The SmarK DVD Rant for The Tudors – Season One

Available at Amazon.com

The SmarK DVD Rant for The Tudors: Season One

“I’m the King of England!”

– Henry VIII, shouted on several occasions during the show.

I gotta admit, since we don’t get Showtime here in Canada, I hadn’t heard of this show before I requested the DVD to review — someone had mentioned that it was a pretty good show, like The Sopranos with royalty. Which turned out to be not entirely accurate. Much like the show itself.

The weird thing here is that history is so crazy and over-the-top when it comes to the life and times of Henry VIII that there’s little need to change things around or embellish for the cameras. But instead of a period piece about Henry’s romance with Anne Boleyn and the politics surrounding it, it’s more of a soapy melodrama, more Melrose Place than Masterpiece Theatre. This is neither a good or bad thing, it just is what it is.

By now I’m sure you know the story of Henry VIII, as he inherits the throne at a young age and marries his dead brother’s wife, Catherine of Aragorn, which quickly turns him into a supremely powerful monarch in the early 16th century. But as always, there’s another woman who catches his eye once Catherine is unable to deliver a boy for him, but when the pesky Catholic church won’t grant him a divorce on his whim, he is forced to secede from the Pope’s realm. Really, that’s about as closely as this show follows history, and your potential enjoyment of it will vary drastically depending on how much it bugs you that, for example, Henry’s two sisters are now one sister.

I’m not going to sit here and list all the inaccuracies, however, because the show’s creators freely admit that they took many (many MANY) liberties with the truth in order to provide an entertaining program. I kind of which, actually, that they had not even called it The Tudors and instead had done a generic royal family based on the Tudors, but that would be lacking a certain prestige, I suppose. What I will say is that whether or not this show is actually historical and important, it certainly looks the part. Everything is shot to look like it came out of a sweeping historical epic, and the movie is filled with beautiful people dressed like beautiful people. Natalie Dormer in particular is some spectacular eye candy as Anne Boleyn, but there’s no shortage of gorgeous and naked people here, as apparently they had nothing better to do in the Middle Ages besides political intrigue and lots of sex.

Which brings me to another point, and I apologize if I’m dwelling too much on the negative here because I really did enjoy the heck out of this show, but much of the driving force behind the changes in alliances and power was due to war, and quite a lot of it. There’s more than a few times during the course of the show, in fact, where you’ll have the King declare war on someone, or hear about some battle abroad where an important figure was captured, but you never SEE any of it. I’m not sure if that was a conscious stylistic choice on the part of the producers or they just didn’t have the budget for it (probably the second one) but generally when you think of this period you think of violence, not sex. Beheadings and battlefield betrayals were more the order of the day, and there’s very little of either here. The other major problem I found with the show was the constant shift in tone as they found their way in the early episodes and beyond. Whereas the show was beginning with a kind of Entourage in the Middle Ages vibe with the King and his boyhood chums ascending to power together, by the time you get to the plague episode it’s become a soap opera, with acting from Jonathan Rhys-Meyers to match.

That’s not to say that there’s not some heavy-hitters bringing their “A” game here. Sam Neill in particular is outstanding as the debauched and creepy Cardinal Wolsey, and Maria Doyle Kennedy really does come across as a Queen. But the King is just totally miscast, seeming too young for the role and yelling more than acting much of the time. And really, can you watch scenes with Henry and Anne and then watch Elizabeth and realize that these are supposed to be her PARENTS?

Regardless, I enjoyed it even for all its ugly flaws and pretensions. It’s a beautiful show to watch and even when you know what’s going to happen, it’s still interesting to watch the moral destruction of Sir Thomas More or Anne Boleyn’s schemes to become queen. Although in retrospect, her scheme ended up pretty badly for her, so she’s not quite the genius she’s portrayed as here. Hopefully season 2 will bring more money from Showtime and some battlefield goodness, as well as trimming the silly subplots and soapy romance that kind of bogged down the first season at times.

The Video

A stunning transfer to compliment the great work done by the production crew. It’s presented in widescreen format, and since I finally have a high definition TV it’s nice to see new content really taking advantage of it. Colors pop off the screen and really make you feel like you’re back in Olde England.

The Audio

The show is offered in either Dolby Digital 5.1 or plain Dolby 2.0, and I have to admit that I liked the stereo mix much better, as voices were cleaner and the music was more effective that way. The 5.1 mix sounded unnatural and I had to turn the center channel way up to bring the voices to the same level as the music and background noise, and I hate that.

The Extras

The show itself is 10 episodes spread over 4 discs. Not much for bonus features on the show itself, actually. There’s three production featurettes totalling 15 minutes, but the real meat of the bonus stuff comes on the fourth disc, as you get free episodes of Penn & Teller, Californication and This American Life as well as other streaming access to shows like Dexter via Showtime’s website. I always like stuff like that, because the Penn & Teller show in particular made me want to go out and pick up the DVD of the rest of the series. Less so with the other two, but I appreciate the effort.

The Pulse

Definitely popcorn historical fiction, but if you enjoy watching the royal families acting like jackasses just like everyone else, there’s something to like in The Tudors. If you’re actually interesting in the real history and want a thought-provoking take on it, however, look elsewhere. Strongly recommended, with those words of warning.