Home > Catherine the Great > Miniseries « TV Series Page Catherine the Great: Miniseries (2019) Want to see Episode List Miniseries Catherine the Great Critics Consensus Though its sumptuous setting and design often outshines its storytelling, Catherine the Great remains a seductive, if scattershot, period drama thanks to the great Helen Mirren. 68% TOMATOMETER Critic Ratings: 40 31% Audience Score User Ratings: 75 See score details Submit review Want to see Submit review Super Reviewer Super Reviewer Tap to review this movie Review this tv season Edit Review Super Reviewer Rate this season Oof, that was Rotten. Meh, it passed the time. It’s good – I’d recommend it. Awesome! So Fresh: Absolute Must See! What did you think of this tv season? (optional) Submit Continue Super Reviewer Step 2 of 2 How did you get your ticket? Submit By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie. You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket. Super Reviewer Rate this season Oof, that was Rotten. Meh, it passed the time. It’s good – I’d recommend it. Awesome! So Fresh: Absolute Must See! What did you think of this tv season? (optional) Submit How did you get your ticket? Submit By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie. Episodes 1 Episode 1 Air date: Oct 21, 2019 Series premiere. Russian Empress Catherine the Great faces challenges to her throne on all sides as she meets the forthright and bold Lieutenant Grigory Potemkin. More 2 Episode 2 Air date: Oct 28, 2019 A victorious Potemkin returns from war to find Catherine preoccupied, leading the two to speak candidly about their pasts and future, while a Cossack stirs discontent among peasants in the countryside. More 3 Episode 3 Air date: Nov 4, 2019 Catherine and Potemkin experience growing pains in their relationship, as Potemkin's push for expansion puts him at odds with Panin. More 4 Episode 4 Air date: Nov 11, 2019 Series finale. Pressure from foreign powers leads to a bitter argument between Catherine and an ailing Potemkin. Catherine works to change the line of succession as her reign draws to an end. More Tv Season Info Genre: Drama Network: HBO Premiere Date: Oct 21, 2019 News & Interviews for Catherine the Great: Miniseries TV Premiere Dates 2019 View All Catherine the Great: Miniseries News Episodes 1 Episode 1 Air date: Oct 21, 2019 Series premiere. Russian Empress Catherine the Great faces challenges to her throne on all sides as she meets the forthright and bold Lieutenant Grigory Potemkin. More 2 Episode 2 Air date: Oct 28, 2019 A victorious Potemkin returns from war to find Catherine preoccupied, leading the two to speak candidly about their pasts and future, while a Cossack stirs discontent among peasants in the countryside. More 3 Episode 3 Air date: Nov 4, 2019 Catherine and Potemkin experience growing pains in their relationship, as Potemkin's push for expansion puts him at odds with Panin. More 4 Episode 4 Air date: Nov 11, 2019 Series finale. Pressure from foreign powers leads to a bitter argument between Catherine and an ailing Potemkin. Catherine works to change the line of succession as her reign draws to an end. More Critic Reviews for Catherine the Great Miniseries All Critics (40) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (27) | Rotten (13) Mirren will get an Emmy nod for this because she's Mirren. She is a great actress, and she's certainly good here. A pity she'll get that nod for so cramped a story. Oct 22, 2019 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review… Verne Gay Newsday Top Critic Nothing is subtle about it: not the acting, not the directing by Philip Martin, not the production design, not the costumes. Oct 11, 2019 | Rating: B | Full Review… Ann Donahue indieWire Top Critic The producers and commissioning editors made a decision that their heroine would be older - much older - on screen than she was in real life. Has this happened before? I can't think that it has... and really, it is quite fantastic: game-changing, almost. Oct 3, 2019 | Full Review… Rachel Cooke New Statesman Top Critic This series isn't just a vehicle for [Helen Mirren], it's a golden carriage. She is sumptuously dressed and adoringly, luminously photographed in great palaces in Russia. It's an amazing spectacle but Mirren easily dominates it. Oct 3, 2019 | Full Review… David Sexton London Evening Standard Top Critic Although you should watch Catherine simply to enjoy the rare reverse May-December pairings, the show isn't by any means perfect. Oct 21, 2019 | Full Review… Rebecca Onion Slate Top Critic Flat biopic has violence, innuendo, nudity. Jan 9, 2020 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review… Melissa Camacho Common Sense Media The crown sits easily on Mirren, who can be bossy, seductive, vindictive, and girlish at will. She's