The Tudors

Since it's television week of Jenn's blog the next post I'm doing is about "The Tudors" on Showtime. This series is a look at Henry VIII - you know him as the fat bastard who broke from the Catholic Church so he could marry and divorce as he pleased and also the guy who beheaded his wives. Which is why I like the poster Showtime chose, with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers surrounded by his bejeweled (yet headless) wives.

This show is interesting. Like I said, most of us know Henry VIII as a big fat bearded guy, but this show focuses on some of the earlier years, when he was young and virile (suppoosedly he was) and I like seeing the betrothals, betrayals, plague, worries about producing an heir, and scandal that the show focuses on. I read "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Phillipa Gregory a few years ago which focused on a lot of the same...how desperate Henry was for a male heir, and how far he was willing to go to get a wife who would give him one. And thats what I like best about this show so far as well - Henry's wives. Katherine of Aragon is everything a queen should be, regal, giving, forgiving, but yet she has only provided Henry with a daughter. He won't visit her bedchamber anymore, and I am not sure if she couldn't give him any more children or if he just didn't think she could and stopped trying. Anne Boleyn seems calculating and ambitious - but also had her entire family pressuring her to win and keep the king's affections with I think is interesting. King Henry slept with her sister first, but soon tired of Mary Boleyn, and began pursuing Anne. As we all know, she eventually got him.

So if you like history and scandal graphic sex scenes (this is cable after all) check out the Tudors.