'The Great' May Have Been Canceled, But It Still Managed to Have a Perfect Ending

Even the best of reigns must eventually end. Unfortunately, such is apparently the case with Hulu's satirical period drama The Great, which has been unceremoniously canceled by the streamer after three seasons.

Billed as an occasionally true story of the life of Russian Empress Catherine the Great, the irreverent, hilarious, and often wildly inaccurate series still managed to tell a thoughtful tale about the uncomfortable compromises women in power are often asked to make and the unflattering way history seems determined to remember them. In many ways, it's difficult to explain precisely why creator Tony McNamara's unhinged fever dream of a historical drama worked as well as it did, but The Great's specific mix of humor, heartbreak, and weirdly anachronistic jokes was truly like nothing else on television, and the streaming landscape will be a darker place without it.

Given the series' high profile, starry cast, and general critical acclaim, its sudden cancelation seems like a weird move. The Great has racked up seven Emmy nominations since its original premiere in 2020, and won the award for Outstanding Period Costumes in 2022, the same year that stars Elle Fanning (The Girl from Plainville) and Nicholaus Hoult (Renfeld) nabbed acting nods for their performances as Catherine and her husband Peter III. While the series never really cracked the larger streaming zeitgeist in the way, say, the earlier seasons of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale did, it was objectively one of the platform's best shows. And its loss is a real shame, both for fans of period dramas and just folks who appreciate good TV. Because The Great was, in fact, great.