Game of Thrones Season Three Premiere

There used to be a much-bandied about principle of information theory that the greatest number of components the human brain could keep in mind at one time was seven - hence, for example, the seven digits or less of original phone numbers.   The great strength of Games of Thrones is that it usually manages to do this with even more than seven simultaneous components in motion in its plots.  Like the gears we see appealingly spinning under the opening credits, Game of Thrones juggles a lot of balls.  We got a pretty good rendition of this in the season 3 premiere tonight.

Most appealing for me was the very first piece, at long last a little more about the world beyond the northern wall.   We began getting a little of this in season two, but with John Snow now firmly ensconced there, it looks as if we're in store for a good cold, ghostly edge to the season.  Here in reality, I've had more than enough of winter in the northeast.  But in Game of Thrones, it's ever in demand.

As always, this is balanced by the fire-breathing dragons, and Daenerys's inexorably building quest to get back the throne.   Tonight one of those young dragons provides my favorite scene - diving into the sea to get a fish, then throwing the fish up in the air and flame-broiling it with a breath a fire - and it looked delicious, a high fantasy version of hibachi.   And there's a good addition to Daenerys's arsenal of loyal-to-the-death, highly accomplished supporters.

Probably the best segment, as usual, is the story of Tyrion.  He's understandably grieved about not getting due credit for his saving of the city and the kingdom and the Lannisters.   Without the green fire, the city would have fallen long before his arrogant father arrived on his horse.  And when Tyrion goes to see his father, to demand what he's due, what he gets is a scathing put down about what an embarrassment he is to the family, on account of his whoring and his being a waddling dwarf.   I was getting to grudgingly like Tywin a little last season, and it's good to see he's as vicious a head of family as ever he was.

The rest of the segments were done too lightly or quickly to have much impact.  Robb was barely on the screen as he contemplates his next move, the scenes with Joffrey and his would-be queen were ok (though it's always good to see Natalie Dormer), Littlefinger's scene was minimal, and Stannis and his witch are still not clearly comprehensible.

But if you think of these as just nods to much bigger stories - which they are - we have in them along with the white riders, dragon, and Tryion a good opening chapter to a fantastical political saga this season.

See also Game of Thrones Back in Play for Season 2 ... Games of Thrones 2.2: Cersei vs. Tyrion


And see also A Game of Thrones: My 1996 Review of the First Novel ... Game of Thrones Begins Greatly on HBO ... Game of Thrones 1.2: Prince, Wolf, Bastard, Dwarf ... Games of Thrones 1.3: Genuine Demons ... Game of Thrones 1.4: Broken Things  ... Game of Thrones 1.5: Ned Under Seige ... Game of Thrones 1.6: Molten Ever After ... Games of Thrones 1.7: Swiveling Pieces ...Game of Thrones 1.8: Star Wars of the Realms ... Game of Thrones 1.9: Is Ned Really Dead? ...Game of Thrones 1.10 Meets True Blood

                                                              

Goodbye Tudors

The Tudors - one of the brightest stars in the new golden age of television - concluded on Showtime this June.   Along with Rome, The Tudors showed how deeply and satisfyingly television could show ancient and early modern history.  The Borgias will pick up this fine gauntlet on Showtime in 2011.

The final season of The Tudors was excellent, if not as commanding as the early seasons.  This is the fault of no one other than Henry VIII, whose real life as an older man was not as riveting as when he was younger.  There were fewer trysts, affairs, and conflicts with enemies in England and abroad.  No contentious titans in the court the likes of Wolsey, Thomas More, and Thomas Cromwell.  But the final season of The Tudors had some fire nonetheless, with excellent segments in France, where Henry's engineer takes a crucial step into the modern age by using the best engineering techniques of the time to build a tunnel into the city under siege by Henry's army.

There were memorable farewells, not just by Henry, but by Charles Brandon (Henry Cavill), the only close friend of Henry's to play a central role in all the seasons of the series, and maintain his admirable independence of mind and spirit.   The three women in Henry's last days - daughters Mary and Elizabeth, and last (6th) wife Catherine Parr - were also effectively presented and acted.   And I've always liked Chapuis - even though disagreeing with much of his politics - and thought his final leave taking was especially good.  Kudos to Anthony Brophy, in his own quiet way as effective as Sam Neill (Wolsey), Jeremy Northam‎ (More), and James Frain (Thomas Cromwell).

The women throughout the series - Henry's wives and bed mates, and those other men in the court - were beautifully rendered, almost literally like a Holbein painting come to life in several cases. 
Natalie Dormer was up to the complex, tempestuous part of Anne Boleyn, and I thought Joely Richardson as Catherine Parr was especially powerful.

And Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII was a tour-de-force.

And then there's the history.   Shows that show us the past - from Rome to Mad Men - are ever vulnerable to critiques by historians, professional and amateur.   This is as it should be, and The Tudors was no exception.   But I can say that in the history I know the most about it - the history of media, and, in the case of The Tudors, the advent of the printing press as a powerful social and propagandistic force, The Tudors was spot on.   The scene with Thomas Cromwell showing the printing press to Henry, and explaining to Henry what it could do, is entirely consistent - whether it actually occurred or not - with what I've studied and written about in The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution.

The Tudors is screenwriter Michael Hirst's creation - he was head writer and executive producer.   What he has left us is a history as fine and vivid any ever seen in a movie or read in a book.

