While kings and queens are born into power, the rest of us aren\u2019t so lucky. That was especially true in 17th century England, where poverty bred misery for anyone unlucky enough to be born outside of the royal court. But that didn\u2019t stop Mary Villiers from aspiring for something more, and so began her wildly ambitious plot to seduce King James VI and secure power for the Villiers household \u2013 except the King was not that way<\/em> inclined, so her second-born son George took one for the team instead\u2026 so to speak.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Based on <\/span>Benjamin Woolley\u2019s book, The King\u2019s Assassin<\/a>, <\/span>Sky-Starz TV drama <\/span>Mary & George<\/span><\/a> reimagines these true events through an extremely horny lens, which brings to mind another salacious British period drama: <\/span>Bridgerton<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018The Ton\u2019 is also fixated on love, sex and the power struggles that are often borne out of that in a classist society, but the two shows couldn\u2019t be more different in how they approach those themes, and not just because Bridgerton is set 200 years later, during the Regency era.<\/span><\/p>\n Mary & George kicks off with a scandalous cruelty that would put even Lady Whistledown\u2019s printers out of action in a heartbeat. Right after George (Nicholas Galitzine<\/a>) is born, Mary (Julianne Moore) lets him know that he is so<\/em> worthless, he\u2019s not even worthy of a name. We then immediately cut to him purposely hanging from a tree as a young adult. But Mary cares not.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGood morning, George,\u201d is all she can muster as she casually cuts her son down from yet another suicide attempt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s a violence beyond words too, from the fate of George\u2019s father to the unfortunate scarring a poor maid endures, not to mention the bodies that pile up as the series goes on. And speaking of bodies piled up together, those aforementioned orgies aren\u2019t just glimpsed through a curtain or a door left ajar. No, the decadent lust that George and King James (Tony Curran)<\/a> enjoy is on full display for us dear viewers, even if the occasional thrust or butt cheek is as explicit as it gets.<\/span><\/p>\n James being so \u201cc**kstruck\u201d is integral to the story, just as tamer yet still lustful versions of said horniness are key to Bridgerton. But when it <\/span>comes to rumpy-pumpy of a queerer nature, the Netflix period drama falls frustratingly short.<\/span><\/p>\n In season 1 of <\/span>the flagship show, Benedict Bridgerton stumbled across a queer orgy while making friends with a closeted gay man. However, any hints that he himself might be queer \u2013 or at least questioning \u2013 were dashed when season 2 came and went with nary a Molly in sight (as the gays were so fashionably called back then).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Its spin-off Queen Charlotte<\/a> upped the ante with a secret love story between Charlotte and her husband George\u2019s right-hand men Brimsley and Reynolds<\/a>, but when they weren\u2019t sharing cheeky glances or a naughty bath, they were too busy gossiping about their masters to develop as actual characters in their own right. #Remsley served the plot just like they served their masters: from behind the scenes, with very little agency of their own to speak of.<\/span><\/p>\n For Mary & George, the opposite is true. Almost every person in the show is queer<\/a>, and it\u2019s widely accepted by characters who are not in much the same way that racial equality is in Bridgerton. That\u2019s rarely the case in any queer story, let alone LGBTQ+ period dramas, which remain unfortunately rare beyond the likes of Maurice, Gentleman Jack<\/a> and Tipping the Velvet. <\/span><\/p>\n Strangely enough, the closest comparison in that regard might be Our Flag Means Death<\/a>, David Jenkins\u2019s gay pirate show where bisexuality and non-binary identities feature heavily throughout. That\u2019s also the case in Mary & George, where George\u2019s bisexuality is never ignored or overlooked throughout his pursuit of the king.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And it\u2019s not just the men who get into each other\u2019s breeches. Mary is also partial to a queer dalliance with members of the same sex, most notably with Sandie (Niamh Algar), her sex worker-turned-lover. Their power struggles are particularly interesting as they reveal a softer, submissive side to Mary akin to the dynamics most recently explored in Fellow Travelers<\/a>, a very different kind of queer period drama.<\/span><\/p>\n But despite the various shapes they take, what all these period dramas do have in common, including Bridgerton, is that they remind us gay people did exist in the past, and that we have always existed, even if the history books have a peculiar tendency to overlook our existence. And crucially, we weren\u2019t just side characters in someone else\u2019s story.<\/span><\/p>\n LGBTQ+ people have often been at the forefront of change and revolution, a lesson Bridgerton could surely learn from Mary & George, its evil yet far more ambitious \u2013 and realistic \u2013 gay cousin.<\/span><\/p>\n Mary & George is available on Sky Atlantic and NOW from Tuesday 5th March.\u00a0<\/strong>Find Sky deals here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n [squirrel-affiliate-playlist squirrel_playlist_id=\u201d610\u2033 \/]<\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0Drama<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only \u00a310 \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Mary & George, AKA ‘The Ton’s’ evil gay cousin. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":47237,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/03\/mary-george-goes-to-places-that-bridgerton-wouldnt-dare.jpg",1860,1239,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/03\/mary-george-goes-to-places-that-bridgerton-wouldnt-dare-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/03\/mary-george-goes-to-places-that-bridgerton-wouldnt-dare-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/03\/mary-george-goes-to-places-that-bridgerton-wouldnt-dare-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/03\/mary-george-goes-to-places-that-bridgerton-wouldnt-dare-1024x682.jpg",800,533,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/03\/mary-george-goes-to-places-that-bridgerton-wouldnt-dare-1536x1023.jpg",1536,1023,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/03\/mary-george-goes-to-places-that-bridgerton-wouldnt-dare.jpg",1860,1239,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Mary & George, AKA 'The Ton's' evil gay cousin.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/47236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
![\"Nicholas](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/02\/MaryandGeorgeSkyNicholasGalitzine-df5cf8f.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412\" "\\"Mary")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"George](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/03\/maey-and-george--797db03.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Mary")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
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