Sunday marked the premiere of Showtime's new historical drama, "The Tudors," based on the life of Henry VIII.
Beginning with a cold-blooded murder in Rome, the episode promised all the juicy characteristics of a nighttime soap opera filled with both gratuitous sex and violence. As the setting shifts from Italy to court in England, Henry VIII, played by the infamously pouty Jonathan Rhys Meyers, angrily declares war on France for the murder of his uncle and ambassador.
After successfully bullying his court advisors into agreeing to go to war with minimal effort, the king, in true royal fashion, excuses himself from the tedious chore of court duties for "playtime." By playtime, Henry actually means fornication with a lady-in-waiting and married woman, Elizabeth Blount (Ruta Gedmintas).
With the representation of Henry at such a young age, the writers trickily established Henry and his accomplices as 16th-century royal playboys. This assumption is upheld until Henry's wife, Katherine (Maria Doyle Kennedy), makes her debut. Katherine and Henry's tumultuous relationship provides an interesting component to the drama. It is revealed that Katherine was Henry's brother's wife, and though Katherine has been pregnant many times, the couple has been unable to have a son. Therefore, there is no heir to the English throne. Henry believes that this is a curse put upon him by God for marrying his brother's wife.
Rhys Meyers plays this part with believable intensity and is able to express some sadness in the arrogant king. But curse or no curse, it doesn't stop him from a chronic wandering eye and reprehensible behaviors. Meanwhile Katherine, the Spanish queen, seems to suffer at the threat of her husband's anger, feeling tremendous guilt over her inability to give him a son. This problem is only complicated when Henry's mistress and Katherine's lady-in-waiting, Elizabeth, becomes pregnant with Henry's child.
Elizabeth is advised to keep quiet by the ever-cunning clergyman, Cardinal Wolsey (Sam Neill), who spends the entire episode setting himself up for the ultimate position of power, the papacy. Wolsey, like many other members of Henry's court, is preoccupied with his own agenda.
While Henry is complacent in his power, his enemy and former contender for the English crown, Buckingham (Steven Waddington), plots his death. Angered by the treatment that he receives from Henry's haughty disposition, Buckingham vows to slay Henry and regain the crown. This promise is catalyzed by Henry's denial of Buckingham's request to punish his friend for sleeping with Buckingham's daughter. The scandalous nature of the court continues as Wolsey works behind the scenes to obtain the papacy through threats and blackmail of the French cardinals disguised as diplomacy.
As a typical young royal, Henry is more or less oblivious to all of these occurrences, as he is self-absorbed and pleasure-seeking. He allows Wolsey to manipulate a peace treaty, which does avoid war, but at the cost of the promise of his only daughter to the French Dauphine, a union which disgusts Katherine. Katherine, a sworn enemy of the French, is distressed at the prospect of her daughter marrying the French heir. Her pleas to stop this marriage are forcibly silenced by Henry, who, like the other male leads, continuously exerts numerous levels of power over the female characters.
This type of dilemma was characteristic of the time period, and it is one of the few historical facts truthfully represented. Jonathan Rhys Meyers portrays an ideal Henry VIII, at best. Looking at his character, you would think that the casting directors never actually saw the real Henry VIII, who was fat and balding.
Historical inaccuracies aside, this show is extraordinarily entertaining, containing humor, romance and drama. The acting quality is substantial - not overdone, though the show does try a little too hard to evoke sympathy for Henry. This proves to be a near impossible task since the character of Henry is sickeningly immoral and self-indulgent. However, "The Tudors" has universal appeal in its many facets and does not focus on catering to a specific audience. It has great potential with the promise of further adultery, treason and a beheading. With the introduction of Anne Boleyn and an exciting plot of mutiny in the works, "The Tudors" will only have more head-losing hijinks in coming weeks.
