Of late, the Tudor dynasty has become big business in the entertainment industry. Books, both fiction and nonfiction, and several films and miniseries have been released this decade, and one of the biggest productions has been Showtime's sprawling miniseries, The Tudors, with an immense cast and presumably the money, to put together a movie filled with scheming, plots, and of course, hot young bodies having sex. Lots of sex.

Indeed, sex and the consequences of that sex, is what is fueling most of this programme. This first season, in twelve episodes, seems to be focused on Henry, his women, friends and relatives, all of whom are busy bouncing in and out of bed, and making politics and babies along the way.

This time it's Showtime taking on the story of Great Harry, the eighth king of that name in England, from 1509 to 1547. Played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, he's a young, strong, black-haired man (more on that in a moment), who seemingly has everything that he wants. His queen, Katherine of Aragon (Maria Boyle Kennedy), is older than he is, but utterly devoted to him and loyal -- their greatest sorrow is that despite Katherine's many pregnancies, she has only managed to have one living child -- a daughter, Princess Mary. But while Katherine comes from a land where a woman can rule competently and well, Henry knows that civil war could only follow if he doesn't leave a male heir after him.

As the series opens, Henry is busy having an affair with a lovely young lady-in-waiting, Bessie Blount (), and so it isn't any surprise when she gets pregnant. However, she doesn't tell Henry first, but rather his chief councilor and minister, Cardinal Wolsey (Sam Neill). Wolsey, who has his own plots afoot, cautions her to be quiet and wait until he gives word before telling the king. For Wolsey, the Archbishop of York, has his own plans besides seeing that the realm runs smoothly, he wants to be Pope in the worst way, and in Rome, the current one is busy dying. But Wolsey isn't exactly careful about who he gets angry, and there are times when he oversteps himself.

The various courtiers, whose families have survived the bloody Wars of the Roses, are all scheming for their own piece of royal largesse in the form of money and lands and titles. One of them, Thomas Howard (Henry Czerny), is not an admirer of Wolsey, and along with his brother-in-law, Thomas Boleyn (Nick Dunning), has plans for the future, especially when Boleyn's two pretty daughters arrive on the scene, Mary and Anne (Natalie Dormer). Another, the Duke of Buckingham, is a descendant of kings, and regards himself as the rightful king, and the Tudors nothing more than usurpers (technically, he's right); but he is also vain and stupid enough to try to raise a rebellion. Not exactly a wise thing to do. Finally, there are two legal geniuses at court, Thomas More (Jeremy Northam) who is a friend of both Wolsey and the King and has immense integrity, and Thomas Cromwell (James Frain), a rising young barrister who becomes a secretary to the cardinal. Finally, there's the king's best friend, Charles Brandon, a nobody, but a brave fighter and drinking companion who can't seem to keep his hands off of women.

One storyline deals with Henry's sister, Margaret* (Gabrielle Anwar), who is just as bigmouthed and brassy as Henry, but who is also very upset at the idea of being shipped off to Portugal to marry their king, an ancient, decrepit old man. Naturally, Margaret wants none of it, and wheedles a promise from her brother that when this old king dies -- hopefully, soon -- she will get to choose her second husband. Sent to escort her is none other than Charles Brandon, and Margaret finds herself heartsick with love for him. As for that old king in Portugal, Margaret finds out that there is more to a pillow than something to sleep on after a few days, and quick as lightening, she and Charles are secretly married and returning to face Henry's wrath.

In Henry's personal life, he sort of legitimizes his son by Bessie Blount, Henry FitzRoy, as the Duke of Richmond, and rumours fly fast that he intends to have the child succeed him. The queen is none too happy about his, and to make things worse, Henry is already pursuing the elegant Anne Boleyn. Anne in turn, is holding him off by refusing to be his mistress, but if he were to make her his queen... And that means having the marriage with Katherine dissovled, whether by annulment or divorce. But the only person who can grant a divorce is the Pope, and there is plenty of warfare and trouble in Europe to make that a very questionable outcome. Katherine is crushed further when her daughter Mary is to be sent to Ludlow Castle, to have her own household and learn the responsibilities of ruling, made all the more poignant when the infant Henry FitzRoy dies from a fever.**

Henry becomes more insistant on getting rid of his wife Katherine, and appeals to the Pope with Wolsey taking care of the details. But when European politics interfere in the person of Katherine's nephew, and Anne Boleyn continues to tease him without letting him bed her, Henry starts to find his temper. A lot. One of his victims is Cardinal Wolsey, who finds out just how terrible the fall from the King's favour can be...***

I do confess that I have issues with this series. While they do try and get a lot of the politics and international mayhem in there, and actually do get most of it right, they've completely fouled up a great deal of the actual history, especially when it comes to Henry and his family. The writers in this went with the old standby of making Henry a bully and tyrant -- this became much more apparent as he aged during the last ten years of his life -- and added insult to injury by casting Jonathan Rhys Meyer as the king. Anyone who has seen those iconic portraits of Henry VIII can see that Henry was big -- he was six feet, four inches tall -- of heroic build and quite an athelete before a jousting accident injured him badly, and he went to fat, with vivid red hair and a beard that he cultivated after meeting Francois I. But Meyer is this black-haired, clean-shaven, wispy looking sort that a strong wind would knock over. HUH? All of this made worse by the costuming, of more in a moment.

