Critique: Mary and George (TV Series)

This show follows Mary’s efforts to give her family a better quality of life and social standing. Her method? Make her son George the king’s lover.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Clever

 

There were many intelligent moments.

Mary tells George to believe his lies and, when he asks if she’s ever told one, she says, “None, ever.” If you perceive it to be truthful, it can’t be false, so it can’t be a lie.

Mary says, “Leave my fucking boy alone,” the ‘fucking’ being used to emphasise her meaning. Bacon replies, “That fucking boy,” here using ‘fucking’ as a verb, thus making the meaning into ‘a boy used for fucking’. The same two words used in the same order yet meaning completely different things.

Sir Edward says, “from thence.” Considering ‘thence’ means ‘from there’, saying ‘from thence’ is clearly not grammatically correct. However, the fact that most people don’t speak according to the strict rules of written language, it makes characters more realistic.

George set Sir Francis Bacon up for treason but makes Bacon believe it was Mary’s fault. In retaliation, Bacon had Sandie (Mary’s lover) killed in revenge against Mary. George kept on making use of the opportunities afforded to him.

The show starts with Mary controlling George completely so that they can control the king completely. By Episode Seven, their agendas no longer align. The king pin-pongs between their suggestions, with Mary’s advice to the king unintentionally leads to the king sentencing George to death. Doing something (control the king) for a purpose (make her family’s lives better), when it leads the opposite (George’s death would make her family’s lives worse) is unfortunate.

George wiped away his tear after killing the king (who’d just sentenced George to death). I don’t think he’s crying over the loss of his lover but for the loss of his power: it’s easier to get a lover to do something than your lover’s child, especially when that lover has neglected that child in favour of that lover.

 

Problems

 

There were a few things that were off.

George really went to town licking his fingers to prep the king for sex. If the king was watching, it would make sense. But he wasn’t. So George’s display was a little much.

At the end of a meeting, Geroge pushes his chair under the table. Like some kind of servant. Someone in his station at his time period would not have done that.

The blood squirting from cutting Riley’s head off was entirely unnecessary. There was no other moment in the entire show that had any amount of blood, so this amount was wildly out of place.

Full frontal nudity tapered out as episodes went on. To be dramatically brazen one moment then completely absent the next was bizarre and extreme. Dichotomies like these can be fine as long as they’re making a point: this one was not. To stop this pointless dichotomy, the nudity in the beginning should have been toned down.

In Episode Six, George is all of a sudden conniving and participating in bribery. In the previous five episodes, George had shown none of the tendencies or any thought processes associated with these actions. So it seems like it’s come out of the blue. As has his sudden ego and arrogance. For such major changes to happen, a turning point needs to be shown on screen, or at least mentioned. Otherwise behavioural and attitude changes don’t make sense. It goes to such an extreme as George saying, “I am the power. I am the king. I am England.” Steady on!

 

Humour

 

This show had a lot of dark humour (exactly my style) so I was definitely more receptive to the jokes than some others.

The series opens with George hanging himself. Mary cuts him down then says, “Good morning, George,” with no inflection or concern in her voice. Either she’s heartless or this is a common occurrence. Whichever it is, for a mother to lack seriousness over something so serious smashes expectations, hence the humour.

Mary’s daughter says, “Why does he get to stay?” and Mary replies, “Because he’s my favourite.” Brutal.

George takes Mary’s knife from her bedside draw (leaving it open) then fleeing to the woods. Mary follows, sees George miming cutting horizontally, and then directs the knife vertically, saying that’s how you do it properly.

Goerge goes to confront Somerset and his wife, the latter saying of George, “She’s even sweating, the poor bitch.”

After a meeting, George justifies annoying the king by saying, “I was trying to be fair,” to which the king replied, “I said seen to be fair!”

Listening to his mother drone on, Geroge asks, “Is there a point?” to which Mary responds, “Of course there is, I’m speaking.”

George asked, “Are you trying to insult me?” to which the Spanish guy responds, “No, your words and actions do that for you.” That’s some of the politest sass I’ve ever seen.

 

Other

 

There are a few other details I wish to mention.

George’s attempts to use suicidal behaviour to get attention from his mother is problematic. Both suicidal people and gay people are already accused of being dramatic, so, on reflection, it wasn’t good to see both stereotypes reinforced (even if they were reinforced in a very funny way). Obviously gay people and suicidal people can be dramatic (just like anyone else) so I can’t condemn this decision.

On his visit to France, George sees his host order George’s recorder snapped. This was heartbreaking because it was a present from his mentally challenged brother John. Especially because when George stopped playing it, John asked, “Will you make the music happen again?” So the recorder’s sentimental value was immense. It was snapped for no reason so it was just cruel. Yes, the French host was harsh on George, but those instances were to make him better at the task at hand: they had a purpose. Snapping the recorder didn’t match this pattern. Considering Mary told the French host all about George and what made him tick, I doubt the French host didn’t know the recorder was from John, and there was no way he didn’t know John was mentally challenged. So yes, snapping the recorder was cruel rather than harsh. Harsh people often slip into cruelty so this is consistent with the character.

In the penultimate scene, George lies motionless on the floor, bleeding out after being stabbed. One presumes he dies, in which case there can’t be a second series of ‘Mary and George’ because, obviously, he’s dead. But maybe they can have a second series, with one of two possibilities: one, George gets medical help and is miraculously saved; two, the second series is named ‘Mary and X’, replacing George’s name with another’s character. Who that might be, I don’t know.

 

 

To conclude, this was one of the most dynamic period dramas I’ve ever watched. It brought a sense of humour that’s hardly seen in this genre whilst weaving in intelligent thoughts and details. It was refreshing because there were no fighting scenes, just court intrigue. It was nice to be truly entertained.