Reign

REIGN is trademark CW entertainment, taking a questionably marketable concept and dressing it up with enough sex, sabotage, mystery, stunningly gorgeous cast members, and more sex that teens will flock to it. This is no history lesson; in fact it's such a trampling of historical facts that if a statute of limitations still existed on the characters' likenesses, lawsuits would ensue. Some are entirely contrived –- including the essential piece to the gripping love triangle, Bash -– and others are rewritten to ensure good drama, most notably the historically inaccurate, strapping specimen of Francis. Happily, Mary's strong, opinionated demeanor holds to historical accounts, giving fans the validity of at least one standout representation to hang their hats on.

What Reign does manage to do is use superb cinematography and a magnificent musical score to modernize a 16th-century story enough that teens -– most of whom aren't exactly prone to loving historical dramas –- will want to watch. On the upside, this may spark an interest in learning the real stories of these (and perhaps other) historical figures. On the downside, it relies heavily on racy sexual and violent content to keep them on the edges of their seats and wanting more. If your teens are mature enough to handle it, the series also touches on some intriguing points about how wealth and status enable many privileges but disqualify others -- like love, for instance.