I am, of course, very interested in history. I rarely watch TV shows but I thought I would give The Tudors a shot since it is a grand historical epic of the type I like, with great costumes and elaborate sets. To tell you the truth, I was all set to dislike it even before I saw it, because of pretty-boy Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Henry VIII. I thought, “how could he possibly do that role justice?” I figured they were going to make Henry into some romanticized, idealized figure. But they didn’t. Instead Rhys-Meyers plays him as, basically, an asshole - and it’s perfect. Pretentious, cocky, arrogant and yet strangely likable at the same time.
Great supporting cast too. Wolsey is one slimy sonofabitch. And I was happy to see that they actually managed to find an actor with a gigantic chin to play Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was notorious for his giant jaw. The joust during the first episode was great too - the armor was very realistic for the period, something that’s uncommon when it comes to depictions of armor in films. The gilded and engraved armor the King and his nobles in the tournament seemed fairly realistic, from what I’ve learned about armor.
I must say I was a little disappointed that they decided to puss out on Henry’s beard though. Though his coronation portrait shows him young and beardless, I’m pretty sure that by his mid-20s Henry had a decent sized beard, and I don’t know why they didn’t show it in the show. Facial hair (the real kind, not trimmed and manicured goatees) made a comeback in the middle of the past decade, and women seem to find it attractive, so I don’t see why Rhys-Meyers couldn’t have sported a beard on The Tudors.
Ah, The Tudors. I love it. It’s a total soap opera, but it has pretty costumes and castles and shit and very manly beheadings so it’s acceptable to watch.
I’m no historian, so I’ve also found it educational. (Although I know a rather huge number of liberties are taken.) But each episode inspires me to look stuff up to learn more about those characters and events. Wolsey, Thomas More, Charles V and Anne Boleyn are all great characters in the first couple seasons. (But I’m sure you know what happens to all of them.)
I like the show too, but unfortunately, HBO has said season 4 (next season) will be the last. Henry’s up to Anne of Cleves now, so they’ll have a hard time fitting in his next two wives.
I love the costumes, and I know it’s not the most historically accurate portrayal, but everybody is so pretty.
I recently enjoyed the first 2 seasons. It does get a bit too soap-opera-y at times, but I’m a big enough fan of historical fiction to tolerate it. I had to fast-forward a lot of Anne’s scenes.
Henry is a pathetic worm IMO. Much love for Queen Catherine, though I am puzzled by her loyalty to His Wormness.
Sorry, you’re right, Showtime. And Catherine was a devout Catholic, so she had no choice but to remain loyal to him.
I do like how they manage to work in historical quotations into the dialogue. Catherine’s plea to Henry during the divorce proceedings in court were word for word.
True, she spent the rest of her life praying for Henry to repent and his soul be saved (& Anne to be damned). It’s a shame we won’t get to see anything past Henry (I assume the finale will feature his death). I was looking forward to the show focusing on Mary (she doesn’t get nearly the amount of coverage her sister does).
I was really hoping they would continue on with Mary as well and end the series when Elizabeth took the throne (since she would then be “the Tudor” as opposed to "The Tudors )
I was really impressed, so far at least, on how they are handling Anne of Cleves. You think she’s just shy and embarrassed because of the King’s dislike of her, and when she’s reproached by Cromwell she shows her true feelings. The king is a nasty, stinking jerk and she’s doing her best not to puke while she’s in the same bed with him.
Too bad JRM didn’t ugly himself up more. It’s so ironic that Henry was famously critical of Anne of Cleves’ looks when he, himself, was a morbidly obese, pus-ridden asshole.
There are only two wives left so I think 4 seasons is sufficient. I thought Season 3 was weak on drama. Of course, it’s hard to top the Anne Bolyne/Catherine of Aragon saga.
When he died, he was about 300lbs. You should see how they’re portraying his relationship with Catherine Howard. It is to laugh, considering how obese and pus-filled he was then. JRM doesn’t look a day older or fatter than he did when the series started. In that respect, the show is obscenely untrue to history. If JRM was your hot, horndog husband, and you knew he had a penchant for beheading his wives or divorcing them on a whim, would you cheat on him? Yet somehow, that’s what Catherine Howard does. But I’ll still watch it because, as you all have said, it’s pretty amusing.
Which is it, do you like History ot do you like the Tudors? Becuase the Tudors has very little to do with history. The costumes are wrong, the timing is wrong-(HVIII was an old fat bastard by the time he married Anne B, he was 45) and historical details are wrong.
