Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The Best Thing since the History Channel Special on the “Six Wives of Henry the Eighth”

Without a doubt, the best historical show to appear on television is Showtime’s “The Tudors”. With Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a slightly scary and much-less-grossly-overweight-than-real-life King Henry VIII of England and a whole bevy of gorgeous women as his wives, the show walks that line between historical and fictional perfectly. Okay, it runs a bit on the steamy and dramatic side, but as far as historical events go, it rarely strays more than believably far from the truth. As far as historical fiction TV goes, it has been done way worse than this show. The fact of the matter is that somehow, Showtime made gouty Henry VIII who likes to behead his wives all cool and sexy.

For the purposes of comparison, see below:
King Henry VIII (1491-1547)

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as King Henry VIII

Side note: Catherine Parr, wife #6 (third on the left, closest to Henry) wasn’t blonde. Also, she wasn’t quite the hottie-patottie Showtime makes her out to be.

Catherine Parr (I’m sure she was attractive for the 16th century- the bug eyes and puffy sleeves get me every time):

As far as I am concerned, Showtime can make historical drama TV shows about whatever time period it wants (seriously Showtime, ask me- I’m full of great new history TV show ideas for you). The only bad thing about “The Tudors” is that historically, Henry runs out of wives and dies, so the show has to end after only four seasons. Lame, history. Lame.

Post script: Shout out to the ever-vigilant Matt for pointing out my daily spelling and grammar errors, so I can hurry up and correct them before anyone else notices. This is your public thanks.

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