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Myth, History and Teen age Romance A Sixteenth Century Historian Watches Reign. Charlotte C. Wells. University of Northern Iowa. A wise older friend occasionally tries to convince me that historical fiction can convey the emotional resonances of the past more effectively than mere fact based analysis and thereby enhance our understanding. My mentor agrees that we all recreate the past in our own image but argues that fiction shaped by learning can suggest how other times felt to those for whom they were the present. I had some faint hope of such trans temporal sympathy when I sat down to watch the CW Networks series Reign, which premiered in the fall of 2. I found that the only one of the above observations applied to the show is that its creators are certainly rebuilding the past from a present day blueprint. To do them justice, Laurie Mc. Clain and Stephanie Sen. Gupta make no claim to docudrama, and weave a historical fantasy with little relation to the past. Its regrettable, then, that they chose to give the main characters the names of real peopleor at least the English versions of their names. Theres nothing  French in this series except for the putative setting. Reign presents the adventures of the teenage Mary Queen of Scots at the court of Henry II of France, where she is engaged to the kings oldest son, Francis. The year, we are told, is 1. Scotlands freedom from English domination is at stake but questions of sex and romance loom much larger in the minds of Mary, her four ladies in waiting, and the handsome gentlemen who populate the castles corridors. The real Marys ladies in waiting were all named Mary, the famous four Maries. Here, no doubt to avoid confusion, they have been renamed Kenna, Lola, Greer and Aylee. Mary is played by Australian Adelaide Kane, and her potential mates, Prince Francis and his illegitimate half brother Bash, by Toby Regbo and Torrance Combs respectively. Among the older royals, Alan van Sprang offers a lecherous and unstable Henry II and Megan Follows a steely Catherine de Medici who is definitely not in love with her husband, though she echoes the real Catherines devotion to her children. In the opening episode of the series, Mary has been sequestered in a convent whose denizens escaped from The Sound of Musicthe nuns are wise and kindly, and Marys pinafore wearing schoolmates appear to be playing soccer during recess. The young queen is torn abruptly out of childhood when her food taster drops dead, clearly an attempt by the English to do away with the Queen of Scots. Mary learns that to protect her life and people she must return to the French court, which she visited as a young child, to revive the engagement arranged between her and the Dauphin Francis many years before. French support will help keep Scotland free. When Mary arrives at her destination, however, it is plain that not all is as it should be. Top News. 120 of 65 items Prev. While Miranda said he isnt seeking it. Watch Movies TV Online. Prime Video. Big Hollywood covers. First Trailer for All the Money in the World Watch. Designing Women and a close friend for decades of Bill and. So they are using this end of their contract as a total. The city is reportedly seeking some concessions for. Watch Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World Online Hollywoodreporter' title='Watch Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World Online Hollywoodreporter' />Prince Francis, while young and handsome, already has a girlfriend and is not all sure he wants to give her up for a foreigner he scarcely remembers. Mary turns for support to King Henrys imaginary son by his mistress Diane de Poitiers, Sebastian, known to all as Bash. This soon turns to romance, encouraged by Queen Catherine, whose seer Nostradamus has prophesied that Marys arrival will mean the death of her oldest child. Nostradamus, by the way, is in amazingly good shape for the 5. Yet more complications ensue. The castle is haunted by a girl with a bag over her head, who mutters her own prophecies from the secret passageways. The people of the village outside the castle known, with admirable clarity, as The Village are sacrificing horses and their own kin to a mysterious entity known as The Darkness. Rather than witches, theyre harmless pagans, who must, as Bash instructs Mary, be tolerated. Bash subsequently reveals that both he and his mother, Diane, are secret pagans themselves. King Henry begins to behave erratically, starting an affair with one of Marys ladies that involves watching her engage in sex with a female prostitute, whom he later kills. Lady Kenna may be next. Mary learns of the prophecy about her arrival causing Francis death and decides to have Bash declared legitimate and marry him. This seems to entail either a decree from the Pope or Queen Catherines execution for adultery, or both. Francis will lose his right to rule but will have the freedom for which he longs. Francis leaves the court, encountering yet another of Marys ladies in a gambling den modelled on a nineteenth century Mississippi riverboat. Shes there to rescue her brother, about to suffer unnamed but terrible consequences for cheating. The owner offers to set him free in return for a night with Lady Lola. Hes middle aged and middle classdefinitely not an attractive liaison. Fortunately Francis offers a wager too good to resist by winning he saves both Lola and her brother. Heated sex ensues but the idyll is short lived. Hearing that his mother is about to be executed for adultery, Francis dashes off to save her. Meanwhile back at the castle, the mysterious girl in the bag is now revealed to be Clarissa, Queen Catherines daughter by a lover. Clarissa has a deformed face and a deformed soul, and she kidnaps her two young half brothers, Charles and Henry, to make them suffer as her mother has left her to suffer. Mary and Bash rescue the boys but in the course of the scuffle, the intrepid Queen of Scots conks Clarissa on the head. She apparently dies, most conveniently, since Nostradamus can now announce that since Clarissa was Catherines oldest child, Francis is safe. Queen Catherine is saved much to the kings disappointment and Marys wedding plans are changed by the arrival of her mother, Marie de Guise. Marie announces to Catherine, Mary may be Scotlands queen, but Im its king1 and plants the false news that the Queen of England, Mary Tudor, has died. King Henry demands that Mary Stuart wed one of his sons immediately if he is to back her claim to the English throne. Mary chooses Francis and they are married in a hasty ceremony. Marys new father in law forces Bash to watch the consummation of the marriage. Watch Ex Online Fandango'>Watch Ex Online Fandango. Small wonder that Bash chooses to retreat to the pagan enclave in the forest and get himself a new girl. Unfortunately her family is chosen to sacrifice someone to The Darkness fortunately for them, Bash has come to stay. While Bash escapes his fate as scapegoat, Mary is wondering why she isnt pregnant yet. When The Bough Breaks Full Movie Online Free. Lola is expecting on the basis of her one night with Francis, and the young queen is jealous. By the end of the season, Mary has more cause to be jealous, since Bash has been forcibly married to Lady Kenna in order to cover up her ongoing affair with the king. The other ladies in waiting likewise have become engaged to unsuitable partners, one gay and one a wealthy and generous but rather elderly spice merchant. Even Nostradamus seems to be pairing off with Francis former mistress Olivia. Along the way there have been foreign assaults, a visit from a Bohemian archduke, and banquets and debauchery too tiresome to relate. As the series begins its second season, it seems to be moving a little closer to real history. In Liege Lord, which aired April 1. Mary discovers a secret clause in her marriage contract. If she dies without heirs sovereignty over Scotland automatically passes to France.