The Tudors Catch-Up

[shipperx]

Okay, 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.

Comments

[powerofthebook.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's John Rhys Meyers' vanity or what, but the guy needs to sit down with a makeup artist and pad his doublet out (a lot), because he's not fully portraying the infirm, fractious king that Henry was in his last years.

I can't remember what history I read (Alison Weir?), but I think I did hear that Elizabeth vowed never to marry around the time that Catherine Howard was executed. Makes sense - after all, her perspective of marriage was that either your husband discarded you, killed you through childbed, or cut your head off. As she got older and her heart fluttered for Lord Seymour, though...

Are they seriously producing The Borgias? Awesome. Now if they could just create The Mughals, we'll be golden.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

I don't usually watch Tudors but I did click in for the execution episode to get a closer look at Tamzin Merchant.

I thought she was fantastic in those scenes and she looked a lot younger than I had expected from fotos.

I'm fairly sure she's going to make a brilliant Daenerys on "Game of Thrones".

Is Tudors going to continue too, I mean with other Tudors than Henry, because then I'd get watching again?

ETA: And as I read the rest of my flist I find out that Dany has been recast. :(
Hadn't heard of the Borgia project either and I'm very much looking forward to that since I always found them fascinating.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

My inner history geek emerges...

Elizabeth really did make statements to that effect in her teens! Partly because of the political pressures around her - people saw her as a pawn and tried to use her. After Henry died, she was still quite young, but several tried plots with "marry Elizabeth and be king" as their goal. Her safest bet was to say often that "the maiden state suited (her)."

As far as her marriage schemes during her reign go, they were all politics.

Those weren't actually Catherine's last words -they're apocryphal.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Showtime and the producer of The Tudors decided to end it with Henry. I suppose they decided that Edward's and Mary's reigns wouldn't be particularly sexy. Instead the same folks (Showtime and the writer/producers) will be doing "The Borgias" starting sometime this winter. Jeremy Irons will be the lead in that one. I'm looking forward to it.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize that Elizabeth had made bald statements about it. In history she seems quite wiley about holding out the possibility of it -- as you say, for political reasons. But I was rather surprised she'd say it during Henry's lifetime. I could understand why she'd feel that way, but it doesn't seem particularly his way as he's basically used Mary as a gambit multiple times. NOw he's using Edward. I wasn't sure that Henry would stand for Elizabeth announcing she couldn't be betrothed at his convenience.

Catherine's words were apocryphal? That kind of makes me sad. Her metaphorical "screw you" was kind of cool.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting, is he going to be Cesare? Or the pope? I'd love to see Jeremy Irons as the mafia pope :)

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering whether they are going to hint at the Seymour/Elizabeth/Katherine Parr thing. It would be too early but... it would be an interesting footnote.

And, yeah, The Borgia's is scheduled for Winter/Spring. Jeremy Irons has been cast for the lead, which I have far more faith in Irons than JRM.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

The Pope, and in what he's said Irons definitely views it as a mafia pope.:) Irons os the only casting choice they've shown/revealed at this point. The rest should be coming out sometime soon because they're announcing it for winter/spring 2011 and are running promos for it at the bumpers of "The Tudors"

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

Sounds brilliant and since I love Irons to pieces, I think I'll have a much easier time enjoying this one.

Though I aside from actual history books I so far have only seen comic adaptions of the material. I guess chances are small that they'll do it like Milo Manara or You Higuri. :)

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

Yup - the bald statements made before her reign were probably not only heartfelt, but also political self-preservation. If she could always protest that she didn't WANT to be married, it took the wind out of the sails of a lot of schemers who were executed eventually. This helped when she was accused w/ plotting to marry Edward Courtenay during the aftermath of the Wyatt rebellion.

And yeah - Catherine probably wasn't witty enough to make that declaration ;) Not the smartest wife. In addition, a lot of the statements made at executions were moderated because they could further impact the families of the executed. The Howards could have been more implicated.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

Well, if they're accurate (that's asking a lot of this series!), they'll have to mention Seymour, because he and Catherine Parr were the next thing to engaged before she accepted Henry's proposal.

I'm looking forward to the Borgias. And I agree w/ above commenter - the Mughals would be SO cool.