The Tudors: The Complete Second Season Review

More than anything, Henry the Eighth (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) wants a male heir to the throne. Having grown tired of his wife, Katherine of Aragon (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and distraught at the fact that she has been unable to bear him a male child, Henry finds comfort in the form of Anne Boleyn (Natalie Dormer.) Determined to be in control of his own life, Henry takes on with Pope Paul (Peter O’Toole) and the Catholic Church, over their refusal to recognize a divorce from Katherine so he can marry Anne. To get around the long reaching arm of the Church, Henry instates himself as the Head of the Church of England and appoints his confidant Thomas Cranmer (Hans Matheson) as the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Leave it to showtime to take a historical biography such as Henry the Eighth which has been represented in movies and television dozens of time and give it a facelift, creating a hip, new sexy history lesson in the form of a hit television series. Partially factual, partially elaborated and very much soap opera, The Tudors is a unique look at history that, if it keeps it’s current pace, should be good for ten season. Unlike Showtime’s favorite killer, Dexter, I found I could not watch as many episodes in a sitting without experiencing a bit of overload. I usually limited it to 1 to 2 episodes at a time. At this pace, I found I enjoyed much about this series, including the cast. Natalie Dormer as newcomer Anne Boleyn, is excellent. She starts the series portraying a smug, power hungry Anne and does an excellent transition as she starts to see her dreams come true and once again as she has problems bearing a boy for King Henry and begins to fear for her status. Although not in the movie as much, Peter O’Toole is fantastic as as the Pope. No stranger to period pieces such as this, O’Toole has such a great presence on the screen that he is a natural choice for the role.

The sets are one of the strongpoints for The Tudors. The countryside and castles of sixteenth century England are quite painstakingly reproduced in great and colorful detail, often helping the show relay to the viewer the depth of the decadence of the King and those around him. I am suprised that there was no Blu Ray release for the Tudors since the source material was filmed in high definition and had to be downconverted to 480p for this release.

The Bonus materials are a bit sparse and some overlap with other Showtime series sets. The two Tudor-centric featurettes were The Tower of London and Decendants of Henry. The Tower of London featurette accompanies Natalie Dormer on a visit to the historical tower. The Decendants of Henry featurette tracks down some direct decendants of Henry the Eighth for brief interviews. I found both to be a bit vanilla and would honestly have preferred a making of featurette covering shooting locations and sets. There are the standard Photo Galleries and Character Biographies that really need no description as they are self explanitory. Also included in the set are the season premiers of Californication and This American Life, two other Showtime original series. Finally there is DVD-Rom content that gives viewers access to watch the season premier of Dexter Season 3 and the first two episodes of the new Showtime Series, The United States of Tara.

Overall, watching the second season of The Tudors was an intersting experience. Having not seen the first season, it took me a couple of episodes to commit all of the characters to memory and get up to speed. Once I did, I got a little more into the show. Knowing enough about history to know the ultimate outcome hurt the plot a bit for me as there isn’t as much room for suprise endings but overall it was an enjoyable watch. I don’t think there is as much rewatchability to this set as there are to some television series box sets so a rental before purchase might be the best course, especially if you are unfamiliar with the show.

PRODUCT INFO:

Runtime: 9 Hr. 2 Min. 0 Sec.
Languages: English, Spanish Dubbed
Audio: 2.0 Surround, 5.1 Surround, Mono
US Rating: N/R -

Bonus Materials:

The Tower of London Featurette
Descendants of Henry Featurette
Premiere Episode of This American Life Season 2
Premiere Episode of Californication Season 2
Text Biographies
Photo Galleries

DVD-Rom Features:

Premier Episode of Dexter Season 3
First Two Episodes of United States of Tara