Becoming Elizabeth

Quiet, dark, staid, and familiar in many ways, Becoming Elizabeth may not win over any new viewers to the genre, but for the faithful it certain fills its niche well, guided by excellent dialogue and direction and full of satisfying turns.

Becoming Elizabeth grants the future monarch some of the agency that she claims to have been denied — and that the inevitability of history too often robs of its most influential figures. In the process, it turns a centuries-old tale into something both timeless and fresh.

This take on the Tudors boasts poison of every flavour. Succession has a very promising heir.

Smart, engaging and a lot of moving pieces (so do a little homework first).

“Becoming Elizabeth” is steady enough on its feet to offer hope that there should be a more nuanced ending to come.

On the strength of the four episodes watched for this review, the whole is thinly plotted, slowly paced, lacking a strong center or any sense of humor. As played with spunk and dewy innocence by von Rittberg, the redheaded princess is appealing, but ultimately a blushing cipher.

The field of stars around Elizabeth far outshines the future queen herself, and as a result, the series is bogged down in its own self-importance, following threads of lord protectors and stepmothers and God knows who else through a confusing maze of castle walls, time passing seemingly at will for characters you can’t bring yourselves to care about.