Minor spoilers below, but nothing that many other people have not already discussed.
This new version of the Tudor story is not bad if you just think of it as a novel, whose action took place in the past, some of whose characters have names the same as actual people. Just keep telling yourself it's not meant to be accurate at all and you'll enjoy it more.
So many things they messed up, which I won't go into because they've already been done to death. One thing that's really puzzling: it was fairly idiotic of the producers to choose to combine Henry's sisters Margaret and Mary, since now there can be no James I after the death of Elizabeth I, nor any Lady Jane Grey. Doesn't seem to make sense to change history so much, and now there is clearly no possibility of any further episodes beyond Elizabeth! Or even before, since there's no Jane Grey.
The costumes were beautiful but inaccurate. HORRIBLY GROSSLY inaccurate. I can see making 16th century clothing look a little more glamorous for our modern sensibilities (Tudor female headwear was quite boxy and ugly), but why did they dress everyone as those they were in the 1800s? The corsets were completely wrong. The excess of bare skin was shockingly wrong. All those heaving bosoms are completely wrong. The men's costumes were a little more realistic, I'll give them that.
Maria Doyle Kennedy is very, very good, even if she physically does not match the real Katherine. (And why are they calling her Catherine? Her name was spelled with a K at that time.) I don't mind Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Henry, although he physically is not quite large enough and his hair should have been dyed red. Of course his age is all wrong but the ages of most of the people are wrong, and the timelines are wrong. I think he does carry some of the "rock star" quality that Henry is said to have had at that time. Natalie Dormer is physically a great match as Anne but she has not been written anywhere near as charming and witty as the real Anne was said to be. There's a reason she held on to him, with no sex, for so many years before getting married. That's not the fault of Dormer; she played the character she was given.
I highly recommend that anyone who liked this series to read up on real Tudor history. Shoot, even Wikipedia is more accurate. Just watch and pretend it's an entirely fictional story and forget about all the unnecessary shortcuts the producers took.
This new version of the Tudor story is not bad if you just think of it as a novel, whose action took place in the past, some of whose characters have names the same as actual people. Just keep telling yourself it's not meant to be accurate at all and you'll enjoy it more.
So many things they messed up, which I won't go into because they've already been done to death. One thing that's really puzzling: it was fairly idiotic of the producers to choose to combine Henry's sisters Margaret and Mary, since now there can be no James I after the death of Elizabeth I, nor any Lady Jane Grey. Doesn't seem to make sense to change history so much, and now there is clearly no possibility of any further episodes beyond Elizabeth! Or even before, since there's no Jane Grey.
The costumes were beautiful but inaccurate. HORRIBLY GROSSLY inaccurate. I can see making 16th century clothing look a little more glamorous for our modern sensibilities (Tudor female headwear was quite boxy and ugly), but why did they dress everyone as those they were in the 1800s? The corsets were completely wrong. The excess of bare skin was shockingly wrong. All those heaving bosoms are completely wrong. The men's costumes were a little more realistic, I'll give them that.
Maria Doyle Kennedy is very, very good, even if she physically does not match the real Katherine. (And why are they calling her Catherine? Her name was spelled with a K at that time.) I don't mind Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Henry, although he physically is not quite large enough and his hair should have been dyed red. Of course his age is all wrong but the ages of most of the people are wrong, and the timelines are wrong. I think he does carry some of the "rock star" quality that Henry is said to have had at that time. Natalie Dormer is physically a great match as Anne but she has not been written anywhere near as charming and witty as the real Anne was said to be. There's a reason she held on to him, with no sex, for so many years before getting married. That's not the fault of Dormer; she played the character she was given.
I highly recommend that anyone who liked this series to read up on real Tudor history. Shoot, even Wikipedia is more accurate. Just watch and pretend it's an entirely fictional story and forget about all the unnecessary shortcuts the producers took.