The Great “Once Upon A Time”

Well, it looks like this is the last of The Great.  Hulu declined to pick it up for a fourth season, so unless another network picks the series up, that’s it for The Great. I’m not sure how well this show would work without Nicholas Hoult anyway considering he made Peter, an initially despicable clown, into a rather endearing and lovable clown who died in a weird drowning accident.

Still, even though there’s a plot thread or two that could lead to more–I mean, Archie was buried alive for his role in the whole Pugachev thing only to dug up at the end of the episode by Marial–but if anything, this episode works as a finale.  By the end of the episode, Catherine comes out with a new, more modern haricut and starts dancing alone in one of the many large rooms of her palace to, of all things, AC/DC.  Somehow, that fits a show like this.  That Catherine, alone, has achieved power in Russia, making some moves that had Aunt Elizabeth stand down after the older woman basically threatened to reluctantly hold a coup and take over herself.

And still, the show threw in a few curveballs, including one last patently silly character in the form of Nickolai, the court astronomer.  He says there’s a comet coming that is really neat, but he normally never even gets to see Catherine.  He fits this show for two reasons.  First, as much as he is excited for the science, he thinks they can float a canon or two up with some balloons and change the comet’s course.  Second, he finds himself a reluctant womanizer since he says whenever he talks to women about any general subject, they want to have sex with him.  That actually happens with Catherine.

However, for all that Velementov, Georgina, Grigor, Marial, Elizabeth, Petrov, and Archie all have their moments, with final plots that succeed or fail based entirely on how much they’re really on Catherine’s side, this is still really Catherine’s story.  This could easily be Catherine’s origin story.  Peter’s death wasn’t forgotten, and even her solo victory dance shows a woman in deep sadness, but she managed to find a way to reassert control over the country.  Marial and Grigor find a way to make it work while Georgina’s plot to get Paul ordained and then marry him was only half successful.

In short, it was the usual delightful show as Catherine finally asserted her position, succeeds in a way that pleased her true allies, and still has to deal with the backwards oddballs that are the people of Russia, a place where Petrov and Nickolai line up for an illegal duel despite the fact the two guys actually mostly like each other.  And yes, Catherine fixes things by shooting one of the two in the leg.

Man, I’m gonna miss this one.  It was funny in a silly way, and it was really deeply emotional when it had to be.  9 out of 10 protesting Russians.

OK, what’s up for Mondays now?  That’s easy:  The Afterparty came back.

Huh.  Mondays and Tuesdays will be doing comedic murder mysteries for the next few weeks.