Catherine the Great

A sumptuous historical drama, HBO’s four-part limited series Catherine the Great stars Oscar winner Dame Helen Mirren (who also executive produced) as the 18th-Century Empress Regnant of Russia. Determinedly independent in both her political and private life, Catherine became the country’s longest-ruling female leader, reforming the Russian empire and presiding over a golden age in Russian history and the age of the Russian Enlightenment.

Helmed by Emmy and BAFTA winners, writer Nigel Williams (Elizabeth I, The Name of the Rose) and director Philip Martin (The Crown, Wallander), the show’s cast includes Gotham Award winner Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty, Mudbound, The Devil All the Time), BAFTA winner Gina McKee (Notting Hill, Our Friends in the North, and Kevin McNally (The Crown, Das Boot, Pirates of the Caribbean).

The series was nominated for an Emmy for its sound editing, and a BAFTA for Make Up & Hair Design, with Mirren nominated for Best Actress in a Limited Series at the 2020 Golden Globes. Times (UK) says, “Mirren is magnificent as an august, complex Catherine, simultaneously imposing and insecure, underestimated and resented as a woman in power,” while Daily Telegraph (UK) says, “Catherine the Great is… massive, lush, beautiful, and with an element that’s so often missing in big dramas about major figures: incredibly human.”