I have been watching The Tudors lately. I am about half-way through season two. I like it. It gets a little confused on history at several points, such as Charles Brandon marrying Princess Margaret, when he in fact married Princess Mary. A princess who does not even exist in the series I might add. I guess somehow they misplaced her during the casting... Then of course neither Princess Margaret nor Mary ever married the King of Portugal, and said King at that time was not a decrepit old letch, but in fact a young man who was already married.
But in spite of the historical inaccuracies, it is still a fun show to watch. The acting is solid, and the characters are all well-portrayed. No one just sits there like a cardboard cutout. Everyone has their own agendas, their own passions, and especially their own egos! Goodness sakes, it is hard to believe they could fit all those people
and their egos into just one palace! The latter is something I particularly liked, as an overabundance of pride is one of those things that comes with the positions of power that those people wielded. Not just Henry, but Queen Katherine, Anne Boleyn, Thomas More, Cromwell, Cranmer, etc... None of them are on good terms with a sense of humility. Every one is absolutely certain in that their view/agenda/position is divinely right, and everyone else has to be wrong, and no one will compromise. At least not until the headsman's axe compromises their heads from their bodies...
I really like John-Rhys Meyer's portrayal of Henry (is he related to John-Rhys Davies?). We all think of the King in his later years, as the overweight letch painted by Hans Holbein. But the truth is when he was young, Henry was a magnificent athlete. He played tennis (which was the sport of kings at the time), jousted, hunted, wrestled, etc... He was a man just dripping with testosterone. One moment he could be all charm, the next he could be raging fury. As Thomas Wyatt once wrote - "Around the throne, the thunder rolls". But most of all he was a man with voracious appetites. Especially when it came to feeding his vanity, and his genitals. The Anglican Church was created by his schlong after all. If he could have kept it in one woman England would still be Catholic to this day. They did extremely well in portraying him.
It is interesting to watch the other characters rise and fall around him. Wolsey is the only one I felt sorry for. In part due to Sam Neill's outstanding portrayal of the man who held England in his hands, and in part because he sacrificed so much of his personal ambitions for the sake of Henry. Who of course turned on him in the end, as Henry did everyone sooner or later. Compared to the others, he is also somewhat of a milk-toast. He just embezzled money and lived the life of luxury in palaces finer than Henry's. The ones who followed him were burning people at the stake. Like good old humanist Thomas More. The man who started with burning books, and went on to burning people. After all, we can't have the common people actually
knowing what is written in the bible after all! Let alone knowing what the priest is saying during mass.
I was not the slightest bit sorry to see his head parted from his vanity.
This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 18 2012, 09:08 PM