Isabel
A princess ascends to the throne in Spain’s answer to The Tudors
7.7
TV Show
Spain
Spanish
Drama
2012
JORDI FRADES
Álvaro Monje, Borja Luna, Eusebio Poncela
70 min
7.7
The Staff
TLDR
Queen! (literally)
What it's about
When her father John II of Castile dies, and her half-brother Henry becomes king, Isabella is sent to marry Ferdinand of Aragon, unexpectedly forming a match that unifies Spain and establishes the kingdom into an empire.
The take
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.
What stands out
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.
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