Ekaterina vs. Catherine the Great (2015)
(Written initially in response to a tumblr ask with not a lot of time at hand.)
Overall: I liked Ekaterina (the 2014 series) more, hands down no contest.
Of course, for me there was one thing that had a lot of weight but may be a less significant factor for others - Peter’s characterization. The Catherine the Great (2015 series, aka Velikaya, henceforth CtG) series did a terrible job with it. Not only am I pissed at the blatantly traditionalist approach, but also it’s just poorly written and totally inconsistent. It was like they went “well…we still want to portray him as an idiot but we don’t want to be called out on ignoring historical facts which are becoming more and more widely accepted and/or acknowledged so….” The result is pretty ridiculous where they have a character who in one scene acts like a five year old or a seriously mentally deficient person and in the next is proposing progressive and sound legislation. It’s…jarring to say the least. Not to mention that horrible…accent?…that they made the actor have. I think they wanted it to be an accent but it came off more as a speech impediment and was just a completely unnecessary thing to include in the first place. Ekaterina, though it has faults of its own, does a very good job overall in portraying the sort of person Peter likely was.
I also think Ekaterina does a lot better Liza Vorontsov and, as an extension, the Peter/Liza relationship.
On the other hand, I appreciate that CtG doesn’t quite romanticize and woobify Catherine as must as Ekaterina does. And it gives a, rightfully, larger role to Dashkova and her friendship with Catherine.
Thinking about it, the shows are kind of hard to compare because they have different feels. Ekaterina is a bit more romantic, filmed in a softer, sometimes almost dreamlike, tone. CtG, on the other hand, feels like it has more politics in it, a bit more coverage as far as court life goes. Although, neither are on the Game of Thrones level of political intrigue and it’s not like Ekaterina lacks politics, because it doesn’t. This is just one of those things that’s hard to put into words.
Personally, I like the acting in Ekaterina more. Costuming is great for both series, even though Ekaterina chooses to forego the wigs.