Ill admit I didn't watch The Tudors when it first premiered on Showtime in April 2007. I had a bad taste in my mouth from HBO canceling Rome after two seasons behind cost, and didn't want to get caught up in another time piece where I knew the outcome. Plus, the fact they premiered during The Sopranos final season and The Shield didn't help their cause either.
Well what a difference a year makes. The writers strike crippled the industry so there is not much on TV right now. I'm watching One Tree Hill for Gods sake!!! Not to mention, The Tudors got nominated for 2 Golden Globes, received huge critical acclaim, and lets face it, Showtime is killing it right now. So I thought to myself, "self, lets see what the fuss is about."
It didn't take me long to get hooked in. Although I don't find The Tudors as absorbing as I did Rome, it does possess that humanistic quality I find so enjoyable in my media viewing. Because at the end of the day King Henry VIII was just a man who got whipped on a woman, just like the rest of us suckers.
For those who don't know, The Tudors is a Showtime Original Series about the reign and marriages of King Henry VIII. The show begins when he is 19, married to Catherine of Aragon, and the country was mostly run by Cardinal Wolsey, while he spent is days having sex with the house mistresses. The 10 episode first season took place over several years and left us with Henry trying to annul his marriage to Catherine so he can marry the femme fatal, Anne Boleyn. After no satisfaction from the Pope or Church he threatens to break from them and ordain himself as Supreme Head of Church in England.
The second season premiers on Showtime March 30th, but I have been blessed to have seen the first two episodes of the season. So for a sneak preview keep reading. The action picks up pretty shortly where we left off and it doesn't miss a beat.
The most noticeable thing about the new season is now Henry is on his own. Wolsey is gone and nobody is left to tell him what he can and cannot do. My favorite part of the first season was the volatile relationship he shared with close friend Charles Brandon, The Duke of Suffolk (played brilliantly by Henry Cavil). That tension is amplified this season as Charles may be siding with Queen Catherine.
The Boleyn family is still doing everything it can to manipulate Henry into breaking with the Church so he can marry Anne, and many of the faces from last season take a bigger role to show their truer colors.
Rhys Meyers, as he did in season one, does a magnificent job of portraying Henry and Natalie Dormer does an even better job with her role as Anne Boleyn. Peter O'Toole also comes aboard this season as Pope John Paul III. He does an amazing job of coming off snide and sarcastic, and I look forward to seeing his role grow.
Executive Producer, Michael Hirst, has made no secret that "Lady Anne" will be beheaded for the season finale. Maybe it's just the chauvinist in me but I can't wait to see Henry get wise to her and cut that woman's head off. But until then the story in between should be fascinating, and at the very least better than anything on TV right now.
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