Ranking Every HBO Miniseries From Worst To Best

Helen Mirren playing a monarch is usually a recipe for something awards-worthy, and indeed, in 2019’s Catherine the Great, the royalty specialist is reliably excellent as ever. It’s the story of a powerful woman in difficult times, and Mirren develops the Russian empress skillfully as she becomes less idealistic and more ruthless in her ruling.

Unfortunately, the show that exists around her isn’t nearly up to the standards of her performance. It’s awash with exposition; there’s a clear nervousness on the part of the director and writers that we’re not going to be able to follow what’s going on, and so in dialogue and onscreen captions we’re forever kept up to date, often unnecessarily.

Its decision to cram 30 years of Russian history into four hours of screen time is also folly - it’s hard to connect to many of these characters beyond the fact that they’re being played by some of the finest British actors of our times.

Mirren’s majesty makes this almost worth watching, but it’s a show built around a performance rather than a character.