Review: Nicola Walker and Julianne Moore singe the screen with wit and wickedness in 'Mary & George'

Let's not kid ourselves. "Mary and George," the seven-part historical series now dressed to thrill on Starz, is a soap opera. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Not when the sinful pleasures on display are this delicious and led by the Oscar-winning Julianne Moore, who can play bad with the best of them.

"Mary & George" is based on truth, or at least the nonfiction bestseller "The King's Assassin" by Benjamin Woolley. And if the script by D.C. Moore ("Killing Eve") strays from the 17th-century facts, it's all in the name of fun, so who's complaining? There's nothing like watching ruffled collars getting ruffled. Back then -- and now -- everyone used fluid sex to win wealth and power.

That was certainly the case with Mary Villiers (Moore), who pushed her handsome second son George (star of tomorrow Nicholas Galitzine) to seduce King James VI and I (Tony Curran is terrifically warm and witty as the boy-struck monarch who ruled over both England and Scotland). Never mind that the king is married with nine children. No judgement on this series.

For Mary and George, there are many obstacles to overcome, notably the king's current lover, Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset (Laurie Davidson), who will kill to keep himself and his pregnant wife on the king's payroll. And make no mistake, the hottie earl is a formidable foe.

The intrigue is nothing you haven't seen on "The Tudors" and "The Borgias," but "Mary & George" aspires to the lofty heights of "The Favourite," the acclaimed 2018 film that starred Academy Award winner Olivia Colman as Queen Anne, the 18th-century ruler who wasn't above sleeping with her ambitious ladies in waiting, played by Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone.

It turns out that Mary, humiliated in court as a social outcast, hooks up with brothel keeper Sandie (Niamh Algar) to up her game against her enemies, chief of which is Lady Hatton -- a flat-out fabulous Nicola Walker ("Last Tango in Halifax"). In their scenes together, Walker and Moore singe the screen with wit and wickedness. I couldn't have liked and hated them more.

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Mary is afraid of nothing, taking on the likes of Sir Francis Bacon (Mark O'Halloran), also gay, to make sure she and her son hold onto the keys of the James kingdom. The revenge George and his mommie dearest take on Carr and his family would make any Borgia wince.

As George grows in confidence and power, recoiling at his mother's control, Galitzine -- so good in "Red, White and Royal Blue," "Bottoms" and the upcoming "The Idea of You" with Anne Hathaway -- holds his own with Moore. Watching the two of them declare war is a malicious joy.

Still, it's Moore who steals the show. The star has played sexual villainy before, most recently in "May/December," but she pulls out all the stops as Mary, who can be lethal when crossed. Her tour de force as a woman who refuses to live by rules set down by men is not to be missed.

Lead director Oliver Hermanus ("Living") stages the renegade deviltry with unfakeable relish. And if the series gets too grave for its own good in the final episodes, "Mary & George" soars on turning what could have been a stuffy costume slog into a bawdy romp that blows the dust off history to find what's alive, kicking and relevant to the world we live in now.