Thoughts on Season 3 of The Tudors....
While I realize that by now season 4 of “The Tudors” has begun airing, and the first two episodes have been available for a while anyway, I still have been meaning to post about my thoughts of season 3, since over my vacation a few weeks ago I finally finished re-watching/watching it! While it comes nowhere near season 2 in quality and epic scale, I still ended up enjoying it, liking it better than the first time I watched episodes 1-6, and I liked episodes 7 and 8 as well. That being said, I have a some more specific thoughts about the season…
First of all, I do think they could have made it a full 10-episode season, adding more Anne of Cleves (who I feel gets seriously underchanged), and more Catherine Howard; I had been really hoping to see the season end in another of those wonderful juxtaposition montages they love to do so much in season finales (like Wolsey and the play in season 1, and Anne preparing for death as Jane prepared for Henry’s visit in season 2), showing Henry and Catherine preparing for their wedding as Cromwell prepared for death (since as it so happens he was executed at pretty much the same time as the wedding). I feel like they missed out on a good dramatic opportunity there. But I suppose that they couldn’t have really done that with only one episode I wish they had spent more time on Cromwell’s arrest and execution in general, it deserved more attention. I was sorry to see him go, he was a great character (and I love James Frain!), though I also can’t help liking the poetry of it a little, that More and Darcy’s warnings about the same fate befalling Cromwell came to pass….
I also was really disappointed that they didn’t milk the angst and trauma of Mary losing the closest thing she had to a living mother, the Countess of Salisbury-sure, we saw her protesting it, but we didn’t see a distraught reaction afterwards which Salisbury’s death would have caused Mary. And I wish we had seen some of the execution, it was a particularly dramatic one, since it consisted of her running away from her executioner while he chased after her, trying to hack away. These are other historical moments that would have made for great drama (and more development for Mary’s character on the show-especially since they did affect her view of political executions, I think, allegedly she swore after it happened that she’d never dip her hands in innocent blood), and they were squandered, to my disappointment. :(
Also, if they were really short on content to fill two extra episodes in which to have milked out the Howard affair and end in their marriage (instead of the lame, random end of her and Henry just hanging out), they also could have showed more of the deteriorating relationship between Brandon and Catherine (they are definitely the couple that I most enjoy on the show, I loved their equal partnership and teamwork in season 2, and it broke my heart to see them going so awry this season, but I would have loved to see more of them in any case. I also would have liked to see more of the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth, especially since the show was awesome enough to actually show her being nice and motherly to Elizabeth (which is what the true situation was-it was only after Henry’s death that things began to sour between them).
As for things I liked, I loved seeing so much more of Mary, though it pisses me off that she wasn’t in the credits, when she was in every episode, often for several scenes, aka a regular (and there were only like four people in the credits for the whole season anyway, which is absurd, when 60% of the opening credits are filler you have a problem!). That is really one of the things I love most about this show, that it gives Mary fair coverage and actually shows this often neglected part of her life-and Sarah Bolger is just wonderful. It was funny to see the whole Phillip of Bavaria storyline, when on my Tudor listserve there had been a whole discussion about that possibility right before I watched that episode! (He never actually came to the English court, as I recall from those discussions, he just wanted to come and court her). I also loved how Mary was so prominent in the DVD artwork, right on the back cover, and then on one of the DVDs! :)
I also liked seeing Pole, whom I like historically (and I liked the actor a lot here), and whom I ship with Mary, to be honest: he didn’t actually take final vows as a priest-including chastity-until he came to England under her reign to be her Archbishop of Canterbury, they were good friends, and they died within hours of each other-as someone of royal blood he also wasn’t just any English nobleman, and thus suitable in that regard, and as an Englishman he wouldn’t have upset the English people as much as Phillip did, and would have been able to stay in England with her the whole time, and he could have probably still influenced the Catholic Church reforms in England as consort without being the Archbishop. It’s a pity and shame he insisted that they were both too old to marry! :( In any case, he also makes for some good footage for my fan trailer for Mary, Bloody Mary, if I ever get around to it, since he’s an important figure in the book! ;)
Finally I liked the new Jane Seymour SO much more than the one in season 2, and I really wish that they had cast this one back then, since that other actress was one of the only actors in season 2 I disliked! :s Although she bordered on Mary-Sueish in her uber-kindness (I hear in reality she was definitely not so generous to Elizabeth as she is on the show), she still did a good job I thought, and fit the part and was much less annoying than the previous one, so I’m very glad of the casting change! I find it strange though that the previous one backed out because she didn’t want to do sex scenes (if that is true), when there were none in season 3 anyway between Henry and Jane. Also in the “Previously on the Tudors” segment at the beginning of season 3, is it just me, or did they edit New!Jane into the season 2 scenes in order to make it look consistent, lol?
