This had quite a lot of promise, a big star cast featuring Ray Winston, Sean Bean, Charles Dance, Emily Blunt, Emilia Fox, Mark Strong, Helena Bonham Carter. We are also given what appears to be a big budget, lavish production design, some special effects, hosts of extras and costumes. On the face of it this should be great. The production values are very high throughout, you can't really argue with that.
This also came out around the time of The Lord of the Rings, Troy and a new King Arthur adaptation so you expect good things. One of the first things you notice is they've decided to use modern English, this can work, after all 14th century English may just appear clunky, strange and hard to relate to, though it can be done well. The modern language instantly lets you know what kind of adaptation this will be, it's one for a modern audience with modern states, lots of focus on violence, bad language, sex and other juicy scenes. The Henry VIII we are given at the start is equally a man of base pleasures and appetites, any finer qualities he actually possessed are no where to be seen. As I said the production design is nice at times, lots of interior shots of candles, robes, thrones and the like, this is very much dumbed down history though, much of it is untrue in fact. The dialogue is not predictably well written, it's quite clunky, introductions to new characters are awkward and everything is spelt out for the audience so we don't have to make much effort to follow it, "I need an heir!" Bellows Henry VIII at one point. Sean Bean also gets a scene where he's outnumbered, surrounded and being hit with arrows, a direct rip off from his Lord of the Rings demise. Henry VIII is largely reduced to a base man who loves fighting, women and power, that's about it. The cinematography can be a bit distracting doing slow motion shots for dramatic effect, spinning the camera constantly when characters talk, I did like Henry VIII in love with Anne Boleyn, he displays a great almost boyish passion, distracted to the point of despair, it's quite well done and the fact they also write to each other works well. Anne Boleyn is quite a good character but she's almost forgotten by the end, so long is the story, she's portrayed as bold, strong minded and beautiful, she's not above a little manipulation of her own either, in one scene she sculks behind a pillar during her rival's trial. Her love scenes with Henry VIII though are very cheesy and overdone and the King's manner towards her quickly turns cold. What gets you through some of the worse moments again are some of the production values which are nearly always very good, the cast are all trying too.
Part 2 opens up with a darker tone, the country in turmoil, monks and nuns are put to the sword, we briefly get a bit more depth of a troubled man, disturbed by violence and division unleashed by his schemes. This doesn't last long though, he simply blames those around him for giving him bad advise and has them cast out of his court and into the dungeons. We get a lot of scenes in this of his minions plotting against each other as you'd expect. Each one wields power, wins his favour, then falls out of favour and is upended by some new sneaky chap who has exactly the same happen to him, and so on it goes. There is a slight tragic quality to the series, Henry VIII is his own worst enemy and will kill all those who stand in his way including those he loves and has befriended. The series moves him on an older man, now a glutton, still surrounded by scheming advisers. Now though he is more bad tempered, even paranoid. We get more violence, sex, adultery and the rest while the religious conflict of the period is barely touched on, it's all about his personal life and his wives, each of whom are developed then quickly killed off. It's all quite saucy and spied up, a bit like a historical drama aimed at the readers of The Sun newspaper. In fairness this was pretty good TV back in 2003 before we got the big budget streaming series we get now. It does feel very TV though at times, well done TV but still that. The cinematography also gives us lots of close shots, the series lacks the kind of impressive wide shots which gives a series a sense of scope, grander and scale it needs. All in all the production values are great, the cast deliver a good performance but the script and writing is just too dumped down and more interested in melodrama and. The women in the series have a far too cotemporary look, this isn't really going for anything other than juicy entertainment in the end, rather than aiming to be real history or anything like that. It does a least though try to avoid inserting into it current political problems of 2003 into it, there's no attempt to think of France as the invasion of Iraq, no character masquerading as Alastair Campbell. It also lacks any worry about trying to appease current whims and trends like ensuring Henry VIII is not the centre of the story or trying to make his wives into characters driven by 21st ideas of equality, nor is Robert Aske played by John Boyega or anything like that. Plus a young Emily Blunt takes her clothes off too which I won't complain about. On the question of violence in the show I'd argue while it is used primarily for entertainment in this, it should at least be in there as a reflection of the violent times the adaptation is really set in.
