It was the final act for Queen Elizabeth I, but for Emmy winner Glenda Jackson (adding it to the Oscar she got a short time before this aired), it was a decade of opening nights and first acts and critical acclaim. For the aging queen, wearing more powder than Baby Jane Hudson, she's suffering from the loss of long term advisers, those she has loved and fought with and counted on and constantly forgiven. Now she's dealing with issues in Ireland where much of the first half of this episode takes place, as well as Sir Walter Raleigh, the last of the men she loved and fought with and ultimately made a decision that could have destroyed her legacy.
This is an aged, tired queen, only in her 60's yet exhausted from years of service, international strife and perhaps living in the past with regret of the life she was never able to have. She screams at various ladies in waiting and advisers, is made a mockery of by the uppercrust in private, yet can still be tender suddenly out of nowhere. There's the insinuation of another beheading, but unlike Mary of Scotland, it is only implied.
While the scenes dealing with the Irish rebellion are certainly a page out of history, there are moments that cut this to a quick stop, but not long enough to downgrade my rating which gives the series a 10/10. Glenda delivers another beautiful soliloquy towards the end of the episode. "Before it goes out, the candle always flares", one of her loyal advisers says, indicating that time is fleeting and that an heir must be found. It's a far cry from the wide eyed princess fron the first episode, but over these six episodes, so much is revealed about her humanity and grace and strength and weaknesses. She's the Shakespearean heroine he never wrote about, and oh what a story.
This is an aged, tired queen, only in her 60's yet exhausted from years of service, international strife and perhaps living in the past with regret of the life she was never able to have. She screams at various ladies in waiting and advisers, is made a mockery of by the uppercrust in private, yet can still be tender suddenly out of nowhere. There's the insinuation of another beheading, but unlike Mary of Scotland, it is only implied.
While the scenes dealing with the Irish rebellion are certainly a page out of history, there are moments that cut this to a quick stop, but not long enough to downgrade my rating which gives the series a 10/10. Glenda delivers another beautiful soliloquy towards the end of the episode. "Before it goes out, the candle always flares", one of her loyal advisers says, indicating that time is fleeting and that an heir must be found. It's a far cry from the wide eyed princess fron the first episode, but over these six episodes, so much is revealed about her humanity and grace and strength and weaknesses. She's the Shakespearean heroine he never wrote about, and oh what a story.
