Girl Power On “The White Queen”

The White Queen is an upcoming Starz show premiering on August 10th in America. I had the opportunity to watch the first five episodes of this fantastic new show. What I love about this show, other than the fact that it is an intriguing costume drama (my fav!), is the immense amount of focus put on the female characters.

First of all a brief overview (I promise no spoilers). The show is based on Philippa Gregory’s (Author of The Other Boleyn Girl) novel series The Cousins’ War. The series focuses on three different, yet equally relentless women who are willing to scheme, manipulate and seduce their way onto the English throne. The first is Elizabeth Woodville (The White Queen), who is potrayed by Rebecca Ferguson. Elizabeth was widowed in the War of the Roses and remarries King Edward of York. This creates a lot of controversy becayse she is part of the House of Lancaster, the House of Yorks rival, as well as a commoner. Next we have Margaret Beaufort, played by Amanda Hale, who is a devotely religious woman who is determined to place her son, Herny Tudor on the throne. Finally Anne Neville, played by Faye Marsay, is the daughter of Lord Warwick, the Kings chief advisor (at first). She is used as a pawn in her fathers conquest for power but finds that his plans for her leave her in an unfortunate situation.

So like I was saying, what sets this show apart from similar shows like The Tudors or Borgia is its focus on female characters. A lot of time with these period pieces the female characters are secondary and the male characters are the lead. This is not the case at all with The White Queen. This show gives a more in depth look at the lives of the woman and the battles they fight for power off the battlefield. It is truly refreshing to get to see the womans’ perspective and a common theme in many of Philippa Gregory’s books. I am going to stop myself now before a go on a rant containing spoilers but I will say that you would be a fool to not check this show out on August 10th. But you don’t have to just take my word for it, check out this awesome clip.