‘Marie Antoinette’ Review: Boudoirs and Bloodlines on PBS

<p>‘Marie Antoinette’ Review: Boudoirs and Bloodlines on PBS</p><p>Review: 'Marie Antoinette,' a new PBS series thick with palace intrigue, follows the young empress’s life in France, where her marriage to Louis-Auguste faces complications sexual, political and personal</p><p>A series thick with palace intrigue follows the young royal’s life in France, where her marriage to Louis-Auguste faces complications sexual, political and personal.</p><p>John Anderson March 16, 2023 5:35 pm ET An ornate soap opera of the sort that has become a fixture of Sunday nights on PBS, the eight-part “Marie Antoinette” is a little like “Titanic”: We all know the subject’s destination. The question is how long it will take to get there. It’s not a brisk trip. Created by writer Deborah Davis, “Marie” is far less frisky than her last romp into royal politics (“The Favourite”), but it does star the winsome-cum-steely Emilia Schüle as the last queen of pre-revolutionary France and maternal bargaining chip: Shipped off from Austria at age 14 by her mother, Empress Maria Theresa (Marthe Keller), Marie was intended to cement relations between the Hapsburg Empire and the Bourbons of France by producing that essential element of royal succession, an heir. Not usually a problem, if the parties are eager and the plumbing is intact. But the dauphin, Louis-Auguste (Louis Cunningham), is diffident to the point of paralysis and Marie spends much time worried if he’ll ever rise to greatness. Continue reading your article with a WSJ subscription</p>



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