Million Dollar American Princesses

Elizabeth McGovern is a sweet actress but she has a terrible idiosyncrasy whereby she mumbles, if not whispers, her lines! Often sound men make up for this problem, however this time in American Princesses they washed background music all over her dialogue! Yet, if you have the patience, and don't mind constantly rewinding, you can still enjoy much of each episode. The viewing ordeal is very MADDENING though and several times I wanted to give up. Hopefully some other audience members also had this annoying experience which somehow reached the production team and the situation can be rectified. If not, good luck with it! What a shame!

This is a really interesting, well-researched, well-made series with a few issues. First is Elizabeth McGovern's little girl voice (I always have to look up a history site to find out who she is talking about in the case of the lesser-known American women) because I can't understand and/or hear what she is saying, which can be really annoying over time. I found this as well watching Downton Abbey. Second is the repetition of scenes. I found this particularly irritating in the episode about King Edward and Wallis Simpson and the never-ending scenes of Emerald Cunard smoking a cigarette with a holder while supposedly talking to a party guest. All in all though, I have enjoyed the series very much, as well as learning about people I had never heard of.

This series started off poorly with its association to the vapid Downton Abbey. Elizabeth McGovern's whispered speech gets on my nerves. The producers' constant use of stock, cliched images with actors makes the episodes feel as though they were created by E! Or some other gossipmonger. The soundtrack, full of blaring, disjointed, period-inappropriate music, drowned out the narration. Each episode repeats the series introduction, which insults viewers' intelligence. Episodes also jump about multiple princesses' stories in a disjointed way. The stories never move beyond the superficial. I knew more about many of these women before I watched. If people wish to learn more about some of these women, their time would be better spent reading good biographies.