Considering how many historical fiction novels I've read on the Tudors in the last few years, it should come as no surprise that I was excited about this series. My expectations were high - and perhaps that's why, after having seen the first three episodes, I feel so very low.
I read this story in the London Times discussing the show, and it basically said that the producers felt the content had to be both sexed up and dumbed down for American audiences. But has it really been that dumbed down? Ironically, by taking out all the details of why things happened, I would imagine the series is either incredibly hard to follow or too vague to get into if you don't already know the history behind it (which then makes it a series for the amateur historian, arguably someone who's more interested in American Pastoral than American Idol).
The opening credits crack me up...English hottie Jonathan Rhys-Myers intones, "You think you know a story but you only know how it ends. To get to the heart of the story you have to go back to the beginning." So why didn't they start at the beginning?!? I mean, they don't have to begin at the moment of his birth, but perhaps the beginning of Henry's reign would have been more appropriate? Why leave out the happy days of Henry and Katherine's marriage? It only adds to the pathos when he tried to disentangle himself.
Look who the dummies are now...
(Oh, and one more point, I can't resist...Natalie Dormer's eye color. She plays Anne Boleyn, who had incredibly dark eyes, but she, Natalie, has these clear blue eyes. She's an unknown actress, so I'm not sure why they didn't make her wear colored contacts, but whatever - artistic license. But then, in one of the episodes, they make a reference to her eyes, which makes this small detail stand out as a blatant error. Why ruin it?)
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