Like many of the recent caliber of period dramas, Versailles is heavy on titillation and shock-value which often trumps reality and authenticity to historic fact. Yet to its credit, the series does manage to get a bit of the real history, fashion and observations correct (many of which came from the letters of the actual residents at Versailles). But the biggest drawback to overcome is the lead actor playing Louis XIV; he plays the typical British aristocratic archetype and neither displays nor knows anything about the people and culture he is representing...there is literally NOTHING remotely French about him. This goes equally for MANY of the others in the cast, as if they can just play a 1-to-1 British to French Fop (even the peasants brandish a cockney accent to underscore their class...because it MUST be that way everywhere if it's like that in London...right?) The VERY British writers just can't seem to understand the mindset or motivations of French, aristocrats, Catholics or pretty much anything they are trying to represent here. I really wanted to expect more from this since Canal+ participated, but sadly it just boils down to being a British period soap opera that could have been set anywhere.
Review of Versailles