But other casting is perfect here, especially Jeremy Northam as the elegantly restrained Thomas More, and Sam Neill does a terrific turn as the crafty, politicking Wolsey. Another surprise for me was Maria Doyle Kennedy as the long-suffering Katherine of Aragon. Not only does she bring a certain gravity to the role, but we see a Katherine that does indeed smile and sparkle even as aging catches up to her.

And now for my favourite pet peeve of the series (so far!). The costuming. While they do get it right in some parts, the designer for this decided to dress everyone in clothing that is closer to the late sixteenth century. The women's headdresses are wrong, the dresses lack the underclothing that was needed -- imagine running around in winter with those corset-skirt idiocies! -- bare arms, one scene where Princess Margaret is wearing very modern platform heels while she and Brandon have fun on ship, no codpieces for the men, another stupid move -- after all if you're going to be having full bodied sex in this, why not advertise the goodies? Instead of doing things right, the producers looked as though they just went to the Hollywood Rent-A-Costume, and took whatever was tagged for the sixteenth century. If you're going to drop this much time and money on a series, at least try to get it right. HBO did it with Rome, but this is getting insulting to Showtime audience. I do confess that one episode had me howling at the sight of Henry doing calisthenics in black silk underwear in a grotesque example of what they thought Renaissance underwear looked like ? I guess that they thought that Henry needed some version of a Speedo!

While this is not rated, parents should keep this one out of the hands of the younger set and most teenagers. The sex is graphic, both straight and gay, there is plenty of violence involving stabbings and headsmen lopping off heads along with one burning at the stake, and the talk is pretty salty, including quite a few F-bombs in one scene.

Presented on four DVDs, this has several extras included, with three featurettes on the production design, the costuming, and a tour of Tudor sites in London. Most of the series, however, was filmed in Ireland. There are plenty of promos, previews and first episodes of various Showtime series, including Californication. There are also cast biographies and a picture gallery, which is nice to flip through, but not terribly interesting.

Summing up, while there are interesting moments in the series, I found it just so-so. It certainly looks pretty, but the historical inaccuracies ruined it for me -- indeed, in the features on both production and costume design, those in charge wanted to present a 'modernized' Tudor court, and to be honest, it just didn't do it for me. I know I am picky about my historical film fare, but please don't try to sell me a series that claims to be accurate, and then push made up garbage at me.

Overall, three stars. Not very historical, costuming that doesn't fit the period right, and too much messing around with the facts. Depending on your tolerance for screwing about, you might like it or not. Barely recommended.

* Big Ugly Error #1: The truth is that Henry had two living sisters, Margaret the older one, and Mary, the younger one. Margaret was packed off during the reign of her father Henry VII to marry James, the king of Scotland, and her susequent marriages were the talk of Europe after being widowed. Mary, the younger one, was married at the tender age of seventeen or so, to the aging Louis XII, King of France, and after leading him on a merry chase for three months, he died from too much exhaustion, and she quickly married Charles Brandon with the help of the new King of France, Francois I. Henry was furious, but he was much too fond of both Mary and Brandon to be angry for long, and the hefty bribe of money and a fabulous diamond necklace called the Mirror of Naples eased their way back into high society. As to the name change, I guess the producers thought the audience was too stupid to know the differences between two Princess Marys. And to add insult to injury, no mention is made of the three children that Brandon and Mary would have, including the mother of the very unfortunate Lady Jane Grey. I guess the series is just going to talk about Henry VIII...

** Big Ugly Error #2: This series has Henry's bastard son by Bessie Blount dying as a toddler. Actually, Henry FitzRoy was to live to his late teens, marry the duke of Norfolk's daughter, and was a great favourite at the court, and his father was utterly devoted to him. His death from tuberculosis devastated Henry, and it was rumoured that poison was involved administered by none other than Anne Boleyn.

*** Big Ugly Error #3: While I liked that the series goes a bit more into the life of Thomas Wolsey, including the fact that he had a mistress that was utterly devoted to him, the ultimate fate of Wolsey made me want to scream. No. No. NO! This would not have happened, given the mental mindset of the time, and Wolsey's piety. It's a silly, contrived ending, and laughable. For that matter, I don't remember Thomas More burning heretics during his time as Henry's Chancellor either.



Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age