The Tudors Catch-Up
May. 21st, 2010 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxOkay, I was a couple of Tudor's eps behind.
Yikes, Henry got with the killing ep before last. They really did manage to make Catherine Howard seem terribly young. She was presented as something of a wild-child... but still a child. Although I agree with the writer/producer's commentary that her standing up at her execution and saying the thing that she's not allowed to say -- namely that she didn't love Henry. Not her exact words, but the gist. And her being defiant at the end, was actually a mark of real courage in her. It really shows that people must have bought into the right of kings that so many of them turn around and proclaim love of King after he's sentenced them to gruesome deaths. So I liked her defiant last words (which are apparently truly her last words).
The torture scenes were rather gruesome, albeit neither of Catherine's lovers were as sympathetic as the poor gay guy in Season 2 who was being tortured and killed for being Anne Boleyn's lover... even though he wasn't.
Then comes this last Sunday's episode. Look, they really really need to do something with Jonathan Rhys Meyers! It's actually screwing with history at this point. Make him OBESE already! And while it was possible to squint and think he looked older when he was playing opposite a positively childlike Catherine Howard, having Joely Richardson as Katherine Parr becomes weird because she looks older than Henry! They did a pretty good job of making the audience feel sorry for her. She really, really doesn't want to be forced into marrying Henry and she's pretty much screwed in that regard.
Curious scene with Elizabeth and Mary. I pretty much assume it's in there because The Tudors ends this season (no doubt with Henry's death) so this is probably the most we're getting of the succession. But having Elizabeth openly announce her plan to never marry was too anvilly IMHO. Elizabeth raised all sorts of prospects that she'd marry during her reign, so I find it a tad hard to buy that she'd announce this intention to Mary while she was in her early teens.
So on with the death of Henry (it has to be soon).
And looking forward to The Borgias next season.
Yikes, Henry got with the killing ep before last. They really did manage to make Catherine Howard seem terribly young. She was presented as something of a wild-child... but still a child. Although I agree with the writer/producer's commentary that her standing up at her execution and saying the thing that she's not allowed to say -- namely that she didn't love Henry. Not her exact words, but the gist. And her being defiant at the end, was actually a mark of real courage in her. It really shows that people must have bought into the right of kings that so many of them turn around and proclaim love of King after he's sentenced them to gruesome deaths. So I liked her defiant last words (which are apparently truly her last words).
The torture scenes were rather gruesome, albeit neither of Catherine's lovers were as sympathetic as the poor gay guy in Season 2 who was being tortured and killed for being Anne Boleyn's lover... even though he wasn't.
Then comes this last Sunday's episode. Look, they really really need to do something with Jonathan Rhys Meyers! It's actually screwing with history at this point. Make him OBESE already! And while it was possible to squint and think he looked older when he was playing opposite a positively childlike Catherine Howard, having Joely Richardson as Katherine Parr becomes weird because she looks older than Henry! They did a pretty good job of making the audience feel sorry for her. She really, really doesn't want to be forced into marrying Henry and she's pretty much screwed in that regard.
Curious scene with Elizabeth and Mary. I pretty much assume it's in there because The Tudors ends this season (no doubt with Henry's death) so this is probably the most we're getting of the succession. But having Elizabeth openly announce her plan to never marry was too anvilly IMHO. Elizabeth raised all sorts of prospects that she'd marry during her reign, so I find it a tad hard to buy that she'd announce this intention to Mary while she was in her early teens.
So on with the death of Henry (it has to be soon).
And looking forward to The Borgias next season.
