‘Mary & George’: Julianne Moore Loans Her Son Out for Sex in Lusty New Series

Look closely at the tagline on the poster for Mary & George—the lecherous new limited series about royal courts and courtship, beginning Apr. 5 on Starz—and you’ll find a curious detail. “Lust. For Power,” the phrase reads. The period after “lust” initially feels like a typo or an all-too-obvious wink, but it’s a bit of punctuation that ultimately reveals the show’s wickedly fun thematic double entendre. Mary & George is just as much about lusting for power as it is using lust to attain that power. It’s a clever design trick, one that fits snugly with the consummate excellence of the show itself. This series perfects even the most minute details, and its tagline’s cunning construction is only the first of countless decisions that make Mary & George a refined, nasty delight.

If you’re not a royal buff, fear not: I have less of a mind for the monarchy’s history than I do basic math and sciences, and was ensnared by Mary & George within the first two minutes of its premiere. Much of that is thanks to the great Julianne Moore, who sinks her teeth into the role of Countess of Buckingham Mary Villiers like she’s a Jacobean peasant, gnashing at a turkey leg for some long-awaited sustenance (with all of the feral carnage that image conjures). It’s fitting, considering that Mary is desperate to rise above her initial status and gain the favor of King James VI of Scotland and I of England (Tony Curran).

To worm her way into the king’s circle, Mary drafts her second oldest son George (Nicholas Galitzine) into service—not for war, but for pleasure. King James is known to favor young, beautiful men in his bedchamber, and George’s puppy-dog pout is exactly the kind of thing she can use to secure her family’s name and never have to worry about money or marriage ever again. This, of course, proves tricky, with so many other suitors vying for the king’s wandering eye. But Mary is undeterred and ruthless, and her methods of striving alongside Moore’s blissfully foul performance create a bacchanalia of iniquity that’s impossible to deny.

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