Amazon's other streaming service for high-end series
MGM+
Julian Fellowes' follow-ups to Downton Abbey have struggled to follow in the wake of global success. Though Belgravia didn't spend a decade in development hell moving from platform to platform like The Gilded Age or attempt to make Americans care about English footballing history like The English
Starz
Fans of period-piece dramas live in luxurious times, with more British and European television dramas available to American audiences than ever before. However, it's also frustrating, as those period pieces are all over the streaming map, making it hard to find and expensive to subscribe to them. However,
MGM+
Given the glut of entertainment companies and streamers that keep rebranding themselves with names that inevitably seem to include a plus sign at the end, you may not be all that familiar with MGM+ just yet. But don't worry; you will be. Formerly known as EPIX, the streamer
MGM+
Ever since Amazon Studios announced it would be rechristening the newly acquired Epix streaming service as MGM+ in December 2022, there have been multiple announcements heralding what's to come. From the surprise revival of Belgravia for Season 2 to overhauls of Domina, Epix's older stuff is
MGM+
Amazon’s takeover of MGM closed in the spring of 2022, but the effects are only starting to be felt beyond the complete migration of all James Bond titles to Prime Video. As part of the deal, Amazon inherited Epix, the streaming service MGM owned as part of Epix Entertainment
MGM+
Since announcing its first slate of four originals in 2020, BritBox UK has undergone significant changes, not the least of which was the BBC leaving the British side of the enterprise after ITV moved it under its streaming service, ITVX. The fate of the titles BritBox was producing varied: Magpie
MGM+
Period drama Belgravia wrapped up last week, with an hour that finally revealed Charles Pope's true identity, saw him marry Maria Gray and assumedly live happily ever after. But is that really the end of this story? Maybe. Maybe not. The series is itself an adaptation of a
MGM+
At times, Belgravia was exactly what period drams ought to aspire to be - entertaining, with plenty of fancy dresses, soapy gossip, and entertaining upper-class problems. Unfortunately, the show's final hour veers far too frequently into essentially pointless melodrama, complete with continually scheming servants, actual murder attempts, blackmail
MGM+
The penultimate episode of Belgravia is an overstuffed hour of circuitous fake-outs, secrets, and surprise revelations that ultimately feel like they go nowhere, pushing the ultimate pay-off of the truth about Charles Pope's identity to the finale. In all honesty, it's so unnecessary. Would it have
MGM+
As Belgravia continues, everyone's secrets boil ever closer to the surface in an hour mainly serving as a holding pattern for future revelations. This story's two-steps-forward, five-steps-back nature is highly frustrating, as at least three different sets of characters inch ever closer to discovering the series&
MGM+
Part of the reason the third episode of Belgravia feels a bit lackluster is simply the fact that the series’ two best characters are largely absent from it. It’s not that Caroline and Anne are particularly heroic or good people. But they’re at least complex enough to make
MGM+
After a premiere installment that spent most of its time setting up the framework for the rest of the season through flashbacks, Belgravia’s second hour is much more the show we thought this series would be. It’s dramatic, soapy, and full of characters lying and behaving snottily to