We’re excited enough by Hulu’s comedic version of Catherine the Great that we’re recapping and podcasting the series. Pour yourself a cocktail, because we don’t expect to take The Great (2020) too seriously! Here’s our screencaps to follow along with our costume analysis in this week’s podcast. Catch up with previous episodes here.
Most of Catherine’s costumes from the first two eps were reused in these two eps, so more screencaps of Peter and secondary characters this time. Episode 3 opens with Catherine imagining her new Russia, post-whenever she gets rid of Peter. And wearing a pale green gown from before.
Meanwhile, Peter is prepping for a formal meeting with his military officers and getting fitted for a new outfit.
Peter has hired a lover for Catherine, and everyone gets a show of his cock. The audience only gets to see his butt. Instead of implied animal abuse, these two episodes get about three sets of bare male butts and implied male frontal nudity. Yay?
Peter presents Leo, the new lover, as a gift to Cathy, who is not impressed. In fact, she and Orlov worry that the guy is a spy. Marial thinks he’s hot, and Cathy should bang Leo anyway. But she has other business to attend to with the court ladies. She’s giving them gifts of her own — new dresses!
Peter & crazy auntie have a moment in front of the new statue of his dad. He’s feeling a bit inadequate (because he is, duh).
The court greets the returning military leaders.
Catherine hears about Peter’s half-brother, Ivan, and asks auntie for the details.
Then Cathy wears her peasant outfit for SO MUCH of the rest of this episode. Yes, she’s wearing a corset underneath and even refers to that fact. But it’s boring from a costume POV. Plot-wise, she talks a lot with Leo, her appointed lover, and then with Orlov about the coup, so sure casual clothes, whatev. Finally, after a lot of this, plus Peter being an idiot with his generals, Catherine’s tea dress joke pays off.
Next up is Peter’s big court presentation about his dad’s statue ‘n stuff. Everyone’s all turned out.
Peter’s speech goes stabby, there’s a feast with fire dancing, Cathy decides to fuck Leo, and we close out the episode with a blood oath about the coup.
On to episode four, where the (false) rumor about Catherine fucking a horse becomes a running joke. “Neigh means neigh,” folks!
The patriarch of the Russian church has died, so Peter will need to choose a new one and he’s not thrilled about the task. Peter and Catherine send off the soldiers on his probably futile campaign.
Orlov thinks one of the patriarch candidates will be more pro-Catherine than the others and makes introductions. Good think she’s finally wearing a new dress.
Peter interviews the patriarch candidates and one of them self-immolates.
Cathy tries to win over the ladies of the court by giving them each Faberge eggs and visiting them in their private quarters.
Peter parties with Leo, as you do with your wife’s lover, which Cathy notices and isn’t sure she’s thrilled about. But c’mon, none of this has been a picnic of her own choosing so deal with it, hon. Peter keeps on partying with his besties.
Cathy gets invited to a tea dance by Lady Svenska and the ladies of the court. Yay!
Catherine has a good cry and some vodka with Leo and some sex. Auntie counsels her on how to properly deal with the court ladies.
She takes auntie’s advice at a party that night and impresses the ladies, including Svenska (although Catherine is still wearing her peasant outfit, which does not impress us).
On the podcast, we give more detailed thoughts about the costumes — these screencaps are just for reference. So make sure to listen in.
We’ll be back in two weeks with episodes five & six!
The Great Episodes Three & Four, Podcast Recap
Listen to our podcast recap of the episode here or on iTunes!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:29 — 34.3MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Peter’s wigs are really gorgeous.
I think the imperial robe worn by Catherine has a very inaccurate bodice silhouette.Most of the extant examples show that the centre had a protruding busk,much like what she wore in the previous episode.Those sleeves were certainly meant to mimic the ruched sleeves,but I feel they are from a later period.It seems like they misinterpreted the ermine lined blue velvet cape thrown on one shoulder in royal portraits(was it really fashionable,or just an artistic pose to appear delicate?It comes up in so many portraits).
One thing that this show does get right,have your 18th century ensembles entirely in one fabric.Many shows make the actors wear pastel gowns with floral stomachers and petticoats(a gorgeous look to be honest)but even the extant examples show that the wealthy people had different petticoats and stomachers for their ensembles.Mostly jewelled stomachers were recycled.Atleast nobles would have splurged on clothing.Not that this show is trying for accuracy.
Wonder if the ikat suit is a reference to Uzbek silk ikat (though the suit is much less colorful and Uzbekistan wouldn’t have been part of the Russian empire at the time).
I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one who didn’t get the dress/curtain thing at first. I had to rewind and pause to see what was going on! Haha.
Was there more to the tent/dress joke than “hahaha I made you dress like the curtains”?
Yeah I don’t get it.
Maybe the joke is that the garment is cheap enough to make a tent with it. So the lady was so proud of her dress given by the queen, but in fact, it was the cheapest dress in the world (or it was perceived as such)