(Season 4, Episodes 1-5)
Poor Katherine Howard, she never stood a chance. I realize that she was truly responsible for her own undoing, guilty of just about everything that fellow beheaded matriarch Anne Boleyn was accused of, but it still seemed almost unfair. Everything that made her so desirable in the king’s eyes is exactly what led to her downfall. She was young, sexually charged, and naive to the ways of the world. At the same time, though, I can’t feel that bad for her. As she was wailing and bawling toward the end of her days, wondering why the king had forsaken her, I couldn’t help thinking: “Really? You don’t have any idea at all?”
If there was any real detestable person in all of these events, it was surely Thomas Culpepper. The writers certainly didn’t give him any redeeming qualities. Instead, his character was established as a seemingly sociopathic rapist and murderer. It was unclear why the young queen would even be interested in him. She professed to love him in her ill-advised letters, but all we got to see, as the audience, was the physical relationship between the two. Again, I have to reiterate that the last couple seasons of this show were too rushed. I would have liked to have seen some development in their coupling.
If I have another gripe about the show in these later seasons, it is the lack of aging to the king. He is clearly supposed to be old at this point, the show having moved more than thirty years forward since the first episodes. Jonathan Rhys Meyers still looks like a young man, though. The padded clothes hardly make him look like the obese king that Henry VIII became in his later life. I would like to think that the make up and hair department could have done a little better to age him. Perhaps the powers behind the show were too concerned with keeping the show “sexy.”
I was very happy to see Anne of Cleves back on the show in a few episodes early in the season. It was also satisfying to see the king regretting his quick rejection of the charming German. Their brief romance was almost sweet, even if it was really just another case of Henry stepping out of his marital bed. I hope I get to see some more of Anne before the end of the series. It was also great seeing her relationship with the King’s daughters.
Speaking of the royal daughters, I have enjoyed the development of Princess Mary into a real character this season, with Sarah Bolger doing a fantastic job with the role. There was a nice tension between the young princess and the very young queen. There were also a number of nice scenes between Mary and Eustace, the imperial ambassador.
As I move into the home stretch of the series with just one queen left, I’m excited to see Joely Richardson join the show. After watching Nip/Tuck it will be nice to see her in something different, and to watch her without worrying about her poor American accent. With only a few episodes left, I’ve been getting a little nostalgic, reminiscing about just how good the first couple seasons were. Perhaps it’s just a case of remembering the good parts and forgetting the bad, but I feel like season three, and especially season four just can’t hold a candle to the early episodes of the show. What do you think? Is it just me?
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Apr 04, 2011 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
You are not the only one that reminisced of Season 1 & 2 of the Tudors. They were far superior seasons than the last two, which may be because they crammed so much story and timeline into the last two seasons; it was too rushed. However, the finale won’t disappoint.