The Tudors

Behold the enthusiasm!

I should have realised that after 'Rome', any subsequent TV serial about an historical subject would struggle to impress me. I had read some enthusiastic reviews regarding The Tudors however, so I assumed it would, if not at least impress me, then at least live up to the hype. Alas, it didn't.

Its not for lack of trying. The cast, with one glaring exception, is brilliant, the ambient feeling of Tudor claustrophobia is present, the writing is fairly good (the same guy who recently bored me to despair with Elizabeth; The Golden Years) and the sets and costumes are quite impressive.

The problem lies with the glaring exception of the actor cast to play Henry 8th. Jonathon Rhys Meyers doesn't look anything like Henry 8th, nor is he the right age, and he plays the part as if Henry was some kind of spoiled brat rather than a powerful rennaisance king. At no point in the series did I feel as if I were witnessing anything but a sad pantomime performance of a generic psychopath king and even the sex scenes were boring. I watched the first two series and I rather enjoyed some of the scenes which did not feature Rhys Meyers, but on the whole, I was slightly disapointed. The total lack of any battles didn't help much either.

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