Mary & George

George's relationship with King James drives his rise at court. The show presents the men as lovers and returns to male-male sex and intimacy across the season. Mary also has a sexual and romantic relationship with Sandie, a woman who runs a brothel. The story uses sexual fluidity, queer desire, and sex as a path to power, so the identity-driven theme is central.

Mary repeatedly faces a court where men control money, marriage, law, and royal access. The show presents marriage and family as tools forced on women, and it shows male abuse and entitlement causing harm. The story questions traditional gender roles through Mary's schemes and her bond with Sandie. The criticism stays inside the historical power story instead of becoming a modern activist attack.

The show gives Mary a romantic and sexual relationship with Sandie, a brothel keeper. Known records do not record that relationship, so the series adds a clear queer element to a real person's story. The series also makes the debated James and George relationship an open romance, though historians have long discussed their closeness. Other invented killings and court events change the history but do not add identity themes.

A few small X accounts attacked the show for a black laird in a 17th-century setting and for its male-male sex. One post called the series “soft, gay porn,” while another said Starz portrayed white European men as gay. The reports had little reach beyond one post with about 50,000 views. No sustained boycott, review-bombing drive, or large right-wing media campaign was found.

Oliver Hermanus has a strong queer and social-issue record. Kelly Valentine Hendry has a documented diversity-focused casting record, and Julianne Moore has a public progressive advocacy record. D.C. Moore and Benjamin Woolley show little comparable activist focus, while the other listed directors and producers have mixed or unclear records. This background adds context, but the show's own queer story is the clearer signal.