Fresh Out of the Oven: “The Tudors” 3×2 & 3×3
by Altaira on Apr.16, 2009, under Television, The Tudors
This coming Sunday’s new episode of The Tudors is worth the viewing. Spoilers!
I was a little disappointed with the second episode this season. It wasn’t bad, but was rather uneventful. The third episode gets things rolling again!
The second episode did have one thing worth mentioning. The portrayal of Henry VIII has always been off visually. Part of the hip image Showtime is marketing for this show is the hip look of the King; Jonathan Rhys Meyers is anything but the red-haired round-cheeked stout Henry VIII from our history books. This season they’ve added more layers than ever to the royal wardrobe, giving an even more robust look to the King. Through the second episode this season, the King also sported a limp sustained from a jousting injury that has abscessed and will never fully heal. Although he lost his limp in the third episode, the show is starting to plant the seeds for the transformation of a young Renaissance prince into a sickly, overweight tyrant.
One third-season character I neglected to mention in the review of the season premiere is Robert Aske (played by Gerard McSorley), the leader of the Pilgrimage of Grace, an uprising of 10,000 rebels in Northern England. He is a very sympathetic guy who seems opposed to violence if it is not absolutely necessary. With promises of negotiations and a pardon for the insurgents, Aske is lured to Buckingham Palace by promises from the King. It sucks that Gerard plays him so well, because he’s got me rooting against history that he’ll actually survive further than a couple more episodes!
And Poor Charles Brandon! Brandon is very troubled right now, thanks to the rebellion. Having already executed 74 men who were unwilling to sign a declaration of loyalty to the king, Brandon now has to finish the job with hundreds more. Henry Cavill is wonderful, and I’m sure he’s in for some extensive drama for the rest of the season.
Jane Seymore also is enduring her fair share of drama; she finds out during the third episode that her father has died and her husband is cheating on her! However, she does successfully reunite her husband with his two daughters, a task that is very important to her. And she’s finally pregnant, although she is blissfully unaware that she is doomed to die in childbirth.
The preview for the fourth episode looks great! Time passes fast on this show and it looks as though all nine months have passed and it’s childbirth time. Medieval childbirth is gross. Can’t wait.
