Mark Gatiss is a great actor. Casting him as 5-foot-4-inch Cecil was a mistake. Part of Cecil's intense politicking was attributable to his physical challenges. He was ugly, short, even for the time, and misshapen. His father had been a master politician and an invaluable asset to the aging Elizabeth I. I think this piece does the historical character an injustice by making him into something of a cartoon villain.James IV and I was an accomplished ruler, who became king of Scotland at 13 months of age. His mother had been assassinated by Elizabeth I. This production obsesses on his homosexual proclivities and makes him seem fickle and shallow. Again, a disservice to the historical record.Tom Cullen is notably the best actor of the conspirators. His physical portrayal of Fawkes is stunning. He exudes menace, unpredictability and bravado. The others seem rather bungling. Perhaps this is an attempt to set up the audience's acceptance of their eventual failure. The debate continues about Cecil's role in setting them all up to fail. In other words, they didn't bungle: They did exactly what Cecil predicted they would do. Thus securing the ruling establishment's role for centuries to come, and providing an excuse for anti-Catholic atrocity.Production values are polished. The cast is generally excellent. The pace of the story-telling is absorbing and entertaining. It feels more like historical epic than historical account. The stink and gore of the time is well represented. I would say there is a pro-Catholic bias in the telling. This is consistent with the victim culture of our time, but it must be said that Catholics at the time were on the side of entrenched ignorance against more egalitarian progress.

This was so snore worthy. My first ever review on IMDB, I set up an account just to share my feelings on this show. When I saw the cast I was so excited to see this, but had to force myself to watch the second episode, and am not going to waste any more time on the third episode. It was that bad, a snore fest. I always wonder how some things get made and this is one of those. Hopefully some will enjoy it, but I felt it was a waste of time and talent.

I was excited to see a historical portrayal, which I guess is a fair example of what I saw. However the constant beating of the "poor catholic" drum rings very loudly for a largely oppressive regime. One acknowledgment of Spanish - read foreign - Catholics torturing Protestants, is not really the kind of honesty required of a historical drama.

Not as bad as they might say around,but someone should watch it for what this show truly is, a historical drama and conspiracy story. It is not GOT, and the rare spikes of violence cannot change that. It is obvious that the producers themselves tried to pass the show as mini-"Got", but maybe this was their main mistake, distancing the series from both genres (fantasy and historical).