I finished the show "The Tudors" last night, and it was good.

I was surprised, actually, how well the show was done. The weakest link, I feel, was the actor chosen to play the King, himself. He did a fine enough job most of the time, but there were a few instances where you could see he was grasping for acting tools that he simply did not have. Beyond that, I enjoyed their exploration into the demise of Catholic influence over England, the implementation of the Church of England, and the emergence of the future protestant reformation. These I did not expect to see explored as much as they were, and for that I am grateful. Henry VIII is arguably more famous for his many wives and a couple of their executions, which were depicted in gruesome detail, as were many others. It is a period of time I have read about over the years and is both fascinating and harrowing--that Man can be so despicable, including his children such as the future, yet thankfully short lived queen of England Mary I, who put to the torch hundreds or more protestant "heretics" for disagreeing with her Catholic faith. As a Christian, I appreciated how they handled these nuances, and was surprised being a Showtime production, and their obsession with checking political checkboxes in every one of their shows. I believe they did the struggles within Christianity at the time a fair bit of justice. So many people died, and so much wickedness thrived in Henry's court. So many evildoers who had others chopped down later met their due, too.

This show further reinforces my thoughts that G.R.R. Martin drew heavily from this time period as inspiration for Game of Thrones. He's said so, publicly, and can be witnessed on the screen through this series, without the labor of reading about these shenanigans. There were quite a few "grey" characters, from Thomas More to Thomas Cromwell, and also a few mostly innocent such as Anne Boleyn, yet not always so saintly, either.

A great show that sometimes deviated a bit from history, while accurate with many others. Some liberties were taken, but overall they did a splendid job with the period. At a minimum I would rate this *** 1/2 stars out of **** for a semi-non-fiction show. I would watch again.


Alas, now I am faced with the hard task of picking my next show to watch. This one scratched the medieval itch.