Pondering the third season of a TV show, you ponder threes: third time lucky, on the other hand three nails in Jesus on the cross, and eventually prep looms and you realize you have three children who need to eat so you best write your show.
I looked for what to build the season around, and the obvious thing was how do you stay married to someone who you tried to kill, who slept with your mother, and whose empire is it anyway? Standard problems of any young married couple.backed by a great ensemble, I set to work on fleshing out those ideas and building the baseline of the season. And I brainstormed how to build a strong political narrative that would entwine with the emotional line, and also how to make it really funny.
I like to find a few true historical elements within our general fast-and-loose approach to history. Interesting stuff comes to light — Catherine the Great’s involvement in the American Revolutionary War and whether she played a small but pivotal role in the U.S. victory. We also discover that while she was trying to pursue a progressive agenda aimed at freeing the serfs, an internal rebellion happened that meant she had to fight her own people.
All of it resonates with the current day and provides great political and emotional grit that we can add our own comic twist to.