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| (taken from Google images) |
Television series continues its romance with ancient history - not necessarily all exactly-historically-accurate. King Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) in The Tudors far exceeds the truth and resemblance of the real King Henry VIII. Or even, where there is fantasy in Game of Thrones by adding dragons to their story-line. Dragons or sexy people, who cares? It’s entertainment - which television writers have all the freewill to do, entertain. The Tudors kingdom is like a merry go round; at times its plot moves quickly but at others not so much. In the second season, the pinnacle of the merry go round, all depended on if King Henry VIII got to finally lay with his Lady Anne Boleyn. What about the people? Oh yes, they can choose to accept Lady Anne Boleyn as their legitimate Queen along with abandoning their Catholic faith or else heads will roll. Things are beautiful Lady Anne Boleyn - but not everything!
As far as punishment goes, the Tudor era was one of the most degrading and tortuous periods for a human being to live in. You would be beheaded rather than hung if King Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) liked you more. Heads are getting chopped off and are graphically shown throughout every season in The Tudors. The first episode of Game of Thrones also portrays bloody slicing of heads. The showing of beheading is one of the most inhumane tactics, not only could these inhumane tactics have been the norm for the mid-16th century and medieval era, but it also resonates with occurrences that are messed up in the current world.
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| (taken from Google images) |
Torturing in The Tudors included: boiling alive, burning, branding with hot irons, stretching the body, hanging, beheading, etc. In season four of The Tudors, while King Henry VIII is awaiting the death of his fifth wife Queen Catherine Howard (Tamzin Merchant), King Henry VIII is in a room full of pretty ladies play fighting who gets to sit in the Kings chair. If I were them, I would be fighting to get to the door first. As with King Henry VIII, an innocent look to the right was the same as asking to get beheaded!
You go to buy your concert tickets in advance, wishing to get the best seats in the house. Not only to your amusement, you got a seat so close that you will be able to get some splash of blood on you! Yes, a public execution in The Tudors was an event not to be missed by the people and they would backlog to get the best spots. Public execution was a form of entertainment for the people however when it got to season four, showing the execution of the character who plays Francis Dereham, who was the lover of Catherine Howard prior to marrying the King, was the most tortuous and disturbing massacre of the season yet shown. I can’t imagine the audience not taking their eyes away from that death, as there was nothing entertaining in that moment.
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| Notice the crowd cheering in the background |
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| (both images taken from Google images) |
Just when you think you know King Henry VIII - you don't know him at all. His moods and hot-tempered outbreaks are a consequence due to his hunger to reproduce an heir (if he'd only known that reproduction has nothing to do with the woman). Scene after scene, King Henry VIII shows his disgust for any current Queen if she is not with child - better yet a child son.
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| (King Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) upset that he still does not have a son) (taken from Google images) |
History Drama like The Tudors is not just based on historical facts, but a lot of intimate scenes. The Tudors, like Game of Thrones both in a historical context, portray a lot of nudity. Love is not all that is in the air for both The Tudors and Game of Thrones, where you not only see passionate lover scenes, but also not-so-tender love scenes: In Season one of Game of Thrones you see Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) forced to wed with Drogo (Jason Momoa), who doesn't speak her language, by her brother, Viserys Targaryen (Harry Lloyd), to make a strong political alliance (which is not a new concept in The Tudors) and is forced into sex. The Tudors shows the exact same scenes, where George Boleyn (Padraic Delaney) and Lady Rochford (Joanne King) unwillingly marry each other and then he forces her on their wedding night. There is this fusion between peace and torture with torture outweighing the peace at least in The Tudors. This historical drama (The Tudors) boils down to: hunger for power, cruelty, entitlement, allurement, and fear. All characteristics still found in humanity today.
Showtime’s The Tudors ended 2010 and HBO’s Game of Thrones started 2011. Perhaps, the portrayals of violence shown from Showtime’s The Tudors set a precedent for HBO’s attempt to keep up with it. Networks such as Showtime and HBO are not shying away from violence, but pushing violence more and more unto their viewers. The Tudors may have been a way to prepare the audience of the idea of graphic violence portrayals – such as the slicing of heads, and Game of Thrones took it further. Some networks may seem to be more permissive than others when it comes to violence. But the networks not only like the idea to show violence in their TV shows, but also acquire titles that carry violent names such as: How to get away with murder, The Killing, The Walking Dead, Bones and so on. There seems to be no boundary to how much violence is OK - or if it is OK. Media violence occurs in a world of good and bad and if the bad makes an audience, then I guess violence is here to stay.
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