Twenty shows to watch while waiting for Game of Thrones season 8

3) The White Princess (STARZ mini-series, 2017)

While we’re at it, let’s offer up The White Princess, which is STARZ’s sequel to The White Queen. It’s set in the late 15th century and involves inter-family intrigue worthy of a Game of Thrones house, and it also stars Thrones veterans Michelle Fairley and Essie Davis (Lady Crane).

The White Princess follows the story of Elizabeth of York at the end of the Wars of the Roses. The Yorkist King, Richard III (Elizabeth’s uncle and lover) has been killed at Bosworth Field, and now she is forced to marry the new King, Henry Tudor. Things remain uneasy, for the conflict between the Yorks and Lancasters is far from over.

The White Princess received decent reviews, including one from Shirley Li of Entertainment Weekly, who said “the series grounds itself in the journey of its titular heroine with a sharp understanding of a new queen’s difficult, often precarious position. And that’s where the series blossoms.” Critic Robert Bianco of USA Today wasn’t quite as impressed, writing: “… you’re not coming to Princess for a history lesson, or you shouldn’t be. Come for the fancy costumes, drafty castles, barbed glances and backstabbing power grabs. Just don’t come for the story, because Princess doesn’t have much of one to tell.”

Odds are, if you like The White Queen then you’ll like The White Princess, which also gets some love from Rotten Tomatoes with a reviewer score of 85% and an audience score of 82%.