The easy formulation would be The Favourite (with which it shares a creator) crossed with Marie Antoinette but The Great develops a more layered human-ness than those - excellent - predecessors over its 10 episodes. For all of the colourful world-building, present-to-past anachronism, zippy dialogue ('huzzahs' and 'indeeds' galore) and outright grotesqueness, it feels almost like the show can't help itself in fleshing out the characters and relationships at its centre as it goes - especially between Elle Fanning's Catherine and Nicholas Hoult's Peter, who are both wonderful creations from actors who evidently know what they're about in performances that are both deliberately mannered and seemingly natural in a way that makes them recognisable.
