New Winter 2017 Shows - Emerald City, Victoria, Medici and Versailles

Hey guys so as promised after my winter schedule list, here are my thoughts on the new winter 2017 shows. Fair warning though, since I watched the full seasons for all the shows on this list but Emerald City, my recommendations for those shows may be more detailed or actually tell you how I felt while Emerald City is a bit more vague due to me just starting the season. I tried to avoid spoilers! Enjoy!

So up first is Emerald City which airs on Fridays at 9 PM on NBC! I was pretty excited to check out this show cause I like the story of the Wizard of Oz and the trailers for this show made it seem as though the show was going to be a much darker telling added to the fact that I was itching for new shows to check out! When the two-hour pilot aired (which btw wasn't a real two part pilot but actually just two episodes aired back to back), I was interested but not hooked as of yet but then I enjoyed the third episode a lot better. Despite this, I'm not sure if I like this show yet. Most of the characters are fine but nothing to write home about and I am ironically more interested in the mythology of the world than what's happening. Like is it bad that I want this show to be about Dorothy learning magic from the other witches rather than the original story of her trying to get home? Also who else thinks the Wizard is totally evil? Although to be fair, this may be because the actor who plays him was the villain on Daredevil so I'm programmed to see him that way... I'm also curious about Tip and who she really is and why she was hidden from the world. Maybe she's the rightful ruler of Oz and not the Wizard? I probably will continue to check out this show cause there's only ten episodes this season so why not? Definitely check it out if you have any interest in the story of Oz!

Next up is Victoria! I actually saw a trailer for it on PBS so I watched the pilot when it aired and then I found out that this show had already aired a full season in England and all 8 episodes were online so because I have no self control, I ended up binging the whole season in two days! And I loved it! Starting out, I sort of knew the story of Queen Victoria so color me surprised, when rather than seeing Victoria be a badass or seeing her fall in love with Albert, the first three episodes were all about her infatuation with the Prime Minister. Despite him being very attractive, I was not into watching Victoria chase him like a puppy. Girl was real thirsty and I almost dropped the show because of how cringy the whole thing was but then episode four came around and Albert swooped in. His chemistry with Victoria saved this show for me because the politics of this show didn't really catch me like it did in other period tv shows. This show actually reminded me a lot of Reign and the chemistry between Francis and Mary. Mary loved Francis with all her soul and Victoria loved Albert the same. Seeing them made my heart smile and every time Albert smoldered on screen, I had to fan myself. I'm sorry if you expected a more logical review of this show but I'm just telling it how I saw it!! I definitely recommend you check this show out if you like period tv shows or want to watch two people with amazing chemistry fall in love!

The next show I checked out was Medici: Masters of Florence! So I know I'm a little late to the party here with this show cause it aired in December on Netflix and in Italy in October but what can I say other than I saw this in mid December and it was on my list to be watched but I didn't get around to it until now! There were multiple reasons why I wanted to check out this show. Firstly I love period dramas so I try to watch every single one I find cause I love most of them. Secondly, Richard Madden was the main character and hello how can you not watch something with him in it. And finally, I am very interested in the Medici family and Italy during this time period because of my love for Catherine de Medici in Reign and Italy in the Borgias! I loved this show and sped through the episodes in a day! I loved the characters and how smart and badass they all were. I loved watching Cosimo and Contessina outsmart their enemies and seeing their subtle love! I loved learning about the beginning of the Medici clan and seeing it all play out! Even though history tells us what happens, the politics was nail-biting. There will be a second season and I'm looking forward to seeing it! Also how hilarious did Richard Madden look with his old guy make up?

And the last show I checked out so far was Versailles! This is another show that aired abroad in 2015 or 2016 depending on the country but was also added to Netflix in December. Again I wanted to check this show out because it was a period drama and set in France whose monarchy I was interested in because of The Musketeers and Reign again. Honestly if there's a period show about royalty, I'm on board 100% regardless of what country it's set in! I love history so these kind of shows are my bread and butter. Unfortunately this show was not as great as the others. I did watch all 10 episodes but more because I didn't want to stop in the middle rather than being interested in the show. None of the characters really called out to me and the plot was sometimes so-so and other times so very slow and boring. It got to the point where I kept looking at the episode left count and wondering why the show wasn't over yet. The only character I sympathized with was Henrietta and then the finale happened. I kept hoping that they'd give her some happiness with her husband because I'm a sucker for that stuff but nope. Louis XIV confused me from very early on and I was never able to love him like I should. What kind of king in that time forgave his wife not only for infidelity but for actually birthing some other man's child? She should have been beheaded for treason or something. I'm not condoning this, I'm just stating the facts based on the time period. Instead Louis was pissed for like a little while before actually going back to her! And the kicker was that he didn't even love her so it just made him look like a pushover. All he did the whole show was sleep around and piss off his brother who I liked more than him. Honestly I probably will watch the next season whenever it airs because despite not loving this show, I didn't hate it either.

Well that's all for now! Keep an eye out for another one of these winter show reviews in February for a few more shows that I'm going to check out!

xoxo Allie