The premise of the new Prime series My Lady Jane is both straightforward and simple to explain. First, what if instead of being yet another show about Henry VIII or Elizabeth I, there was a show about Lady Jane Grey, who was beheaded nine days into her rule as queen? Her largest cultural imprint is as the subject of one very beautiful and tragic painting, but slotting her into a familiar arc of Tudor history isn’t that hard to get an audience onboard for. Next, what if instead of being just the story of Lady Jane, it was an alternate history? Rather than have the one thing people may know about her be true, what if it were not true so Jane could become a fun, ahistorically feminist icon who romps around the Tudor court and advocates for women’s education and regular gynecological care? A little trickier to grasp in an elevator pitch, but okay! Lady Jane Grey alternate history.
Got it. Also, there are shape-shifters. The instinct here may be a record-scratch I bet you’re wondering how I got here reaction, but it’s important to push past that and let the beauty of a show that’s essentially Tudor Animorphs wash over you.
My Lady Jane , which is based on a book series that is also about shape-shifters, spends the first ten minutes of its pilot setting the scene for Jane’s ascent to the throne. She has ambitious relatives who need her to marry well, and her cousin the king is in failing health. She wants to run away, as does every heroine at this point in her story, an.
