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List Price: $42.99 | | Label: Showtime Ent.
Salesrank: 325
Released: January 1, 2008 |
| Our Price: $21.99 |
| Used Price: $18.00 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The Tudors presents the rarely dramatized, tumultuous early years of King Henry VIII’s nearly 40 year, omnipotent reign (1509-1547). In addition to his famous female consorts and 20+ year marriage to Catherine of Aragon to the infamous dalliance with Anne Boleyn, the series delves in to Henry’s most notable political relationship and the deconstruction of the Roman Catholic Church in England.
Description of The Tudors - The Complete First Season:
The Tudors: The Complete First Season may cover the same subject matter as the 1970 BBC series The Six Wives of Henry VIII, but in every other respect it is a different idea of historical drama. Sexy and violent, The Tudors envisions Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) as a young man of both passion and ambition, driven by boundless sexual energy and the desire to establish a legacy early in his monarchy. When he isn't sleeping with any available beauty--heedless of whose daughter or wife a lover might be--he's getting fired up about going to war with France. He is amenable, however, to alternative ideas, including the counsel of his Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey (Sam Neill), who wants his king to sign a treaty of universal peace with all of Europe. Henry's fiery temperament endangers such a move, but Wolsey persists in hopes of gaining France's support for his own, possible ascendance to the papacy. His ambitions are not to be, however, and his fortunes go downhill as Henry's desire to wed Ann Boleyn (Natalie Dormer) puts Wolsey in the position of petitioning Rome for a hearing on the legitimacy of Henry's marriage to Queen Katherine.
Henry's shrewd alliance with the king of Spain is also testament to his desire to have more influence over European affairs. But his even greater desire for another woman proves an obstacle there, too. Over the course of the ten episodes on The Complete First Season, Henry's confidence grows as a monarch while his self-interest undercuts his better judgement about making a difference to Europe's progress. While the series makes the historical events rich and captivating, it also makes Henry's love life a voyeuristic delight, full of candlelit flesh and romps in the royal bed. Some of the most fascinating characters in the show are those who figure out the link between Henry's libido and his exercise of power--including Boleyn's own father (Nick Dunning), who encourages Ann to keep up the good work. Sheesh. --Tom Keogh
The Tudors - The Complete First Season Reviews:
Amazing! 
2009-10-28 - I purchased the first season just to see if I would enjoy it, I could not get the second season fast enough! Now I must wait for the third. So far it seems that each season deals with a different wife. The story is compelling, the actors are great, costumes and scenery are fantastic. This is an amazing trip through history, very well written and beautifully acted. There is some violent scenes and it is not for children as there is alot of sex in it. If you don't have showtimes this is an excellent gift to receive or to give. There are hours of enjoyment that you can spread out over days or cuddle up for the day.
A contemporary view of Tudor England
2009-10-09 - I have to agree with the previous reviewers about the historical inaccuracies in the series but overall if you are not going to watch it for it's historical accuracy watch it as a very entertaining soap opera based on facts of Tudor England. The acting is top notch, JRM is wonderful as Henry VIII even though he doesnt look a bit like him. He exudes the necessary emotion, intelligence and ruthlessness that makes us over time believe he truly is Henry. All the other actors of this season have the same aura of credibility. The costuming is opulent and modern....however its modernity does not detract from the period authenicity but gives it a current cutting edge flavor....Overall I love it
Keep Your Heels Down Please!
2009-09-26 - I'm a lover of period drama and this is a lavishly entertaining portrayal of Henry the VIII. However, from an equestrian's point of view, Jonathan Meyers' seat in the saddle ruins it for me every time I see his foot rung all the way thru stirrups all the while his legs are drawing up. Stirrups were one of the greatest inventions of their time, I wish Meyers would learn to use them properly even if he does spend more time in bed than in saddle. There's no doubt the King of England would have been a master horseman. Meyers does have some great stunt doubles and Meyer's ability to act while mounted is to be admired considering his obvious lack of skill (loosening that death grip on the reins a bit might help too) but, whatever happened to great equestrian stars like Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power and John Wayne who could really show us how great warriors rode?
Fun but rubbish 
2009-09-16 - Yes, there are lots of pretty clothes and plenty of airbrushed flesh. But the writers seem so interested in using the airtime to screen Henry's sexual encounters that the real ideological conflicts of the era are simplified into personal bitch-fights between different well-dressed aristocrats. The characters are superficially drawn - particularly the Protestant reformers, who are portrayed unsympathetically as zealous bigots or self promoting maniuplators. This is particularly true of Anne Boleyn, the most highly educated and intellectual of Henry's wives (with the possible equal of Katherine Parr), who genuinely believed in Protestant reform - here depicted as a callous tart under the total control of her ambitious father, who, rather than pursuing the cause of Reform herself, merely buys into the idea late in the day because it serves her man-hunting interests.
Even if you accept that this is purely for entertainment, not educational, purposes, it's worth wondering why the writers are suppressing some of the most interesting (and sexiest) bits of history! The intense courtship of Anne by Henry, which actually took several years and was rocked by spats, here is passed over in half an episode - probably because the authors can't wait to get Anne to give in and start rolling around on a bed. Whereas their real cat-and-mouse game, with her passionate insistence on virginity before marriage, and her fear that he would tire of her if she ever gave into him, would have been far more exciting.
This is brilliantly portrayed in Anne of A Thousand Days - again not with the greatest accuracy, but with much more emotional truth. I strongly recommend that you watch that instead! Then again, The Tudors, while trash, is strangely addictive - maybe it's all the pretty clothes!
Fun, but not to be mistaken for actual history 
2009-09-09 - Engrossing and spectacularly produced, to be enjoyed as entertainment, not history, as it contains many errors of fact. For instance, the writers throw in a couple of completely fabricated homosexual affairs, seemingly just for the hell of it. And a fabricated murder of a royal, married to the (historically) wrong princess. And some of the timelines are messed up. And the series starts with the murder of someone who wasn't murdered. And completely wrong on a suicide and someone going crazy.
But, due to its contemporary feel, it succeeds in getting the viewer interested in this period of history, if nothing more than to check up on its accuracy.
