The Tudors Review

The title says it all...this show is Elizabethan soft core porn.  Not that I'm complaining, necessarily.  This HBO show purports to tell the story of Henry VIII, beginning around the time that the King first met Anne Boleyn, while still married to Catherine of Aragon.  It does, sort of.  The story is wildly inaccurate, beginning with the fact that the portly, turkey leg brandishing Henry we all know and love is portrayed by the skinny, youthful Jonathan Rhys Myers.  The show will occasionally borrow historical fact and then embellish from there, throwing in a ravishing in the local woods to add some spice.  The show can't seem to make up its mind as to what it wants to be.  This is likewise true of the acting, which runs the gamut.  Myers sometimes has good scenes, but most of the time he chews the scenery like the real Henry gnawed on the aforementioned turkey leg.  Natalie Dormer, who plays Anne, smirks her way through most of her scenes, without being called upon to do much heavy lifting.  And on the other end of the spectrum are Jeremy Northam, who plays the doomed Sir Thomas More elegantly, and Maria Doyle Kennedy playing Catherine of Aragon with quiet dignity.  This season has also seen the addition of the legendary Peter O'Toole in a subtly snarky performance as the Pope who wars with Henry over England's separation from the Church.

And yet, in spite of the show's flaws, I find it entertaining and continue to watch.  Of course, that might have something to do with Henry Cavill, who plays Henry's best friend, the Duke of Suffolk.  Aside from the fact that the character has transformed interestingly from an immature frat boy to a grownup who quietly disapproves of Henry VIII's actions, Cavill is really, really pretty.