The Tudors (Season 4) GENERAL OVERVIEW This is the final season for the series centered around the reign of Henry VIII (played by Jonathon Rhys Meyers). Cleverly subtitled, The Final Seduction, we will get to see everything from his final marriage to him losing his own sanity. With Katherine Howard (played by Tanzin Merchant), and Catherine Parr (played by Joely Richardson), his love life continues to be a dynamic pillar to the show. War with France, problems in court, Henry VIIIs continuous problems with his leg, and his sanity are all issues he has to face in the final season of this series. So does the final season bring everything to a nicely wrapped end, or does it fail as bad as Henry VIIIs many marriages? POSITIVES As always the looks and acting are on point, but I want to comment particularly on Johnathon Rhys Meyers performance. He had to portray an old, sick, yet crazy, and powerful man. An image he had not yet had to do for the character yet. Once you get past the voice, it grows on you and you really get sucked into it. It was a hard task done very well for a young actor like Jonathon Rhys Meyers. WE FINALLY GET TO SEE WAR!!! After all this time, we finally get to see battles take place, and they were pretty good. The queens continue to have dynamic personalities on the show. Without them this show would be a dud most of the time. I am so happy they brought Anne of Cleves (played by Joss Stone) back. It really helped flush out her character a bit. I am glad that Mary (played by Sarah Bolger) continues to get a good amount of screen time, her character is interesting enough that she deserves it. I am so happy they talked about Henry VIIIs sanity slowly drifting and portrayed it on screen, otherwise I would have had no idea. The final episode with the return of the fallen queens was a nice way to tie everything back together. In fact, this entire season was about bringing everything back together, and I really enjoyed that overall theme to the season. NEGATIVES This show has gotten into a bad habit of throwing characters into the show without explanation. Even worst they got rid of characters with no explanation. They dont even mention it. That is terrible respect to the characters of the show. Charles Brandon (played by Henry Cavil) was definitely a character I wanted to see more of. Sadly, all we got was dialogue telling us what we didnt see. Why not show his marriage dissolve and him trying to fix it and fail. It would serve a great parallel to Henrys own struggle. Most of the side stories were either pointless or just not that interesting to be honest. The most interesting episode was when they killed off Katherine and company, and that was mainly because it was such a surprise to see it happen so quickly. One of my main gripes with this season is that it doesnt stand out on its own. Its main purpose is to wrap up this story, instead of telling a new chapter in it. Every season is about Henrys love life, but they each had an underlining conflict Henry had to deal with as well. I thought this season would be Henrys struggle within his own court, but like most of the stories that was glossed over. A good chunk of the characters werent even used until the second half of this season, which is fine, but they were introduced in the first episode and then never seen again. They continue to not address time, and finally it caught up with them. Knowing the ages of characters and moments of time that had passed would have helped the show progress and grow so much. FINAL VERDICT As a series wrap up, this was great, but as a season on its own; not so much. It sacrificed quality for rushed and forced conflict that ultimately hurt the show. It still has its many strong points, but the negatives are something no show should have. 6.4
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 15:21:21 +0000
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