It’s always interesting to see someone’s interpretation of history even if it’s not completely accurate. I don’t consider the show to be a real representation of history any more than I do Monty Python’s movies, but I’m always interested in seeing anything that’s inspired by historical events. I do wish they would have made it more accurate, but I think they probably thought that if they had a big fatso play Henry VIII and getting it on with one beautiful woman after another, people would accuse the show of being “The Sopranos in tights” or something like that. I guess they felt compelled to inject some sex appeal into the show, and it’s not really surprising that they had a hot hunk play Henry for that reason. Although I still think they should at least have given him a goddamn beard.
Up to Episode 4 now. I really do enjoy this show. Rhys-Meyers’s Henry VIII is really a totally dynamic character, but very unlikable. He really reminds me of Malcolm McDowall in A Clockwork Orange and Caligula. A spoiled brat who thinks the whole world revolves around him. There’s virtually nothing I like about his character, except for the fact that he hates Martin Luther (because I also hate Martin Luther.)
Some disappointments though:
I wish they hadn’t started with Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor right away. I really would have liked to see Maximilian I portrayed on screen. He was a really colorful and eccentric character, a great patron of the arts and culture, and a big practical jokester also - he gave Henry a crazy-looking jousting helmet as a gift, which sported a pair of ram’s horns, a grinning mouth, and brass spectacles, modeled after Maximilian’s own face. I was disappointed that he doesn’t appear on The Tudors.
During the tilting scene in Episode 1 there is a really stupid error; Charles Brandon, as he is about to tilt against Buckingham, is seen in one frame with a gorget (neck protector) around his neck (as would be normal) and then a few moments later after the camera cuts to someone else, he is shown with his neck completely unprotected, looking blatantly wrong; then a few moments later he is wearing his gorget again. (I don’t know how this mistake could have gotten past the editors; it’s so blatantly obvious.) Also the Duke of Buckingham’s armor is really unrealistic looking; it has “evil” looking spikes all over it and I don’t think any such armor existed at the time.
Henry doesn’t have a beard. I can overlook the fact that they picked a young handsome guy to play Henry even though the real king looked like Brian Posehn, but they could at least have given him a decent beard.
You’re kidding, right? Blunders and continuity errors happen all the time…pick any movie at imdb.com and look at the Goofs section. Off the top of my head I can think of Julia Roberts munching a pancake, then a croissant, then back to a pancake in Pretty Woman, and Chaucer getting a bloody nose in* A Knight’s Tale*, only to see in the very next scene it’s his* other* nostril stuffed up to stop the bleeding.
I’m amazed that there is a paid editor working for Showtime who did not catch such a blatant mistake. Isn’t it their fucking job to catch these things? It was far from a minor gaffe considering that it occurred during a scene of high tension when the camera was zoomed right in close up on Brandon and Buckingham on their horses, about to joust against each other.
Also, the armor looks a little bit too bulky and ill-fitting. I’ve seen lots of suits of armor in museums (the fancy kind that was used for jousts and parades) and, when properly fitted to the dummy, even with a padded arming-coat underneath, they’re all really form-fitting and sleek. But the armor that the guys wear on The Tudors looks really loose-fitting and a size too big. This suit of armor, for a young Henry VIII, looks nothing like the giant bulky harnesses that the guys on The Tudors (and A Knights Tale and every other movie involving jousting) wear.
Yes, it is. And sometimes it’s not caught until after all the shooting is done. And sometimes it’s the only good shot they have, so they have to grit their teeth and run with it. And sometimes, after staring at the same thing for hours on end, they don’t notice it.
Or the boom mike that pops out in “Dirty Dancing” when they’re on the log. Or a water glass that pops in and out of frame in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Anyway, this has inspired me. I watched the first ep back in the day but wasn’t so into it. Maybe I’ll start renting it. I’m rewatching Rome and damnit, that isn’t enough!
I’m still bummed that they started right in with Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor and didn’t feature Maximilian I as a character. That guy was a really interesting ruler in his own right, maybe even as much as Henry VIII himself.
Also, I was expecting to see way more tournament combat at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, both on foot and at the tilt - Henry and Francis I were both passionate athletes and while the wrestling match was historically-accurate and a good opportunity to give the female and gay audience something to enjoy, they also had sword matches and I would have liked to see that.
The gay subplot with Thomas Tallis and Sir William Compton is kind of ridiculous since there is NO historical evidence that either of those men were homosexual.
As expensive as their costuming budget no doubt is already, I suspect they didn’t want to spend a few thousand per person to have somebody like Historic Enterprises outfit them properly with a historically accurate, custom-fitted suit they’ll use once or twice.
I agree it’s be nice, but after paying all those young actors to take off their clothes, they gotta economize somewhere ;).
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