Thursday Movie Picks #407: TMP Television Edition - Royalty

Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five titles and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is TMP Television Edition -  Royalty

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I'm posting this quite late. I'm also going for a theme within a theme....The Tudors

The White Queen (2013) and The White Princess (2017)

These (and The Spanish Princess) are part of an anthology TV series all adaptations of historical fiction book series The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels by Phillipa Gregory; each season focusing on one prominent woman in the Plantagenet and Tudor dynasty. These two seasons takes place during the War of the Roses which is the war between the two branches of the Plantagenet dynasty, the Yorks and the Lancasters and followed Elizabeth Woodville, the queen and her daughter Elizabeth of York, the princess who would later marry Henry Tudor (Henry VII), founder of the Tudor dynasty. I found the series a little on the soapy side, a little too glossy and not much grit but it was still an entertaining series. So I do still want to watch The Spanish Princess (2019-2020) which follows Katherine of Aragorn who became the first (out of 6) wife of Henry VIII.

The Tudors (2007 - 2010)

Follows the exploits of Henry VIII from the House of Tudor. Jonathan Rhys Meyer plays Henry VIII and I thought he so did not match the king's physical size. During the period of time the series is mostly set, Henry VIII was supposedly growing fatter and fatter and was described as obese by the time he died while Meyers is slim and stayed so throughout the series. I don’t think he even wore a fat suit; he basically just wore bigger layered costumes of velvet and brocade. However, I do think he has a very sleazy rakish look to him so I think in that regard it makes him good for the king and his womanizing ways, he had 6 wives afterall, two of which he executed to make way for new ones. I would say overall the series is light on history but still very entertaining and is quite raunchy (which is why they kept Henry VIII slim probably).

 

Wolf Hall (2015)

This is an adaptation of Hillary Mantel’s books Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, both of which won the Booker prize. It follows Thomas Cromwell during his time at Henry VIII’s court. They have really good actors in the major roles: Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell, Damien Lewis as Henry VIII and Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn. It also had high production value and just looked and sounded great. I had read somewhere that they only shot with candles and natural lighting to get a more authentic look and it showed; it looked great and very different from a lot of other period dramas. I also really like how the show sounded like the sound of footfalls when the characters walk the hall and then there was the score, which sounded like the type of music that was true to that period played on instruments from that period. So of the three TV series, I think this is the best and if you like Tudor period movies like Anne of a Thousand Days and A Man for All Seasons I would highly recommend this.

 

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