Farewell, The Great
Sadly, there will be no more "Huzzah"s because Hulu has cancelled its historic comedy after three excellent seasons
Aux News The Great
So long, The Great. You were, well… really, really great.
After three stellar seasons, Hulu announced today that the reign of Elle Fanning’s satirized Catherine The Great would be coming to an end, reports Deadline. The show, which also starred a pitch-perfect Nicholas Hoult as Catherine’s husband Emperor Peter III, just aired what will now be its series finale this past May.
Over its run, The Great played a little fast and loose with history to create a bloody, horny, boisterous, and always hilarious riff on the early reign of Catherine, Empress of All Russia. “I like the stakes of the era, the life and death stakes of the court world,” said creator Tony McNamara in a 2021 interview with The Guardian. “I also like that they’re dealing with stuff we’re still freakin’ dealing with… We’re still dealing with privilege, and how to give people equality, and all that kind of stuff. I’m interested in the parallels… In my head I’m kind of making a contemporary show that feeds off an era in history.”
While the show’s cancellation may come as a shock to fans, the writers at least didn’t leave the court with any sort of devastating cliffhanger or unfinished shock twist. In the words of The A.V. Club’s Saloni Gajjar in her season three review:
The Great wraps its third season with a certain degree of finality. It could potentially go on because Catherine’s reign continues for years, but even if it doesn’t, the show goes out in a blaze of glory here. Fanning’s daring performance in the season finale is a stellar goodbye encapsulating why McNamara’s series works. It’s unhinged, potent, and charismatic while being laugh-out-loud funny.
Let’s all raise our glasses (and then smash them on the floor) and say one final Huzzah! to a great show.
41 Comments
Always sad to see a great (sorry) show end when it’s still hitting on all cylinders, but like the excerpt from Saloni’s review says, the season three finale definitely had a series finale feel. Moving forward without the Catherine-Peter dynamic would have been difficult, though I’m sure the show would have found a way.
Agreed, but I would have loved a movie/special to tie up a few loose ends. Now we’ll never know how that american revolution turned out.
Hey, in this fast’n’loose-iverse, anything could’ve happened!
I agree; the finale really felt like a place you could stop the story. Especially with what happened in S3 (i.e. the hole), it’d be kind of hard to carry on.
I was really looking forward to how they might handle that.
It’s actually based on a stage play where the second act focuses on an older Catherine and her son Paul (who is just Peter made over to the point he’s portrayed by the same actor). So there was at least one more season to be made but that mean they’d either have to recast Catherine or put Elle Fanning in old age makeup (which rarely works out well).
Or just X-Men it and don’t address the aging thing at all.
The horsecock of cancellation ruptures the internal organs of another show.
This show was so good, and the actors were just the best in their roles, will really miss the characters!!!!
Not surprised. I loved the series but it had to be extremely expensive to produce and with the current round of cost cutting measures in streaming it kind of had a target on its back.
This show cemented for me how much I love Hoult as an actor. His Peter was equal parts threatening and endearing, and the fact that you were ROOTING for a spoiled psycho like this shows the intricacy of the performance. The rest of the cast was great too, although some of the side characters were oddly utilized at times.
HUZZAH, The Great. Three seasons is nothing to sniff at.
Agree. And he was also really good in The Menu.
Menu was the BOMB!
I feel like that movie didn’t get the attention it deserved. Amazing performances all around.
It really showcased that both Hoult and Fanning are both very versatile and very game, which what you wan in an actor. What a delight this show was.
Agreed, he was a revelation, now i look out for him in things.
I think, with the right role, it’s likely Hoult secures an Oscar in his lifetime.
Hoult is Renfield is something else. Who knew you could find a guy who can ham it up just as hilariously well to Nic Cage doing Dracula?Goofy gory flick…..watch it with your horror loving friends.
I liked it, but it couldn’t go on forever. At a certain point the tensions that are the raison d’etre had to be resolved or would wear thin and become annoying.
