Premiering this past Thursday on the CW was a period drama with a supernatural twist. “Reign” details the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, in the year 1557. It appears that the show will stray from the historical reality, but still tell a compelling story—one that may, in fact, be more interesting than the history books. The pilot episode holds assassination attempts, deaths, a potential love triangle and more, some of which have not been confirmed as fact.
The show begins by introducing Mary (Adelaide Kane, “The Purge”), who is being forced to hide out in a convent in France until she is old enough to take the throne and marry the French prince to form an alliance. Yet after an attempt on her life, the nuns choose to send her to French court. At court, she is reunited with her good childhood friends and Francis (Toby Regbo, “Mr. Nobody”), the man she is to marry. At first he seems to be an upstanding potential husband, but as the episode moves forward, Francis reveals his true colors. As Mary deals with this, she also realizes that someone who may be a ghost is following her about the castle. This unknown figure eventually provides Mary with advice that saves her from losing her crown.
Though there was nothing abhorrent about this pilot episode, there was nothing spectacular either. Most of the actors seem to be relative newcomers to their starring positions, except for “Chronicles of Narnia” veteran, Anna Popplewell, who plays one of Mary’s friends. As typically found in CW shows though, sometimes the focus is placed on physical attractiveness and sexual drive rather than quality. In order to compete with the characters’ beauty, the setting is also utterly gorgeous, as are the costumes, which provides an additional aesthetic value that might keep people interested. The sexual tension is definitely upped, as it appears that at some point, Mary is going to be forced to choose between Francis and Bash (Torrance Coombs, “The Tudors”), Francis’ bastard half-brother.
“Reign” regretfully does seem to fall into the habit of relying on stereotypical character development. Mary is almost sexually assaulted in the episode, where she is shown to the viewers as purely a victim despite the intelligence and outspokenness she demonstrated earlier in the episode. Henry II (Alan Van Sprang, “Immortals”), father of Francis, appears to have the same uncontrollable desires as Henry VIII, as he comes upon one of Mary’s friends in a game of hide-and-seek. And lastly, we have Popplewell’s character of Lola. Mary’s close brush with assault was perpetrated by Lola’s husband-to-be; despite the fact that the two have been friends since birth, Mary is blamed for his transgressions.
Hopefully in the following episodes, Mary’s character will be allowed to once again shine as the passionate woman who stands up for herself. The plot lines should definitely elaborate on the most interesting aspects of the story—who is the girl following Mary around the castle and why must she perpetually hide her face? The history of Mary, Queen of Scots, is wrought with disaster and drama, as the period drama will surely be, but the question stands if the character Mary will have the same bloody end as her historical counterpart. Several directions in the plot lay ahead, and whichever “Reign” chooses to follow will surely define its success.
