Most Western queens come into power through marriage, but some of them come into power through their own birthright, ruling the kingdom as the one remaining heir. One such queen is Isabella I of Castile, whose lengthy reign is depicted in 2012’s Isabel. Like plenty of 2010s period drama series, it had the court intrigue, the costumes, the sets, and of course, the sex, but Isabel manages to stick more closely to actual history than other shows of the time. What helps is the one and a half hour runtime of each episode, but the source material is interesting enough that all the production needs to do is focus on the execution, which they have.

At the time, Michelle Jenner was a relative unknown and an unexpected choice, but she killed it in her first time leading a series. She’s able to gradually shift from Isabel’s early girlish innocence (that scene where she prays Our Father after accidentally seeing things!) to the eventual maturity and control during her reign.