The Tudors: The Complete First Season

Season Grade: C-

DVD Features Grade: B

Overall Grade: C+

Period pieces are possibly my least favorite genre for a TV show. It's odd because I really enjoy period piece films. They offer a modernized look at generations past and can give a really good input on events passed. I can't say why, but period piece TV shows are just annoying to me. Even thought they have all of the same qualities of a film, they all just lose my attention. This obviously made watching The Tudors quite a chore.

The Tudors is about King Henry VIII who is well known for killing his wives for not bearing sons and inventing divorce. My only question is why they didn't make a show about this guy before; he was just so full of love. This particular show about King Henry VIII circles around him as a young king dealing with political and religious pressures. It also deals with him trying to get laid and having his life threatened as often as possible.

So sex and violence seems to be the selling point of this one. Thank god this show was on Showtime otherwise it just wouldn't exist. With all the graphic sex scenes and nudity, it is actually bordering on soft-core porn. I never thought I would say this, but after a few episodes, I was getting tired of all the breast shots. Not that they weren't enjoyable, but they took away from the plot. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing because that wasn't the most enticing thing either.

My favorite thing about the series was to see that Sam Neill was still getting work. He played Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, The Lord Archbishop of York. The last movie I remember him in was In the Mouth of Madness and that was the mid 90's. Anyway, nothing else really popped out in this series to me. The whole prospect of watching King Henry VIII roam around Europe talking politics with foreign leaders who either throw women at him or try and kill him when he has sex with their women just seems really dry.

The special features are without a doubt going to be what saves this DVD. That and public interest in the show, but that is beside the point. Production design and costume design each get a feature which is greatly deserved being that they were the best part of the show. The costume design in particular was amazing. Even though period shows are low on my list of favorites, I have to admit that they more often than not have outstanding costume design regardless of how good the actual movie or TV show is. Tudors' historical sites were a look at some of the real King Henry VIII's favorite sites around London. At least the ones that are still around today.

It may seem sad, but the

best feature on this DVD and the most enjoyable thing about it as a whole were the free episodes of other Showtime shows, specifically the show Californication. That isn't really a god sign being that there was an entire first season of a critically acclaimed show and the best part was watching one episode of another show. One thing that proved consistent between shows was that they both had a lot of sex and nudity. I guess Showtime is really straining to compete with HBO shows that have much less nudity and much more going on, but I digress. This review is probably a little one-sided due to my hatred for period shows. With that aside, the show wasn't really enjoyable. Even with a candid point of view on it. Maybe someone who loves history will enjoy it, but as a show it just didn't deliver for me.

Season Grade: C-

DVD Features Grade: B

Overall Grade: C+