Well, this sucks a lot , but at least we won’t have have to see this continue without Nicholas Hoult in the cast (as Peter and his evil doppelganger). The “hate/love” dynamic between Peter and Catherine was the heart of the show. Huzzah! to a great run. (I guess we will also never know if anyone ever finds poor dead Orlov).
didn’t he get eaten by the bears?
This sucks, but it felt like they wrapped up most of the loose ends at the end of season three and season four would have been big change.While I’m sad were not gonna great more of The Great I’m just glad it didn’t end in the same way Glow did setting up a big next season.
I guess I mistakenly was always under the impression that the third season was intended to be the last. Could have sworn the creators said as much, and with Hoult’s character(s) exit, I had just assumed…
Seemed like they were hedging their bets but wouldn’t have turned down a fourth? I’m so glad it actually ended on a nice final beat instead of a cliffhanger. Wish more shows would do that.
I’m sad to hear this, because I liked the show a lot. It had a satisfying conclusion. But…I also wouldn’t have minded seeing one season of where the show would have gone without Peter.
I thought he might appear as a ghost in her head, or through flashbacks, or hell, the show was so goofy sometimes, maybe he’d just come back! Just pop through the door at some dramatic moment and say “Hello darling! That was some cold wet hole!”
It was time, I’ve not even made it through this season, the story just really has nowhere to go unless they kill off Peter (which maybe they do this season, I don’t know), as much as it would suck to lose Hoult, who’s truly amazing in it.
I actually assumed it WAS a series finale while I was watching it. I am more surprised to be finding out now that it could have gotten another season. (It was a good finale. I’d certainly watch more, but I am also very happy and satisfied with what we got.)
That kiss between Peter-lite and the priest was hot as fuck. I’m cool it will end this way but am sad both this and Reservation Dogs are off my To-Watch-List. Hulu owes me two new quality shows damn it.
How interesting it would be if showrunners ended every series season with what could be a conclusion. I remember the conclusion of Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s fifth season as a potential finale and it could certainly have worked.
It was nicely quirky and I enjoyed it to a point. As to McNamara’s claim that it’s topical,… I suppose somewhat. I found the gleeful murdering and deaths very offputting (even sickening) but I suppose that’s just me. Douglas Hodge’s character was too much but his characterization is probably historically accurate.
Well, that sucks, we really liked this one. But at least it had kind of an ending. Though it totally could’ve gone on.It was better than Knightfall that ended with (presumably fallen) knights rowing secretly away in the middle of the night, practically screaming “WE’LL BE BACK IN THE NEXT SEASON!!!”
The Orville season three ending was perfect if it never comes back for a 4th, I so want it to but like Derry girls, Reservation Dogs, After Life and on and on, three seasons seems like all good shows get these days.
I could not get into The Orville. I admit, I have a short attention span so I watched two episodes at most.
Derry Girls I watched 5 or 6 episodes, but really had to pay attention to understand sometimes when they were talking.
The orville was a classic bait and switch. Season one was sold to fox as a family guy creator naughty humor space comedy and season 2-3 are a loving homage to star trek and to many fans more star trek than the new stuff. Derry girls is a closed caption show.
They’re all closed caption shows. I don’t want to watch something I have to read along with. I’ll just get out my Fisher Price record player and read along with “You’re The Greatest, Charlie Brown!”, “Charlie Brown’s All-Stars” or the one where Charlie Brown wins a motocross race, or the one where Snoopy leaves Charlie Brown to go be with his former owner which always made me cry, again.
“I don’t want to watch something I have to read along with.”These days I have the closed captions on for everything.
3 seasons seems to be the top end of good streaming shows.
Huzzah! To a really, really excellent show.
That’s a bummer. Mrs. Mandrake and I really liked this show. Halfway though last season I was not sure if I would like it after Peter died. But I think it was necessary for him to go for Catherine to really find her footing as the empress. I really wanted to see where it was going to go with her.
I liked it but the episodes were too long.