Though stars Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult both gave incredible performances in the second season of Hulu’s hilariously weird and offbeat period comedy The Great, it was Belinda Bromilow as Peter’s eccentric aunt Elizabeth who quietly stole the show. From thoughtful ruminations on the struggles of women in power to her on-point advice about both relationships and female pleasure, any scene in which Bromilow appeared was guaranteed to be a joy. Furthermore, Elizabeth serves an essential function within the world of the show. Yes, she’s often been deployed as a weirdo bit of comic relief, but she’s also one of the few people willing to tell Catherine the truth: that her lofty, idealistic dreams of a better Russia are always going to have to be tempered by the truth of human nature, as well as a centuries-long history of violence and greed. Plus, it certainly doesn’t hurt that she’s the biggest Peter/Catherine shipper on the show. (We see and support you, girl!)
The wonder of Bromilow’s performance throughout The Great is that she takes a character who, by all rights, should be a joke—the quirky, mostly crazy, but occasionally wise-old-bat of an older female relative that we’ve seen so many times before on so many different sorts of shows—and gives her many intriguing and impressive layers. The series’ messiest moral compass, she steadfastly loves her nephew, still grieves her dead son, genuinely likes Catherine, and quietly sets her own agenda, all while talking to butterflies and banging various members of the royal guard when the mood strikes her. I think that, as the kids say, is goals. —Lacy Baugher Milas for PASTE
