The Mirror in my Mind

My review of Episode 1x01 from quite some time ago.

So I've now watched up through Episode 1x06 and I'm ambivalent. I'm not annoyed enough with the writers to stop watching, but they made a very crucial mistake in the second episode and have been paying for it ever since. Or at least the mistakes started in the second episode and built upon themselves. And, in spite of said annoyances, there are several extremely good and compelling performances that are keeping my attention.

( This will be very long. I have a great deal to say. )

Anyway, I'm still watching the series, so it's obviously not turned me off completely. And it its terribly pretty even if the costumes occasionally make me wonder if they're even trying to be authentic (Katharine is the only one who hasn't had any major faux pas, and even she wore a dress at one point that seemed about twenty years too early). But Anne! Sigh. I've been fascinated by her since I was a little girl and they've done absolutely *nothing* with her. Ah well. That's television, I suppose.

(Apparently I'm spamming today)

I just found out -- literally about five minutes ago -- that Showtime is doing a series based on Henry VIII.

Judging from the previews it could be good, or it could be absolutely utterly horrendous. The goal for the series, it appears, is to portray a younger and more approachable Henry. Which I can certainly understand and find interesting. That being said, the screenwriter is the same man who wrote Elizabeth, which automatically puts me on my guard. Decent enough film, absolutely butchered the history.

And, of course, this being Showtime, lots of violence and general debauchery à la Rome. Not a bad thing, just an observation.

However, the series does have Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Henry), Sam Neill (Wolsey), and Jeremy Northam (Thomas More). Plus an unknown playing Anne Boleyn who actually looks like she can pull it off (though in my mind she will need to compete with Genevieve Bujold in Anne of the Thousand Days, very difficult to do).

Apparently the Tudors are popular these days. Not surprising, given the Philippa Gregory juggernaut. Now, if only someone would wander back a few decades so they could add a chapter to my dissertation...

ETA (14:20): A number of comments on YouTube focus on how much JRM does not look like Henry VIII, as in he doesn't have red hair. I'm actually not bothered by this, since Richard Burton didn't have red hair either and he still did a very good job playing Henry VIII. I suppose it will all depend on the performance.

And is it proof of my fount of useless knowledge that I recognised every single piece of music used in the Showtime trailer?