Historical Fiction from the Renaissance – The Tudors

I have just finished watching Showtime’s historical series The Tudors (now entirely on Netflix), and I have to say I have mixed feelings about it. I found a lot of interesting stuff here but also a few points that could have been improved and made this a great series: like that, it’s ok, but just.

First of all, no matter if the title suggests something different, what this series (an international cooperative effort between American, British, and Canadian) portrays is not the Tudor dynasty but the King Henry VIII and his (many) wives. This looks to me a lost opportunity, because the Tudor dynasty was far more than his last king, undoubtedly famous for the wrong reasons. I’d have loved to see the series exploring the complicated lives and relations between Henry and his two daughters (both future Queens of England) and between the two sisters themselves. Instead, both of them are only second-tier characters inThe Tudors and more coverage has been given to people – like the young Catherine Howard, fifth wife of the king and the second one to end her days executed – who are (comparatively) insignificant at a historical level.

This point leads to what is, for me, the most critical limitation of this series: the fact that it focuses more on Henry’s love life than on his achievements and legacy as a king – the one responsible (among other things) of creating the Church of England as a separate confession from the Roman Church. It’s a pity, because there were all the pre-requisites to make this series something notable even for pure history lovers, less interested in dynastic games or lurid love affairs that seem to represent here the main course. InThe Tudors you have all the sex and blood and gore of series like, say, Borgia (which I have already reviewed on this blog) without managing to insert the events into a wider historical context (thing that has been achieved by Borgia in some good episodes).

As I said, it looks a lost opportunity especially because the cast was a notably good one, and some characters – like Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s Chancellor of England after the demise of Thomas More, played by the English actor James Frain – was convincing and historically accurate (incidentally, I’m a fan of Cromwell, but this is another story). Moreover, scenarios, dialogues and settings were rich and a pleasure to watch. A resource I recommend is the video featuring Jonathan Rhys Meyers discussing the making of the show and that can help make sense of some of the choices made by the producers.

In case you wonder, the show was a great success, with high ratings and even higher audience. It was also nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Drama Series in 2007 and the king (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) received the nomination for the Best Actor in a Television Drama Golden Globe. 

The series (38 episodes in 4 seasons) originally ran from 2007 to 2010, casting, among the others, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Natalie Dormer, Sam Neill, Peter O’Toole. It’s still available on demand on Netflix, in case you want to give it a try.

8 Comments

  1. sjhigbee

    I got very cross about this one and stopped watching halfway through the first episode because it seemed ALLLL about the most salacious aspects of their personal lives with very little regard to the remarkable amount of upheaval and change the whole known world experienced throughout the reign of this dynasty. But then, I’m a historian by training and get grumpy very quickly when historical dramas go off-piste.

    Reply
    1. Steph P. Bianchini (Post author)

      I can’t really blame you…! As I said, a lost opportunity, this one 🙁

      Reply
  2. Santa

    Borgia (Canal+) worked pretty well for me, with this one not so – I was bored to death !

    Reply
    1. Steph P. Bianchini (Post author)

      I agree with you that Borgia was certainly better than this one – no doubt! Thanks for stopping by.

      Reply
  3. ccyager

    I remember reading once that Henry VIII had a bad infection in one of his legs that plagued him for a very long time but now can’t recall which leg or what the specific infection was. It could have been a side effect of gout or something like that. Anyway, every time I see a photo of Rhys-Meyers portraying Henry VIII, I’m always disappointed to see both of his legs quite healthy!

    Reply
    1. Steph P. Bianchini (Post author)

      Hello Cinda, it will actually happen but way later in the show. As a matter of fact, time compression (or the very opposite) was one of the issues with this show…!

      Reply
  4. maddalena@spaceandsorcery

    When I watched this, a few years ago, I enjoyed more some of the secondary characters rather than the central ones, maybe because their development was more centered on the *people* being portrayed rather than their more-or-less libertine ways… 🙂
    One of my friends could not manage to get through the series because she’s very well-versed in history, and the inaccuracies made her angry, so I can understand what you mean when you say that there were too many missed opportunities here.

    Reply
  5. Steph P. Bianchini (Post author)

    I perfectly agree with you – for example, Cromwell was portrayed quite well. Probably because they didn’t bother with the gossipy stuff in his case 🙂

    Reply

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