The easiest way to describe the A Very… Scandal series is to mirror it next to Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story, in which each Scandal season tackles a tumultuous moment in UK history. 2018’s A Very English Scandal saw Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw dramatize the fatal events surrounding Liberal Parliament member Jeremy Thorpe’s affair with Norman Josiffe. Three years later Claire Foy and Paul Bettany starred in A Very British Scandal, depicting the taut 1960s divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll.
Its latest installment, A Very Royal Scandal, dramatizes the Duke of York’s public fall from grace, capturing life before and after his 2019 interview with BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis. The global tabloid fodder found his royal highness at the epicenter of Jeffery Epstein’s sex trafficking arrest when an alleged victim, Virgina Guiffre, then a minor, accused him of alleged sexual assault from almost a decade prior. While the performances are stirring, there isn’t much else to divulge from the five-year-old tale.
Directed by Julian Jarrold and written by Jeremy Brock, Royal Scandal delights in the moments leading up to and immediately following the notorious sit-down. It has your typical scenes alluding to internal royal familial feuds and the complex mores of the press. Ruth Wilson is good as the tenured BBC news reporter whose career yearns for the next big scoop, even if it comes at expensive costs. Michael Sheen is marvelous as Prince Charles’ spare, who enjoys the spoils of his lineage but feels he’s never quite been able to reach his full potential.
While the rest of the cast is serviceable — né the actor oddly selected to depict Epstein — the only other memorable character is Honor Swinton Byrne’s Princess Beatrice, the eldest daughter of Andrew and his ex, Sarah Ferguson. Her appearance brings a certain nuance one may not have expected, her role possibly representing the public’s voice that formed and adapted in the early stages of the “Me Too” movement.
The season’s strongest message is how little changed in the face of the allegations and interview. It’s a condemnation of the embedded misogyny and sexism in our culture. To think the only person serving any time for Epstein’s alleged crimes – and rightfully so – is Ghislaine Maxwell. Yes, women can very well be carriers of the system but, a grave injustice is served when another Epstein associate and convicted abuser is vying for a second chance as the President of the United States.
The series is solid with strong leads but doesn’t break new ground.
Rating: 7/10