See also  The Tudors Final Ten Episodes

and from Season 3:  The Tudors, Season 3: Hard History and Sweet Flesh  ... Thomas Cromwell on The Tudors: "Surely All Art Is a Lie"

from Season 2: Tooling Up for The Tudors and The Tudors: Transformations and Assassins ... John Adams Concludes, The Tudors Continues, The First Amendment Abides ... The Tudors and the Printing Press ... The Tudors Concludes and America Begins

from Season 1: Episodes 1 and 2: History So Colorful You Can Taste It, Episode 3: History So Real You Can Feel It, Episode 4: The Penalty of Royalty, Episode 5: Madrigal, Musical Chairs, Episode 6: Tectonic Chess, Episode 7: Henry's Imperfect Apothecary, Episode 8: The Limits of Power, Episode 9: And Wolsey Falls in a Soaring Performance ... The Tudors Concludes First Season: A Suicide, A Burning, A Roll in the Forest

and:  Derriere and Bosom on The Tudors: More of What the FCC Would Deprive Us Of 





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The Tudors Concludes and America Begins

America began in response to what we see in the final two episodes of The Tudors' second - and thank goodness, not final - season.

Torture to get confessions, executions for no good reason other than the whim of the government - in this case, a psychotic King Henry VIII - these are the things that Thomas Jefferson and our Founding Fathers tried to make sure would never happen in America, by insisting on a Bill of Rights for our Constitution.

And the torture and the beheadings were searingly portrayed on The Tudors. The execution of Anne was more harrowing and indelible than any I've seen in any movie.

How could reasonable people allow this to happen? The answer, clearly, was that in the 1500s we were less removed from sheer barbarism that we might assume or suppose.

George Boleyn beheaded on the strength of a hug or two he gave his sister Anne. Henry Norris executed on no evidence at all. A Jesuit assassin lies to bring Anne down - he says he slept with Anne - and he's beheaded. Mark Smeaton the musician denies any carnal knowledge of Anne - because he had none - until torture makes him falsely confess it. He's beheaded, too.

But nothing compares in sheer power - in acting and rendering for the screen - of the beheading of Anne. Natalie Dormier's performance was as memorable as it gets. I'll certainly never forget it.

And Nick Dunning as Thomas Boleyn, Anne's father, was extraordinary, as well. He's thrilled not go to the grim reaper, even as his son has just gone there, and his daughter soon will. Charles Brandon expresses our outrage at Thomas, who soon proceeds to leave the tower, freed. He looks back up an Anne's window. She smiles at him, still loving her father, happy to see that he, at least, will live. He turns his back on her, and just walks on. He set much of this game in motion, and he walks away when the stakes turn deadly. (I wonder how much of this Thomas Boleyn of The Tudors really lived in the real Thomas Boleyn of history.)

Yes, this is the depravity that America was born as an action against, less than two centuries later. We have done a fair job of keeping to the better road - though torture apparently has not been beyond the tools of the current administration.

But that's a story for another blog post, when I review Recount, on HBO. For now, I'll just say the juxtaposition of The Tudors and our election in American is no coincidence in this cosmos.

Bravo to a great cast and a great second season. My only regret was not seeing more of Peter O'Toole as Pope in the last few episodes - but I hope to see that corrected next season.

See also ...

Tooling Up for The Tudors and The Tudors: Transformations and Assassins ... John Adams Concludes, The Tudors Continues, The First Amendment Abides ... The Tudors and the Printing Press ...

and my reviews of all of last season's episodes, beginning here ...

and more on the printing press and the Protestant Reformation in my book, The Soft Edge ...

and ...



The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





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Tooling Up for the Return of The Tudors - with Peter O'Toole!

I saw the first episode of The Tudors, Season 2, on Showtime On Demand ... Not to worry, this is history, after all, so it's not easy to give much away, and I promise to be mum about anything embellished, in this or any review I may post before the episode's full-bodied airing...

And The Tudors is as delightfully full-bodied this season as last, when I referred to the series as "history so real you can taste it".

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII and Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn are as sensual as last year, and, who cares if this Henry's a rail like Abe Lincoln and not hefty like the real Henry. Rhys Meyers' performance still carries the requisite weight.

But the actor who makes everyone else on this show a lightweight - the actor whose gravitas, in fact, has pulled every performance around him like puppets on a string, planets in the solar system, from the first we ever saw him in Lawrence of Arabia - plays Henry's adversary in the Protestant Reformation in this second season of The Tudors.

Peter O'Toole as Pope Paul III had just one scene in the season opener, but his words and delivery balanced all the power and passion we saw in court back in England. The Pope wonders why someone doesn't get rid of the "putant" - the whore - Anne Boleyn. Popes apparently didn't mince words in those days, and when spoken by Peter O'Toole they are all but irresistible daggers.

With Martin Luther's suggestion that people should read the Bible for themselves given life and currency by the bibles that poured from the newly invented printing press, the Church was at a fork in the road.

At this point in the story, all Henry really wants is the Pope's blessing to marry divorce Katherine and marry Anne. He'll settle for even just permission. Henry had earlier expressed sharp disagreement with Luther - had written a tract against Luther, as we saw in Season 1. But people in England, including some of Henry's closest advisers, are seeing merit in breaking away from the Church....

This setting of this momentous stage of history will appear on Showtime this Sunday evening.

See also ...

see also The Tudors: Transformations and Assassins and The Tudors Continues, The First Amendment Abides ... The Tudors and the Printing Press ...The Tudors Concludes and America Begins ...

and my reviews of all of last season's episodes, beginning here ...

and more on the printing press and the Protestant Reformation in my book, The Soft Edge ...

and historical science fiction about another era ...



The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

more about The Plot to Save Socrates...





Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!