My Lady Jane
While there is going to be no unseating The Boys on Amazon’s Top 10 show list for a very, very long time, we have a new surprising contender that is planted at #2, which is solid in its own right. And while The Boys is back for season 4, this is a brand new series you can check out, if it catches your interest.
It’s My Lady Jane, a romantic period piece that is reviewing very well. It’s certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 92% score with 24 reviews in, triple the number of Netflix’s #2 show right now, Supacell (though that has 100%). Here’s the description for My Lady Jane:
“In the 16th century, Lady Jane Grey is coerced by her family to marry Lord Guildford Dudley. Jane, as cousin to Edward VI, is in line to the throne. The England of My Lady Jane is plagued by Ethians, humans who can take animal form. The ordinary humans, known as Verity, drive the Ethians out of society.”
This is a couple hundred years before the time period of Netflix’s Bridgerton, in an era of pirates and nobles. Though no doubt Amazon is trying to capture some of that same magic, as Bridgerton is one of their rivals’ most successful offerings. So far, this seems to be a solid start, and these scores are even higher than Bridgerton season 1’s were (87%, back in 2020).
My Lady Jane
The series is a breakout role for Emily Bader, who you probably do not recognize from anything significant, with past roles in horror films Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin and Fresh Kills. The male lead is Edward Bluemel, who you may know from Killing Eve where he was certainly not meant to be a heartthrob. The only actor’s name that jumps out to me is Dominic Cooper, aka young Howard Stark in the MCU, and Preacher in AMC’s show of the same name.
Like Bridgerton, My Lady Jane is based on a series of romance books, these ones written by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows and Brodi Ashton. As in, I think they all wrote it together? That’s highly unusual.
If this is a big hit, there is more source material to draw on with six books in the series so far. I’m not sure if season 1 covers all of book 1, but that would certainly be my guess. It’s also still an ongoing series, as My Salty Mary, the sixth book, is out this coming August, and perhaps there will be more that are released thereafter. The point is, Amazon may have found a solid well of content here, and the fact that this is already outperforming big shows like The Chosen and Fallout and is this close to The Boys is significant, and that bodes well for its future.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.