Return To The Renaissance

Posted by Lorri Brown Mar 2, 2008

I have been enjoying the best of the Renaissance with the Showtime series, The Tudors, this past week. (My satellite provider has been showing it for free all month!) The story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn unfolds in all its drama with beautiful period costumes and authentic settings.

I was skeptical at first because Henry VIII is played by the British actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers, a skinny, sulky looking actor I only knew from Bend it Like Beckham. He is way too thin and too young looking to be playing Henry, who was in his later thirties at the time. However, Meyers has a certain arrogance and presence that make you soon embrace him as England’s most famous king. He vacillates between pleading with Anne that he really does love her to thundering at whomever has angered him “I AM THE KING OF ENGLAND!” The swinging changes in the king’s personality make for great TV entertainment.

Anne Boleyn is played by the very beautiful Natalie Dormer. I think she is all together too nice and the writers are going to have to really let her be more ambitious and much more conniving in season two than she is now.

Katherine of Aragon is portrayed by Maria Doyle Kennedy, who does an outstanding job. She carries herself with grace and dignity, as befitting a royal princess of Spain and the Queen England. She also shows her determination to keep her marriage together, even in the face of her impetuous boy-husband.

All in all a great show for those who love the Renaissance and the intrigue of the Tudor court. Stay tuned for more on The Tudors.