Ekaterina the Rise of Catherine the Great Review
What did it take for a woman to rule the ruthless earth of Russian federation in the eighteenth century? In Ekaterina, a Russian-fabricated miniseries, we encounter the journeying of the young and naive German princess Friederike as she is forged into the stiff and savvy woman who would rule Russia every bit Catherine the Great.
As the story begins, the Russian Empress Elizabeth (Yelizabeta Petrovna) is searching for an heir to carry on the legacy of her male parent, Peter the Great. She has named her nephew, Peter (Pyotr Fyodorovich) to follow her, but the odd (and semi-half-witted?) beau needs a fertile married woman to go along the dynasty. Friederike, because of her connections to the Prussian duke, is sent to Russia as a possible candidate for Peter's wife. The opening scene shows Friederike riding through the biting snow in a closed carriage with her petulant mother, capsizing before reaching their destination, and rescued by a Russian prince. Naively, Friedrike assumes that this handsome prince is her intended, but the fairy tale is shattered when he reveals he is only the prince's chamberlain, come to meet the carriage and bring Friedrike back to a very unenthusiastic suitor.
Equally the episodes unfold, Friedrike is made to suffer every indignity at the Russian court. Her mother is deported as a Prussian spy, the halfwit Peter is evidently repulsed past her, and the Empress humiliates her in multifarious means, changing the girl's name to Ekaterina as she converts her to the Russian Orthodox faith.
For seven years, Ekaterina endures a sham union with Peter, with her main purpose of producing an heir to the Russian throne across her power to reach. Every bit Empress Elizabeth'south health worsens, she encourages Ekaterina to accept a lover, and Ekaterina finds herself pregnant at final. The Empress forcibly seizes the child to raise as her ain, leaving Ekaterina to realize afresh just how powerless she is in the easily of the main puppeteer. Meanwhile, Russia goes into a bitter state of war with Prussia, and Ekaterina in the midst of her hurting must choose which motherland she volition be loyal to.
When the long awaited event of Elizabeth'southward decease finally arrives, an ecstatic Peter confirms everyone'southward low opinion of him by making an unconditional peace with Prussia and invalidating the sacrifices so many Russian soldiers have made. His attempts to change the devoutly Orthodox country to Lutheranism angers the populace even further. When he initiates a divorce against Ekaterina, the army rallies behind her, overthrowing Peter in a coup that will place Ekaterina on the throne.
This miniseries was a fantastic character study. In the beginning Ekaterina has ideals. She attempts to honey and respect Peter, challenge that history volition know her as Ekaterina the Faithful. She refuses to be involved in any of the internecine struggles in the Russian courtroom, challenge that she will accept no blood on her hands. But the vicissitudes of life transform her. By the end, she has had iii children by as many lovers, and for the sake of saving her own life and the life of her son, she engages in a coup that brings about Peter'southward death.
Some of the horrors throughout the story are the glimpses nosotros catch of "the hugger-mugger prisoner" that Empress Elizabeth keeps contained in a fortress, away from the eyes of the world. Known as Ivan 6, he had been proclaimed emperor while still an infant. Inside a few months, Elizabeth had usurped the position, however, relegating the hapless child to life imprisonment, with instructions that he not be taught his proper noun or even taught to speak. Throughout the story, we are told that Ekaterina is "kind," and indeed, she seems much kinder than Elizabeth. In the final episode, she visits the secret prisoner, and the question arises: volition she remedy the injustice Elizabeth did and set him free? Or has Ekaterina grown likewise much like the woman she hates? Can an empress ever truly be kind to a possible rival?
Elizabeth (and Ekaterina, equally she matured) reminded me of Lewis' graphic symbol Orual in Till Nosotros Have Faces. Their devouring love, which was ever predicated on self love, consumed those effectually them. Empress Elizabeth, especially, was similar Shelob from The Lord of the Rings, snaring anybody within her court with her secrets, her spies, and her calculated cruelty.
The way that Elizabeth exerted command through naming is a theme in the story, a theme that carries on to Elizabeth's true successor, Ekaterina. In i telling scene, Ekaterina informs her lover Grigory that she has named their child Alexei. He balks at this, wishing he had been consulted. He has desires besides about how the kid should be named. But just like Empress Elizabeth, Ekaterina overrides him. Her wishes are paramount, and now that she is free from Elizabeth'southward web, her children will comport the names that she ordains.
In some ways, this story was a triumph–the survival of Catherine the Bang-up against all odds. In other ways, it was a tragedy–the transformation of a sweet soul into a Machiavellian victor in the Hunger Games of the Russian court.
One scene that stays with me is when Ivan, the secret prisoner, reveals that his nanny in the prison, contravening all orders, taught him to speak and to read. He knows nearly of the Bible by eye, to recite in his prison cell when he is lonely. "Will you set me free?" he asks Ekaterina. "Aye," she says, although the answer is a lie. "I will pray for you every day," he says, equally the door swings shut against him, piffling knowing that prayers are of far lesser concern to Catherine the Great than the security of the Russian throne.
***
Notation: Although this series had far less explicit sexuality than American shows similar The Tudors, in that location was still some nudity.
Source: https://rosannelortz.com/2018/02/21/review-of-ekaterina-the-rise-of-catherine-the-great-tv-series/
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