Bad writing, phony and stilted dialogue, dislikable characters, and manufactured action scenes do nothing to prop up this boring and unoriginal new series. Everything is paint by the numbers with no creativity or fresh spirit. It's not enough to mask the insipid soap opera underneath the pretty costumes and scenery.

On the plus side the actors do their best with the sophomoric writing, with flashes of wry wit here and there. But these are little scraps at a banquet of mediocrity.

There are hundreds of better court melodramas in the one hundred plus years of Hollywood history, TV, and streamers. Even some stellar silent epics (with no dialogue) are better written and more engaging than this.