Oh and the music in season 3 remained wonderful, especially the music that played at Jane’s death! Keep up the good work Trevor Morris, and I hope you find employment on another show I watch after “The Tudors” ends….perhaps on the Camelot show that I bet will be its replacement? :)
Now I'll have to see if I have time to watch season 4 live, or if I'll just have to wait to catch up over the summer....
First of all, I do think they could have made it a full 10-episode season, adding more Anne of Cleves (who I feel gets seriously underchanged), and more Catherine Howard; I had been really hoping to see the season end in another of those wonderful juxtaposition montages they love to do so much in season finales (like Wolsey and the play in season 1, and Anne preparing for death as Jane prepared for Henry’s visit in season 2), showing Henry and Catherine preparing for their wedding as Cromwell prepared for death (since as it so happens he was executed at pretty much the same time as the wedding). I feel like they missed out on a good dramatic opportunity there. But I suppose that they couldn’t have really done that with only one episode I wish they had spent more time on Cromwell’s arrest and execution in general, it deserved more attention. I was sorry to see him go, he was a great character (and I love James Frain!), though I also can’t help liking the poetry of it a little, that More and Darcy’s warnings about the same fate befalling Cromwell came to pass….
I also was really disappointed that they didn’t milk the angst and trauma of Mary losing the closest thing she had to a living mother, the Countess of Salisbury-sure, we saw her protesting it, but we didn’t see a distraught reaction afterwards which Salisbury’s death would have caused Mary. And I wish we had seen some of the execution, it was a particularly dramatic one, since it consisted of her running away from her executioner while he chased after her, trying to hack away. These are other historical moments that would have made for great drama (and more development for Mary’s character on the show-especially since they did affect her view of political executions, I think, allegedly she swore after it happened that she’d never dip her hands in innocent blood), and they were squandered, to my disappointment. :(
Also, if they were really short on content to fill two extra episodes in which to have milked out the Howard affair and end in their marriage (instead of the lame, random end of her and Henry just hanging out), they also could have showed more of the deteriorating relationship between Brandon and Catherine (they are definitely the couple that I most enjoy on the show, I loved their equal partnership and teamwork in season 2, and it broke my heart to see them going so awry this season, but I would have loved to see more of them in any case. I also would have liked to see more of the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth, especially since the show was awesome enough to actually show her being nice and motherly to Elizabeth (which is what the true situation was-it was only after Henry’s death that things began to sour between them).
As for things I liked, I loved seeing so much more of Mary, though it pisses me off that she wasn’t in the credits, when she was in every episode, often for several scenes, aka a regular (and there were only like four people in the credits for the whole season anyway, which is absurd, when 60% of the opening credits are filler you have a problem!). That is really one of the things I love most about this show, that it gives Mary fair coverage and actually shows this often neglected part of her life-and Sarah Bolger is just wonderful. It was funny to see the whole Phillip of Bavaria storyline, when on my Tudor listserve there had been a whole discussion about that possibility right before I watched that episode! (He never actually came to the English court, as I recall from those discussions, he just wanted to come and court her). I also loved how Mary was so prominent in the DVD artwork, right on the back cover, and then on one of the DVDs! :)
I also liked seeing Pole, whom I like historically (and I liked the actor a lot here), and whom I ship with Mary, to be honest: he didn’t actually take final vows as a priest-including chastity-until he came to England under her reign to be her Archbishop of Canterbury, they were good friends, and they died within hours of each other-as someone of royal blood he also wasn’t just any English nobleman, and thus suitable in that regard, and as an Englishman he wouldn’t have upset the English people as much as Phillip did, and would have been able to stay in England with her the whole time, and he could have probably still influenced the Catholic Church reforms in England as consort without being the Archbishop. It’s a pity and shame he insisted that they were both too old to marry! :( In any case, he also makes for some good footage for my fan trailer for Mary, Bloody Mary, if I ever get around to it, since he’s an important figure in the book! ;)
Finally I liked the new Jane Seymour SO much more than the one in season 2, and I really wish that they had cast this one back then, since that other actress was one of the only actors in season 2 I disliked! :s Although she bordered on Mary-Sueish in her uber-kindness (I hear in reality she was definitely not so generous to Elizabeth as she is on the show), she still did a good job I thought, and fit the part and was much less annoying than the previous one, so I’m very glad of the casting change! I find it strange though that the previous one backed out because she didn’t want to do sex scenes (if that is true), when there were none in season 3 anyway between Henry and Jane. Also in the “Previously on the Tudors” segment at the beginning of season 3, is it just me, or did they edit New!Jane into the season 2 scenes in order to make it look consistent, lol?
Oh and the music in season 3 remained wonderful, especially the music that played at Jane’s death! Keep up the good work Trevor Morris, and I hope you find employment on another show I watch after “The Tudors” ends….perhaps on the Camelot show that I bet will be its replacement? :)
Now I'll have to see if I have time to watch season 4 live, or if I'll just have to wait to catch up over the summer....