To know the story of King Henry VIII’s tumultuous love life, schoolchildren learn the rhyme, “King Henry VIII to six wives wed: one died, one survived, two divorced and two beheaded.”
As “The Tudors” begins its fourth season, the series’ last year, we are already at fifth wife Catherine Howard, and her youthful exuberance displayed throughout the season premiere is enough to make nearly everyone else on screen feel a little old.
If Anne Boleyn was the voluptuous forbidden fruit and Jane Seymour was a beacon of hope and innocence, then Catherine Howard is the pole dancer of the marital rogues gallery. Unlike all the other wives before her, Catherine has an element of enchantment with her exotic moves before nearly every act of lovemaking — and the honeymooners had plenty in the season premiere. They had perhaps a little too much for the aging Henry (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers). “I’m tired,” he says.
It’s hard to read Catherine (Tamzin Merchant), who runs around like a nymph just because it’s raining outside or plays in the mud with her ladies-in-waiting. It’s slightly disturbing, seeing a 17-year-old act so juvenile, when she is married to a middle-aged man.
While everyone else grits their teeth through the odd spectacles, like Catherine ignoring formal dancing customs and simply twirling about the court, King Henry merely laughs; but it’s the pronounced, knowing laugh of an old man on the front porch, watching his grandchildren doing something silly. In the same way, this laugh is also unnerving, considering the couple’s age difference.
Merchant plays the whimsical Catherine pitch perfect, and even though the pixie may come off as two-dimensional at times, there is a pang of sadness the viewer feels for her as she desperately tries to live up to being queen. When King Henry’s men find her and her ladies-in-waiting, giggling and frolicking through the mud like schoolgirls, Henry reminds her she needs to get ready. Catherine becomes alarmed and says she needs to wash. It’s such an obvious blunder on her part to be unprepared, yet it’s news to the poor, immature Catherine.
Even more interesting is the social sparring between the thoughtless Catherine and Mary Tudor (Sarah Bolger). Catherine nervously introduces herself to Mary and extends a hand in friendship. Again, the scene was so repulsive and awkward to watch because despite Catherine now being Mary’s stepmother, the two could easily be sisters. Mary rebukes Catherine’s offer to hang out (in early 16th century England, this meant they were having cake) and swiftly left. Apparently Catherine, unlike the late Jane Seymour, is simply not serious enough for the role of queen in Mary’s eyes.
Since Thomas Cromwell (James Frain) was beheaded at the end of season three, Bolger seems poised to take from Frain the slot of most captivating actor in the series. Bolger’s acting is the best argument for a follow-up Showtime series, chronicling Mary and Elizabeth. Her Mary is so intense and devout that it’s easy to see how she’d earn the nickname “Bloody Mary” later in life.
There’s nothing menacing in her words to Catherine. Indeed, before leaving, she says she will serve the queen. But her simple reply of “no” to staying for cake and her disgusted facial expressions tell the real story. In a show full of soapy drama and characters who bluntly say how they feel, Mary is terrific at making scenes like this not come off melodramatic.
But as we’ve learned from “The Tudors” — and as we’ve learned from history — there’s always something to unravel King Henry’s marriages, whether it’s death, physical attractiveness or unfaithfulness. Thomas Culpeper (Torrance Coombs) and his freaky, tunnel-visioned expressions reveal his obsession with Catherine’s beauty as the string that may unravel Catherine or Thomas or both of them.
But just because there’s spoiler alerts in every history book does not mean “The Tudors” is not worth the watch. Just as Henry told us so long ago, “You think you know a story, but you only know how it ends. To get to the heart of the story, you have to go back to the beginning.”
“The Tudors” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on Showtime. To view the season four premiere, visit Showtime’s official Web site at http://www.sho.com.
4 out of 5 stars
