Hello everyone!
So instead of doing a recap on something I watched down at the seaside during my vacation, I decided that I should quite probably round up my series of recaps and reviews for the TV show that had everybody buzzing back between 2007 and 2010.
If you've guessed it's the Tudors, you got it right!
Sadly, I don't have any appropriate reward for that particular guess, except the review which will follow in a little bit after the break in the post. I know it's been a while - probably more than a month, actually, if I think about it right, because I finished watching the last season of the show (this being the fourth one) right before I had to leave for vacation. Since I didn't have any internet on vacation at all, I had to save this and stash it away somewhere so that I wouldn't forget to do it when I got back home.
So now, without further ado, and to make sure Maegan is a happy camper and proud that I've managed to achieve this, let's get on to the review of season four!
I had bitter-sweet moments watching the last season because of the obvious factor that it WAS the last, which meant that there would be absolutely no more Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII or Henry Cavill as Charles Brandon, among other things (well, no, those were the major reasons, let's be honest with ourselves). Also, it's a period of English history that has always fascinated me (mostly for the king's six wives ad such) and it was a follow-up to the Wars of the Roses, probably my favourite historic theme all around from that particular situation. And well, the costume and make-up department did a very good job in making the two men who have been here since season one look like they're actually old enough to slowly start to dwindle.
Henry's marriage to Catherine Howard seems to be going alright, as he's absolutely besotted with her, but she, in turn, begins to dally with Thomas Culpepper, who is the King's Groom, and this later on becomes a full-scale affair. Note to anyone else trying or wanting to be queen: don't sleep with anyone else besides your husband. It NEVER ends well.
Of course, this doesn't either, as the Queen is found guilty of treason and is beheaded, along with Thomas Culpepper, her former lover Francis Dereham, and Lady Rochford, who had been her chief lady-in-waiting and (after being imprisoned) went mad in the Tower. This prepares the arena for Henry's sixth, and last marriage, to Catherine Parr who is introduced by Thomas Seymour, brother to the Earl of Hertford and uncle to the future king (also, according to the show, the father of the child everyone thinks is his nephew).
The King speedily dispatches Seymour and gets rid of him so he can marry Catherine, who becomes his final queen, and they share a slightly different relationship than with all his other wives, save perhaps the first Catherine, as she is basically the one to nurse him when his old jousting wound puts him to bed and such. She is also a very intelligent woman and a Protestant, which will later on alienates the pair and almost gets her killed (note the almost in this sentence).
On the other side, the King has gone North to pardon the former rebels from the third season, and dreams of military glory, which he achieves by allying with the Emperor of Spain to conquer the French. They take the city of Boulogne, and celebrate a great victory, but the king is old and getting infirm, so he goes home afterwards, leaving the absolutely intolerable Earl of Surrey in command.
Surrey grated my nerves so bad during this season that I wanted to punch him every time, and even though the evidence against him when he eventually came to stand trial was nothing, really, I wasn't sad to see him go, which probably makes me a horrible person. But considering he made fun of everything and everyone around him and thought himself the next best thing after the King (side-note, he really wasn't), I think the ending was sort of fitting. He didn't think it would happen as Henry had saved him a couple of times before, but hey, you snooze, you lose.
Brandon gets some action, so to speak, in this season too, as while trying to capture Boulogne, he instead captures a French father and daughter, and falls in love with the daughter, who he takes home with him. This marks a sweet period of his life, the last actually, as he later falls ill, probably from the drafy castles and such, and dies after a final meeting with his king.
I thought that was the most pivotal scene in the whole season, when Brandon forces himself to rise even though he can't really sit straight or anything, but comes before Henry, who has actually asked to see him, not ordered it, and you see the two best friends look at each other and realize they've come a long way, and that the road is getting darker, and shorter. I think I may have cried a little there.
After Brandon's death, Henry begins contemplating his own mortality, and appoints a Lord Protector so that his son would have someone to look after the kingdom until he matures, and at this time he and the queen also reconcile, as she does the smart thing to burn all the heretic books and puts herself at his mercy, which means he pardons her. In the end, we get to see Henry visited by three of his previous wifes, the mothers of his children, and we are also treated to a montage of Henry through the seasons, from the young man he was at the beginning, to how he is now.
Fittingly, the show ends with Henry admiring a portrait made by Hans Holbein, the most famous of him to date, and the final shot is of the picture, superimposed by what happened after the king's death with all three of his children.
I really, really enjoyed the series, even if it took me forever to actually sit down and watch it from start to finish. While it was obviously not entirely accurate, historically, it was much, MUCH better than a lot of other shows of the same genre nowadays (*cough* Reign, I'm looking at you *cough*). And the acting was absolutely brilliant, the best I've seen in a lot of shows, and I watch a lot. Not to mention the fact that they had a lot of ground to cover in a lot less episodes than what's usual nowadays. Special shout-out goes to Joely Richardson for her portrayal of Catherine Parr.
And I can honestly say England should probably be grateful to Henry - after all, he gave them their most famous queen, as well.
xx
*images not mine
This just made me want to watch everything all over again. damn you. <3
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome xD <3
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