The Tudors - Television Season 3 Review

When I was looking at the viewer numbers for this series, season 3 apparently had a spike, which left it with the highest viewership of the series. While watching season 2, I genuinely curious how the show could go even farther than it had as I felt season 2 was pretty damn good (see my review for it here). Unfortunately, I think those viewer numbers were so high because people saw season 2 and expected the same level of quality. There's a reason those numbers dropped for season 4 as season 3 is poor installment for the series overall. Like the previous two seasons, I saw this on Netflix.


*

General Information 
The third season of Tudors released on Showtime 5 April 2009 with the fourth season getting announced less than ten days later. As previously mentioned, the third season had the highest viewership numbers of the series although I'm genuinely unsure as to why. There was a slight adjustment of the cast as well as the actress playing the role of Lady Jane Seymour was shifted to Annabelle Wallis (who I think did a better job than Anita Briem's portrayal). The Seymour patriarch was killed off-screen between seasons as well. Lastly, and most puzzlingly, was the introduction of pirate-knight Sir Francis Bryan (played by Alan Van Sprang). Bryan's character just sort of shows up at the beginning of the season and then leaves as quickly as he came at the end of the season with little to no explanation. I didn't mind him as a character, but his character felt inorganic while his pirate attire stood out way too much.

The Story
Season 3 can be broken up into what is essentially two halves. The first half is quite good as Henry starts a new marriage with Lady Jane Seymour while resolving a peasant uprising that threatens to tear apart his entire kingdom. It lays some solid foundation for the precarious position Cromwell (still played excellently by James Frain) has slowly backed himself into. The peasant rebels are given some depth via their various leaders each having reasons behind their actions with lawyer, Robert Aske, having the most endearing and ill-fated. This half provides the series with legitimate stakes and once again gives the viewers a chance to pick sides to root for as much of the court seems solidified behind Jane Seymour's brother, Edward.

The second half of season 3 is where the show begins to crumble as the stakes are drastically reduced and become relatively ho-hum. I don't want to get too deep into it due to spoiler concerns, but essentially multiple episodes surround Henry wanting to see what Anne of Cleves looks like in-person. The entirety of the Anne of Cleves storyline is kind of necessary (as this is based on history), but also just not done well as there's not much driving the plot.

Of the storylines that I hated the most (and arguably what nearly killed this season), was the damn Catholic Church's scheme to overthrow Henry. Season 2's papal plot was silly, but this one was almost insulting as it went completely unresolved. Essentially, one of the Pope's cardinals tracks down a descendant of a previous king of England and convinces him to rally troops to usurp Henry's rule. Henry sends his pirate-knight-assassin, Sir Francis Bryan, to kill him but plot armor makes sure that neither side gets what they want. By the end of the season, this whole storyline has gone completely unresolved.

**
King Henry's pirate/knight/assassin/code-breaker/spy/cup bearer


Special Effects/Atmosphere
One thing I can say for this season is that its music is top-notch. After a little bit of research, I see that Trevor Morris was behind most of the soundtrack. He did the music for other shows like the Borgias and Vikings, as well as high-fantasy video games like Dragon Age: Inquisition. The music of the previous seasons were great, but this season really stands out. The suite of songs dedicated to Jane Seymour are excellently done and worth a listen.

I think it's worth noting that this season seems to have had the most license to use green screen, but it wasn't as noticeable. I get that this is television, so showing armies of peasant soldiers would be difficult to do. I think the showrunners' methods of portraying the armed rabble was excellently done and never felt cheap.

The Acting
Jonathan Rhys Meyers continues to do a solid job of his portrayal of King Henry VIII, and I think this season gave him a chance to emote even further as there's a general theme of grief going on while it's also clear that Henry is further spiraling out of control. He's still a joy to watch, but there can only be so many scenes of him shouting at people before it starts to get a little stale.

I think that this season was the best season for Henry Cavil (who continues to play Charles Brandon) as we see his character grapple with the price of loyalty to King Henry VIII. I've always felt it was a shame that the blockbusters of Hollywood essentially ate Cavil's career as we can see that the man knows how to act. With the exception of Rhys Meyers, I'd say Cavil shines the most in this season.

The Best of the Best: The whole peasant revolt plotline was honestly pretty cool. It was unfortunate the rest of the season couldn't keep that momentum up.

The Worst of the Worst: The (once again) pointless Catholic Church v. Henry VIII sub-plot. What is up with plotlines involving the Vatican? Is everyone over there just inept? It's literally one giant waste of time, just like season 2.

Would I Recommend?

***

Season 3 isn't bad by any means, but it's clearly a step back when compared to the first two seasons. I get that it's hard to follow up after the Anne Boleyn storyline, but there were multiple points in this season that just didn't go anywhere. If you really like this show, it's worth a watch to see how ol' Henry and the gang are doing. Otherwise, I'd say the end of season 2 is a good time to bail.


-------------------------------------------------Spoiler Comments-----------------------------------------------------

  • So Charles and Francis got Henry a bastard-prostitute to become his next wife? Yeah, this will go well...
  • Speaking of Charles, this guy has been behind every major conspiracy in the kingdom since the beginning of season 1! I feel like we all thought Cromwell was this puppet master, but Charles just might be the web-weaver to watch out for.
  • For the purposes of this show, I always envisioned Cromwell as the Lutheran version of Thomas More. They're both exceptionally cunning and adept at navigating diplomatic and legal affairs. With that said, I was disappointed in how quickly Cromwell folded. I was also a little shocked in how Cromwell was routinely caught off-guard in this season. It's like he got really stupid after season 2 ended.
    • I still felt pretty bad for how he died. That execution was pretty grisly.
  • As he's not in season 4, I guess Francis has gone off to do more pirate shenanigans in some other show.
----------------------------------------------------References--------------------------------------------------

*Whitehead, A. (2013, July 3). The Tudors season three cover image. Retrieved from: https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-tudors-season-3.html. 
**Fandom. (n.d.). Sir Francis Bryan image. Retrieved from: https://tudors.fandom.com/wiki/Sir_Francis_Bryan.
***IndieLondon. (n.d.). Henry with his cane image. Retrieved from: http://www.indielondon.co.uk/gallery/the-tudors-season-3-gallery?imagenum=2. 

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