Katherine Ryan’s The Duchess was released on Netflix on September 11th, 2020 in Canada. It is 72% liked on Google, has a rating of 6.7% on IMDB and 63% on Rotten Tomatoes.
From what I know about Katherine’s life from her stand up specials on Netflix (i.e. Glitter Room, and In Trouble) the premise is somewhat based on the reality of her life. The show takes place in London and centres around Katherine, her 9-year-old daughter, the father, and the boyfriend. In a short series of six half-hour episodes, we’re exposed to the complexities of co-parenting, a brilliant mother-daughter rapport, and the story of dating men who just don’t get it.
Katherine Ryan plays Katherine an excellent carbon copy of herself, and her daughter (Olive) is played by the brilliant Katy Bryne who steals the scene every chance she gets. The relationship between these two characters is both adorable and heartbreaking. It reminds me a bit of Lorelai and Rory from the Gilmore Girls if Lorelai was perhaps just a smidge more responsible and more of a mother than a best friend.
Katy Bryne’s Olive takes on the “Wise Beyond Their Years” child trope and plays with it. She acts and speaks with sophistication but has no real wisdom or understanding of the real world. In fact, her innocence and playfulness are still very much intact, yet she believes she holds some kind of negotiating power and equality with her mother in their home. This kind of personality brings a lot of wholesomeness to the show, I especially enjoyed her evolution in the fifth episode when she gets a haircut.
The father Shep (Rory Keenan) and the boyfriend Evan (Steen Raskopoulos) are the central, highly contradictory, male characters. Shep is wild and obtuse, Evan is calm and supportive, and your expectations of where Katherine’s alliances lie might shock you. Katherine showcases a lot of her vulgarity through these relationships. The cavalier way she approaches sex is quite comical but off-putting in that classic British humour way.
Katherine’s feminine relationships are represented with Bev (Michelle de Swarte) the best friend and business partner, Jane (Sophie Fletcher) the daughter’s friend’s mom, and Cheryl (Doon Mackichan) Shep’s rich new wife. The dynamic between the women in this show is both uplifting and complicated. Katherine does a brilliant job at villainizing without dehumanizing her antagonists which makes her struggle all the more comical and satisfying to watch.
Katherine has constructed herself as a bit of an anti-hero who thinks she’s the absolute hero. She’s a bit of an overconfident mess and is definitely not always right. In her own way, she plays both the protagonist and the antagonist.
Although this series is quite short, I found it complete and satisfying. My sister and I binged it in an afternoon. We laughed, we cried. It takes some unexpected emotional turns when it comes to the relationship between Katherine and Olive. I think Katherine Ryan has done a great job cultivating a story that explores modern motherhood in a light, humorous, and humanist way.