Reviewer’s Note: I watched this on PBS Passport, which mutes most of the foul language and blurs out nudity, so there may be more content in the unedited physical disc release.

Twenty-four years ago, The Affair of the Necklace came out, all about the scheme that took down a queen. Now, the second season of the gorgeously filmed Marie Antionette follows the same story, but with much more time devoted to the players, the personal lives of the monarchs involved, and their many enemies at the court.

Supporting the war over the American Colonies has bankrupted France, but King Louis (Louis Cunningham) is keeping this from public knowledge. He tries to keep his head above water, conserve spending, and deal with the massive loans made from Parliament to the royal purse, while his wife, Marie (Emilia Schüle), continues to set trends, pose for royal portraits, and live without knowledge of their financial crisis. She has set her eye on a royal residence, which she wants for herself, and appeals to him to give it to her, as a refuge where she can take the children but also meet her lover in secret. It’s been too long since he held her in his arms and swore his undying love to her, a scandal she has kept under wraps. She carefully stows away his letters, written in secret ink, in her desk drawer…

Until one day, a young thief named Jeanne (Freya Mavor) sneaks into the royal apartment, breaks into the desk, and makes off with not only Marie’s invisible letters but also a scheme that could bring down the monarchy, though she does not know it. Offended by a local cardinal’s sexually charged behavior toward her ladies-in-waiting, Marie has become his enemy and refuses to deal with him. Cardinal Rohan, though, is desperate to return to her favor, which makes him perfect for a deception. Jeanne has heard that the royal jeweler has made the most expensive diamond necklace in the world, and is desperate for Marie to purchase it. But she cannot afford this extravagance… or can she?

In the meantime, Marie’s closest friends are now rivals for her affections. One of them, Yolande (Leah O’Prey), is in desperate financial need, and hopes to convince Louis to hire one of her two lovers, so he can slip a few francs out of the royal treasury to clear up her debt. But she doesn’t know there’s not a franc to spare. And before long, half the court gets sucked up into Jeanne’s scheme to defraud Rohan and the queen.

If you watched the earlier film, you know the broad strokes of where this story is going, but this series gives more time to all the players, as well as fleshes out what’s happening in the court at the same time. It’s astonishing how easily accessible the queen’s chambers were, how anyone could enter the court and commit fraud, and how many little petty rivalries were going on all the time. If the script has one flaw, it’s hard to keep all the minor players straight or know their personal reasons for wanting to bring down the queen. It’s also difficult to watch these monarchs heading toward their terrible fate when we’ve become so fond of them. Marie is temperamental and impulsive, but Louis is a sweet, innocent, and gentle man, who frets about whether his son will live much longer, thanks to a degenerative bone disease. Unlike Wolf Hall, the series avoids inserting diverse casting where it didn’t exist in the French court. The only black man present is Chevalier. And we get a cute cameo from Lafayette in the first episode.

The costumes are sumptuous and true to the period, many of the gowns gorgeous enough that I let out a little gasp of delight. Particular attention is paid to recreating Marie’s lavish hairstyles, her infamous portrait that scandalized the court as being immodest, her attempts to win over people by changing her wardrobe and hair, etc. The cast is full of talented performers, particularly the young woman who plays Jeanne. We like her one moment, hate her the next, and it’s the same with several of the characters, all of whom (apart from Louis) are self-serving. It has a few flaws, but it’s an engaging way to spend eight hours. I both hope and dread a third and final season, showing the repercussions of this event and the downfall of one of history’s most famous queens.

Sexual Content:

Much less than the first season. Louis' sister-in-law is a lesbian who kisses another woman on the mouth and keeps her love letters. Louis and Marie have sex (the scene ends before we see much). A man talks about giving another man oral sex. One woman at court has two men she lives with, but they depart in the first episode. She tries to seduce Louis by asking to become his mistress. Marie has a lover, and discussions revolve around whether her unborn child is his or belongs to Louis. A woman talks about a man not "pulling out" fast enough to avoid getting her pregnant. Crass rumors circulate about the queen. A prostitute dresses up like her, but in a risqué version, and dances around in a skimpy outfit singing a bawdy song, then mentions at a court trial that her paying customers often wanted her to pretend to be the queen. We see bawdy images in a priest's desk, and people talk about his sexual desires for the queen.
 
Language:
A half dozen f-words, used sexually, and as many uses of sh*t.
 
Violence:
A woman is beaten with a cane and branded as a thief.