The Tudors

I love English history so I might not be the most objective one to write a review of this, it probably isn't as good as I think it is but it has me picking up the computer and doing Wikipedia searches for things I don't know or have forgotten.

For instance, the Tudors were Welsh and weren't a long dynasty, it started with Henry's father, Henry VII, goes to Henry the VIII, then on to his first daughter Mary for a short reign, then to Queen Elizabeth, and that was the entire Tudor's royal line. Yet Henry and Elizabeth are two of the best known rulers of England and turned them from being a backwater island into the beginning of a world power, and Henry changed world religion as well, not a small feat.

There was one very ironic scene in the last episode. Henry writes a pamphlet condemning Martin Luther and Protestantism and praising the Pope with the help of Sir John Moore. He then tells Sir John to go out and find as much of Luther's writings as he can and burn them. Ironic because Henry later becomes a Protestant himself and breaks all of England away from Catholic Rome, and he had to put down some rebellion - you don't mess with a man's religion - and he had the most prominent Catholics executed, one of whom was Sir Thomas Moore.

My one big objection is that everyone looks far too clean, after all, they were pretty primitive back then, no indoor plumbing, showers and washing machines. I suppose they felt some dirt would cheapen the whole thing but I appreciate realism.

The Tudors is on Sundays on Showtime and plays several times during the week.