The Tudors

I decided to check this show out because I like period shows and I'll watch anything with Jonathan Rhys Meyers. I'm also deeply fascinated by the English monarchy, don't ask me why, I just am.

Anyway, the show is quite good, with excellent casting and good acting (Meyers, Jeremy Northam and mostly Sam Neill are all above par). The writing is good as well, although the writers did take some liberties in their dramatizations, and sometimes for no apparent reason (spoiler tag: like when they kill off King Henry VIII's illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, as a child when in real life he died in his late teens, while his father was trying to make him his official male heir, thereby insuring the Tudor's dynasty would continue).

So far, my only real disappointment comes from the panoramic visual effects, which are not computer generated (and therefore, possibly, cheaper), but whose unnaturalness if shamefully apparent. And I do mean shamefully.

The vast majority of the scenes are shot either indoors or quite up close to the surrounding buildings, so as not to show too many details that could reveal any flaws.

However, every time there is a panoramic shot of Whitehall, the King's residence, or any other large scale reproduction, you can see little black toy people mechanically moving around and buildings whose walls don't have any depth, but are clearly painted or drawn. And if you pay any attention, these shots never last more than a couple seconds, so as not to allow the viewer enough time to notice the sceneries' flaws (or appreciate the magnificence of what they represent).

I can understand that a period show like this must require a huge technical budget, and the costumes, art direction and set decoration are all very good, but couldn't they have splurged a little on computer generated visual effects (or better painted backgrounds)?

I swear, every time there's a long shot, I now pause the show and try to find all the obvious fake stuff: lights flickering unnaturally, flags that look like they're an inch wide, stiff black birds zooming past, people's arms moving like they're wearing heavy armor while they are all clothed in black, long coats and they walk like the characters of a cuckoo clock.

I believe HBO's Rome cost something like $100 million dollars to make (and that's only for the first season), the most expensive TV series ever made (but, it shows). That price tag is what most certainly spelled its doom, given its relatively small audience, however, the shortcomings in Showtime's The Tudors' technical aspect proves HBO's claim that It's not TV, it's HBO.

Anyway, the show in itself, like I said, is quite good. There's a lot of intrigue, betrayals, political machinations and sexual innuendos and it's interesting to see how quickly a person's fortunes or a nation's alliances could change back then. Literally, in the blink of an eye.

Henry's legendary libertine ways and very active sexual life are always on display, and it's very interesting to see how the birth of the Protestant church as we know it today was brought about by nothing more than a man's boundless lust and his desire for a male successor.

I do have to point out, however, that, this being being Showtime, the network that brought us Queer as Folk, and The L Word, I would have expected a better treatment of the only gay story line so far. Let's forget for a second that Henry has three close friends his age (Charles Brandon, Anthony Knivert and William Compton) and the one who just so happens to be a closeted gay man conveniently succumbs to the mysterious epidemic of the 15^th and 16^th century called the Sweating Sickness.

What bothered me even more was that while we were constantly bombarded with heterosexual sexual acts in all their animalistic glory, all we got to see of Compton's and his lover's only physical contact were a couple of innocent kisses (while still fully clad) and an after-intercourse scene in which Compton is sleeping next to his partner who's intent on composing a new piece of music. End scene.

Excuse me, but who polices Showtime's fairness and balance? Bill O'Reilly?

So while I'm looking forward to next year's season two of this show, I'm hopeful that Showtime will treat its loyal gay audience a little more fairly. Thank you.

Grade: 8