This also came out around the time of The Lord of the Rings, Troy and a new King Arthur adaptation so you expect good things. One of the first things you notice is they've decided to use modern English, this can work, after all 14th century English may just appear clunky, strange and hard to relate to, though it can be done well. The modern language instantly lets you know what kind of adaptation this will be, it's one for a modern audience with modern states, lots of focus on violence, bad language, sex and other juicy scenes. The Henry VIII we are given at the start is equally a man of base pleasures and appetites, any finer qualities he actually possessed are no where to be seen. As I said the production design is nice at times, lots of interior shots of candles, robes, thrones and the like, this is very much dumbed down history though, much of it is untrue in fact. The dialogue is not predictably well written, it's quite clunky, introductions to new characters are awkward and everything is spelt out for the audience so we don't have to make much effort to follow it, "I need an heir!" Bellows Henry VIII at one point. Sean Bean also gets a scene where he's outnumbered, surrounded and being hit with arrows, a direct rip off from his Lord of the Rings demise. Henry VIII is largely reduced to a base man who loves fighting, women and power, that's about it. The cinematography can be a bit distracting doing slow motion shots for dramatic effect, spinning the camera constantly when characters talk, I did like Henry VIII in love with Anne Boleyn, he displays a great almost boyish passion, distracted to the point of despair, it's quite well done and the fact they also write to each other works well. Anne Boleyn is quite a good character but she's almost forgotten by the end, so long is the story, she's portrayed as bold, strong minded and beautiful, she's not above a little manipulation of her own either, in one scene she sculks behind a pillar during her rival's trial. Her love scenes with Henry VIII though are very cheesy and overdone and the King's manner towards her quickly turns cold. What gets you through some of the worse moments again are some of the production values which are nearly always very good, the cast are all trying too.
Part 2 opens up with a darker tone, the country in turmoil, monks and nuns are put to the sword, we briefly get a bit more depth of a troubled man, disturbed by violence and division unleashed by his schemes. This doesn't last long though, he simply blames those around him for giving him bad advise and has them cast out of his court and into the dungeons. We get a lot of scenes in this of his minions plotting against each other as you'd expect. Each one wields power, wins his favour, then falls out of favour and is upended by some new sneaky chap who has exactly the same happen to him, and so on it goes. There is a slight tragic quality to the series, Henry VIII is his own worst enemy and will kill all those who stand in his way including those he loves and has befriended. The series moves him on an older man, now a glutton, still surrounded by scheming advisers. Now though he is more bad tempered, even paranoid. We get more violence, sex, adultery and the rest while the religious conflict of the period is barely touched on, it's all about his personal life and his wives, each of whom are developed then quickly killed off. It's all quite saucy and spied up, a bit like a historical drama aimed at the readers of The Sun newspaper. In fairness this was pretty good TV back in 2003 before we got the big budget streaming series we get now. It does feel very TV though at times, well done TV but still that. The cinematography also gives us lots of close shots, the series lacks the kind of impressive wide shots which gives a series a sense of scope, grander and scale it needs. All in all the production values are great, the cast deliver a good performance but the script and writing is just too dumped down and more interested in melodrama and. The women in the series have a far too cotemporary look, this isn't really going for anything other than juicy entertainment in the end, rather than aiming to be real history or anything like that. It does a least though try to avoid inserting into it current political problems of 2003 into it, there's no attempt to think of France as the invasion of Iraq, no character masquerading as Alastair Campbell. It also lacks any worry about trying to appease current whims and trends like ensuring Henry VIII is not the centre of the story or trying to make his wives into characters driven by 21st ideas of equality, nor is Robert Aske played by John Boyega or anything like that. Plus a young Emily Blunt takes her clothes off too which I won't complain about. On the question of violence in the show I'd argue while it is used primarily for entertainment in this, it should at least be in there as a reflection of the violent times the adaptation is really set in.