Elle Fanning's 3-Part Dark Comedy Series Is So Good, You Can Rewatch It Multiple Times

Although Elle Fanning’s best TV show might not be all that historically accurate, the three-season series is still one of the funniest black comedies in years. Over the years, Elle Fanning’s TV and movie roles have marked her out as a particularly promising star who can juggle lighter, more playful roles and dramatic turns with ease.

From 2017’s Mary Shelley and 2016’s The Neon Demon to 2025’s Sentimental Value and the same year’s Predator: Badlands, Fanning has an incredible knack for balancing crowd-pleasing mainstream hits with artsier fare. In fact, her iconic historical comedy drama The Great, which lasted for three critically acclaimed seasons at Hulu, managed to do both in the same project.

Elle Fanning’s The Great Performance Is One of Her Best Roles Ever

Cheekily subtitled An Occasionally True Story, The Great tells the tale of Catherine the Great, whose marriage to Emperor Peter III of Russia eventually saw her become Russia’s longest-reigning female ruler. The fact that Catherine the Great pulled off a coup d’etat against her husband and reigned for 34 years is true, but the rest of the show plays fast and loose with reality.

Fortunately, this is no bad thing for The Great’s three-season story. With a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 87% for its debut season that rose to a flawless 100% for seasons 2 and 3, The Great more than lived up to its title with the show’s wild re-imagining of Catherine and Peter’s relationship.

Both Fanning and Hoult were nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress and Lead Actor in a Comedy Series during their time on the show, and it is easy to see why. While the supporting cast of The Great is universally superb and later seasons brought in guest stars like Julian Barratt and Gillian Anderson, the two leads are the show’s greatest strengths.

The Great’s Critical Acclaim Makes The Show’s 3-Season Run Unfortunate

The blackly comic power struggles between Catherine and Peter are reliably hilarious, and the show’s genuinely unpredictable plotting hinges on their unhinged zeal for betrayal, backstabbing, and deceit. While The Great shares the dark sense of humor of screenwriter Tony McNamara’s 2018 movie The Favourite, the show benefits from a less self-serious tone.

Where that deft satire eventually took a turn for the tragic in its closing act, The Great remains gleefully playful and enjoyably silly throughout its three seasons. Although it is undeniably unfortunate that the show’s run was cut short, The Great still deserves to be re-watched by anyone in search of a cutting comedy with a loose handle on real-life history.