People who are used to me would be aware of my obsession with powerful people in history. In this case, BBC’s new series The White
Queen, based on Philippa Gregory’s novels, is a look at historical fiction, taking on the role of the women in the War of the Roses. The tagline, being “Men go to battle, Women wage war,” transforms historical characters such as Elizabeth Woodville (and the female members of her family) into witches, Margaret Beaufort into a pious saint-wannabe and Anne Neville as the one to manipulate Richard III into taking his nephews’ throne. I am normally one to support the feminist movement, empowering women and what not, but I don’t think the producers of the new show quite got it right.
It’s not that I disapprove with the fictional influence on the popular story of the York-Lancaster conflict, but I do criticise the sloppy combination of three novels into a single plot line, a distant attempt on emulating the success of the Game of Thrones series (I suppose). The title itself, “The White Queen”, abandons the “Red Queen” and the “Kingmaker’s daughter,” and we are given the assumption that the only protagonist to follow is Elizabeth. Even worse is the poor establishment of Margaret and Anne’s stories, introducing them only through their initial interactions with the White Queen. One of the things that made the GOT series successful, is its ability to isolate and integrate each protagonist’s stories into the plot, which TWQ failed at.
Lastly, the Brechtian element of stretching the story over a long period of time (in this case, the years of the Wars of the Roses), was going to be a disadvantage in the proper aging of the actors. The kids’ transformation through different actors is appropriate, but using makeup to keep the the budget to a minimum and persisting with the same actors for the older casts was simply annoying, incredibly frustrating.
I would still recommend the show to anyone who enjoys history. Of course, do not expect it to be anywhere near accurate (there’s freaking witches!) it is still an enjoyable option for your downtime.