A new Netflix show has scored just two percent on Rotten Tomatoes as viewers slammed it as 'cringey.'
Queen Cleopatra, a four-part docu-series produced by Jada Pinkett Smith, explores the rise of the ruler, as well as her personal life, including her love affairs. She was the Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.
The show has caused some controversy, leaving viewers divided over Cleopatra's racial background, while others have claimed it is inaccurate. The format of the show has also left people questioning why it is being classed as a documentary.
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Queen Cleopatra forms part of the African Queens series from Smith, which aims to teach audiences about the queens who were likely not part of their Western academic curriculum. British actor and Casualty star Adele James stars as Cleopatra, while Craig Russell plays her love interest Mark Anthony and EastEnders' John Partridge is Roman leader Julius Caesar.
Scenes of dramatization are interwoven with narration and chat from leading historians and academics - a format that didn't go down too well with critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The Daily Telegraph's Anita Singh commented: "It's too soapy for serious history fans, and not enough of a soap for viewers who like juicy historical dramas".
Movies and Munchies' Chris Joyce added: "While the information is comprehensive, the presentation works against the scholarly authority by creating melodramatic sequences with cringey sequences that come across as fiction rather than fact." Meanwhile one viewer penned: "It’s not very good. Overall, it lacks context, personality, and a reason for being made."
The series, which aired on May 10, also features claims that Cleopatra was black with 'curly hair,' as one historian says: "I remember my grandmother saying to me: I don't care what they tell you in school, Cleopatra was black."
Some viewers had an issue with this portrayal, and with casting a black actress to play the role, with many not believing the ruler, who had Macedonian and Greek heritage, would have been black. An Egyptian lawyer has filed a case with the country's public prosecutor demanding that Netflix be shut down, reports the Daily Mail, due to the apparent rejection of records that they claim show Cleopatra was Macedonian-Greek.
Ahead of the series airing, website Netflix Tudum explained: "The creative choice to cast an actor of mixed heritage to play Cleopatra is a nod to the centuries-long conversation about the ruler’s race. During the time of her reign, Egypt’s population was multicultural and multiracial. Cleopatra’s race was unlikely to be documented, and the identities of her mother and paternal grandparents weren’t known. Some speculate she was a native Egyptian woman, while others say she was Greek."
It added: "Her ethnicity is not the focus of Queen Cleopatra, but we did intentionally decide to depict her of mixed ethnicity to reflect theories about Cleopatra’s possible Egyptian ancestry and the multicultural nature of ancient Egypt.”
Dr Sally Ann Ashton, an expert who was interviewed in the series, said: “Given that Cleopatra represents herself as an Egyptian, it seems strange to insist on depicting her as wholly European."
Actress Adele, 27, said of the role: "It is political. To be black or mixed race or a non-white person in the world today, especially in the western world, is kind of a political act in and of itself.
Adding of accusations of black-washing, she said: "It's sort of just a made-up term, like people just coined it all of a sudden for their agenda. I feel about that word the way I feel about people weaponising the word woke; it's so embarrassing,' the Times reported.
She continued: "In the interests of historical accuracy, it would be great to know either way but I don't know that it matters any more than any of the other things that we want to talk about with regards to who she was."
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