Reign: The Complete Second Season

History definitely takes a backseat to soap opera in the second season of this CW-aired series set during the years that Mary Stuart of Scotland spent at the French court, first as fiancée and later as wife of King Francis II. The narrative arc takes up where the debut season ended, with a plague descending and Francis bringing his illegitimate child (and the mother) into his court, much to Mary's chagrin. But these represent only the beginning of the wild machinations that fill the season, which include assassinations and executions, political betrayals and attempted coups, constant friction between Protestants and Catholics, occasional resurgences of pagan practices, relationships that veer between passionate love and gruff dismissal, and miscarriages and rapes. Ghosts and portents also appear with alarming regularity, and one episode even finds Mary (and her manipulative mother-in-law) being taken captive by a conspirator who uses actors posing as her and Francis in order to cow the populace. This all adds up to a hilariously busy cacophony of errant nonsense, but Adelaide Kane and Toby Regbo make an almost impossibly handsome couple as Mary and Francis, sumptuously clothed in their characters' 16th-century finery, and the remaining cast members keep straight faces even as they recite ludicrously anachronistic dialogue. All in all, Reign continues to rule as campy fun, offering a genuine guilty pleasure. Compiling all 22 episodes from the 2014-15 second season, extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette and deleted scenes. Recommended. (F. Swietek)