle, because the stakes here are not just about broken hearts and hurting someone’s feelings, but it also concerns whether someone’s head gets chopped off or not.

The French Court is never a safe place to be, and yet poor Mary (Adelaide Kane) has already been betrothed to wed Francis (Toby Regbo), the future King of France, from a very early age. Love counts for very little around here, as stable alliances between powerful countries to stand united against a threat are what every monarch is after. Mary, as her title suggests, is the Queen of Scotland, although being of such a young age, her mother Mary de Guise (Amy Brenneman) rules as acting regent in her place. Francis brings with him France of course, and this union is supposed to deter the English army from getting too feisty.

But danger lurks around the many corners of the palace, with everyone up to something to further their gains. The series opens with an assassination attempt, and that is in no way the last you’ll see of someone trying desperately to end another’s life. The current King Henry II of France not only keeps his wife Queen Catherine de’ Medici (Megan Follows) around, but also his mistress, Diane de Poitiers (Anna Wolton), with whom he fathered a bastard, Sebastian (Torrance Coombs). Sexual tension runs high as both Sebastian and Francis become potential candidates for Mary, and the two women surrounding Henry II are ready to spill blood at any moment for further control and power.

Treachery, plotting, scheming, are all what you can expect from Reign. Even for a CW show the series is not without taking its risks, both in terms of how much blood is shown but also with how much flesh. Violence and sex go hand in hand particularly in a costume drama such as this one, and while it may not be as raunchy as some of the cable greats The Tudors or Rome, it certainly gets its job done in suggesting away. There was reportedly a masturbation scene that had to be trimmed for the fear of angering concerned parents.

Mary is thrown into the deep end from episode 1, having to deal with the complexities of being a part of a royal court, and how not to be killed by one of the many, many who want her Catholic head. She has support from her four ladies in waiting, Lola (Anna Popplewell), Greer (Celina Sinden), Kenna (Caitlin Stasey) and Aylee (Jenessa Grant), all of whom are somewhat based on real-life counterparts. Like most women in those days, their number one priority is to become someone’s wife - hopefully a man of high standing, good income, and noble background. Reign has a way of skillfully juggling the highly soapy nature of the plotlines, and once again, the premise and medieval setting helps enormously. These aren’t some lovestruck high school girls looking to get laid. Whether they get married or not makes or breaks their lives, and their future safety depends on it. They can think of love later, affection can be worked on, but their potential husbands’ social standing? Not so much.

The performances are uniformly outstanding. Kane, Regbo and Coombs deliver their often corny lines in regards to their love triangle without flinching and backing them all with serious emotion, an admirable skill of course. And they excel too exerting their authority - Mary in particular is the one having to undergo the most significant change in personality - at first she is just a shy, clueless girl, but as the first season wraps up, there are many scenes the audience is treated to the young Mary standing up for her rights, fighting for her interests, plotting and scheming for her benefit. It’s a gradual change and maturation shown well through Kane’s steadily diversifying performance, getting us all excited for what she has to show in the next season.

But the one performance that truly stands out among everyone else is Megan Follows as Queen Catherine who is simply perfection in every scene she is in. She out-acts everyone just by standing in the frame, and it’s game-over whenever she opens her venomous mouth to speak, twist and manipulate words to get her way. She is loyal only to herself and her son, and this means she makes lots of friends, then enemies, then friends again, and so on, throughout the series. It’s head-spinning to try to keep up with where everyone’s loyalty lies, and it’s safe to assume that it’s a deadly game of free-for-all, and the only person one can truly trust is oneself.

Speaking of an older generation actress out-acting everyone else in the cast, the best episode of season 1 comes when the equally ruthless and scheming Mary de Guise drops by. Amy Brenneman only shows up for one episode to play the mother of the Queen of Scots, but she has a lot of fun and stirs up a lot of trouble in the designated 40-minute slot of her single appearance. Here is hoping she will be further utilised in the upcoming season, although nothing has confirmed this yet.

Being a historical drama there is heavy emphasis on what the characters are wearing, where they are standing, and what kind of grand event they are attending. No female character wears the same dress twice, and the same can be said for the men in a higher class. The exquisite range of costumes on display here is an amazing one, and although not all of the shiny, over-the-top garments may fit into the period this show is depicting, it hardly matters as they all look stunning in them.

When it comes to the soundtrack, the series makes no apologies for shamelessly using songs from the charts, as many backing tracks are from the likes of The Lumineers, Bastille, London Grammar, Gabrielle Aplin, there is even a string orchestra’s rendition of Lorde’s song Royals subtly playing in the background of a ballroom scene.

Human threats are not the only ones that plague the palace. Dark, supernatural forces that hide within the deep, dark woods surrounding the French Court also have a part to play, further adding to the sense of paranoia and unsettling fear.

Of course, it’s a show that is not supposed to be taken too seriously, certainly not within the historical context anyway. But it remains a highly entertaining period romp, with some killer performances to attract even the snobbiest of viewers. Mary Queen of Scots lived a complicated, colourful life, this should provide more than enough source material for the show. Long may she reign indeed.