great, even when trapped in a romance novel. Oct 23, 2019 | Full Review… Matt Roush TV Insider It pains me to admit that this show has been a slog, and I'm glad it's over...the real problem with this show is that it tries to cram roughly 30 years of history into four hour-long episodes. Oct 22, 2019 | Full Review… Anne Cohen Refinery29 It sort of works. Nov 1, 2019 | Full Review… Lacy Baugher Culturess Although this particular portrayal of Russia's longest-ruling female leader is refreshingly modern, viewers' appetites for a gripping and emotional period drama are likely to left unsatiated. Oct 25, 2019 | Full Review… Rahul Patel Film Inquiry The series is a gorgeously detailed piece. Oct 24, 2019 | Full Review… Ani Bundel WETA Alas, the series itself, although it covers a fascinating period, is not a must-see. Dec 6, 2019 | Full Review… Diane Pershing Malibu Times View All Critic Reviews (40) Audience Reviews for Catherine the Great: Miniseries Jan 20, 2020 Catherine The Great stars Helen Mirren as a strong powerful leader of her people. She people the Russian people to get educated and build a reputation of power and knowledge. During her leadership the Russian Empire was the expanded and captured lands from Alaska to Hungary in the meantime defeating the Ottoman Turks twice. This HBO miniseries was less about the history but more about Catherine and her lovers. Even in her hay days she was more intrigued to be loved with her younger servants. Her love affair and marriage with Gregory Potemkin was denied throughout history but recently revealed during the 90's. Helen was wonderful, and engaging for someone she portrayed that was much younger than her. The wonderful costumes and cinematography created a good series that brought the story to life. Overall it was a good series but nothing fantastic. Hrant B Dec 18, 2019 Expecting caviar, but receiving re-heated fish & chips. Two stars because of Mirren, who has done much, much better work elsewhere. The acting, by and large, was reminiscent of a high-school play. I watched all of it because of my better half, otherwise I would have probably quit somewhere during part 3, or was that part 2? Where's the remote? Detlef P Dec 10, 2019 Clunky story. Miren plays someone decades younger than she is. Bad. Whitney C Dec 04, 2019 Ouch! I so much looked forward to this series :) Such an impressive period of history and such an impressive ruler should have provided some fantastic source material! Sadly I had to give up after episode 2... The actors with very few exceptions were either uninteresting, miscast or just not compelling in their roles. And it pains me to say this, but this includes Helen Mirren. I do hope that someone in the future does another Catherine the Great with exciting characters, storylines and settings :) Walt D Dec 01, 2019 Beautiful settings and costumes, Mirren is an excellent actress, but much too old for the role!!! This was painful to watch, beware... Josiane S Nov 30, 2019 Mirren is fantastic, as always. The hamfisted direction kills the story. Cookie cutter and boring. The actors and the story of Catherine the Great deserve so much better than the slop served by the Philip Martin. Didn't make it to the end of episode 2 and I am a big fan of Catherine the Great - but this guy makes sex scenes less exciting than watching paint dry. Would love to see Mirren do this with a talented director at the helm. k o Nov 18, 2019 Extremely disappointing result considering the talent, the production and the money behind it. Plus they could hardly have had a more compelling subject to work with. But, somehow, they managed to make it boring. The Potemkin character, in particular, was miscast. Catherine should have been played by a younger woman. I barely made it through two episodes. Tom E Nov 15, 2019 Dreadful. I made it through until half of episode 2 but I had to give up on it. There's no substance whatsoever. Its entirely story is centered on a dimly-lit, scarcely believable "love affair". As soon as they got to sharing their "number" (of past lovers) I was finished; was this meant for teens? A sickening sort of melodrama. The scenery was gorgeous, however, I doubt its historical accuracy. Helen Mirran of course is amazing but if you read the critics reviews that's really all there is that's good about the show. I appreciate they took creative license with the casting as she is 40 years older than Catherine, but perhaps they could have used that creativity for the script. Disappointing. Jessica S Nov 12, 2019 So far, the storyline is rather boring. The sets are beautiful and I will continue to watch in hopes it will become more interesting Mary B Nov 12, 2019 Boring one and a 41-year age gap between Mirren and Catherine is quite an absurd. 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