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Tudors, The
SERIES: Showtime, Sunday 10:00p (60 minutes)


7.8

based on 27 reviews
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based on 43 votes
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Get more information on this show at TV.com.

Official Show Site

Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Sam Neill, Callum Blue, Henry Cavill, Henry Czerny, Natalie Dormer, and Jeremy Northam

This Showtime original series is set in England during the reign of perhaps its most infamous ruler, King Henry VIII (played here by Jonathan Rhys Meyers).

GENRE(S):	Drama
CREATED BY:	Michael Hirst
FIRST AIR DATE:	April 1, 2007

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

New York Post Linda Stasi

Showtime's glorious, gorgeous "The Tudors" is the best series since "The Sopranos." Period.

Christian Science Monitor Gloria Goodale

Now that lusty and incredibly bloodthirsty historical dramas have proven their power on premium cable (think HBO's "Rome"), Showtime is jumping in the act with a portrait of one of history's most notorious womanizers and political schemers.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen

A highly entertaining and addictive costume drama.

Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron

The series, a feast for the eyes, boasts stellar performances and a historically authentic aura but only occasional flashes of the kind of action and suspense you might expect from such a period piece.

LA Weekly Robert Abele

With everyone's motivations in this handsomely mounted but adrenaline-fueled series so on-the-surface, Dormer's enigmatic, time-halting loveliness [as Anne Boleyn] is a boon for The Tudors, and damn near worth losing your head over.

People Weekly Tom Gliatto

The show is a lusty soap opera that aspires to the pulsating, cutting-edge glamour of Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth. It's a little ham-fisted for that. [2 Apr 2007, p.37]

USA Today Robert Bianco

Despite some passing references to Henry's fondness for "humanism" and new, middle-class men, no one is likely to mistake The Tudors for a treatise on the socioeconomic pressures that reshaped England during Henry's reign. Still, the show does a fine job of showing the interplay of passions and politics that shaped so many of his decisions.

Detroit Free Press Mike Duffy

Although it's not quite as much smart, trashy fun as "Rome," it is still an engaging romp that moves along at a stylish pace.

San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman

With all the intrigue of a Shakespearean drama and all the coiled intensity of youthful power-brokering and rampant sexuality, it's hard to not like this version of Henry VIII.

TV Guide Matt Roush

Less lurid than HBO's Rome, yet still quite the pageant of pomp and friskiness, it's a throwback to the old-fashioned miniseries of yore, spiced with pay-cable frankness.

Washington Post Tom Shales

Do we ever feel as if we're really there, in Henry's court, half a millennium ago? Perhaps not, but a splendid cast and sumptuous production details make "The Tudors" a rollicking and resplendent show, if never a deeply affecting one.

Wall Street Journal Nancy DeWolf Smith

Good fun, and not as bastardized as its advertising campaign suggests.

New York Daily News David Hinckley

Even though "The Tudors" adds another jewel to the crown Showtime has been forging of late, this particular jewel isn't all that dazzling.

Chicago Sun-Times Doug Elfman

In fact, "The Tudors" suffers from being merely capable on most fronts, a decent diversion. The direction is effective but artistically flat, and so are several scripts.

Variety Brian Lowry

"The Tudors" is not the great series that it might have been, but it's certainly a watchable and diverting one.

San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum

There's not a lot of depth to the proceedings, and the series is at its weakest when it tries to make some Important Point. But it's a good deal of fun watching Meyers and the rest of the ensemble smartly bringing to life the deceit and internal politics of this royal chess match. "The Tudors" is a spicy soap opera, decked out in really fancy trappings.

Salon Heather Havrilesky

"The Tudors" takes all of the intrigue and power struggles and tomfoolery of the House of Tudor and gives it six-pack abs and a rock-star swagger

Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker

Ultimately, this series diminishes the king.

The New York Times Alessandra Stanley

Enjoyable but not exhilarating, engaging but not hypnotic.

Time James Poniewozik

As a glorified romance novel, it's perfectly fine, but don't expect Shakespeare.

Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert

Written by Michael Hirst , who also wrote about Henry's daughter in Cate Blanchett's "Elizabeth," the series goes only rock-opera deep, moving full-steam ahead without much accounting for character motivation.

Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan

Still, for all its ferocious ambition to be more than just another heavily corseted, respectful historical drama, "The Tudors" falls flat in more than one arena.

Newsday Diane Werts

"The Tudors" could actually use a touch of the over-the-top wildness that undermined the substance of HBO's "Rome." If we could blend the two together somehow, we might have a kickily effective history mash-up.

Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray

I don't want to beat up on Meyers here. He does justice to Hirst's Henry, if not entirely to history's, and being young and good-looking is hardly a crime. But like Tony Soprano, Henry VIII brings more to the table than charisma: Corrupted by absolute power, he's a bit of a monster.

Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd

Though it starts out with a fair bit of energy, in spite of regular paroxysms of royal lust and pique, it becomes less engaging as it goes on and grows finally rather dull.

Slate Troy Patterson

One hesitates to say that [Rhys Meyers] phones his performance in. It's more like he dictates it to an assistant who then submits it via fax. You too might lack an appropriate sense of conviction if delivered this script.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland

It's unfair to lay every fault on the actors when the dialogue is so insubstantial, verging on sophomoric and mawkish in a few exchanges

The average user rating for this tv show is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 43 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Gabriela L gave it a7:
Great costumes, and setting; fantastic cast; but one can not ignore the enormous historical inaccuracy and Rhys-Meyers limited interpretation skills.

L R. gave it an8:
I've watched this series three times; first to see what happens, and then to think about the meaning of the story. Although the characters seem stereotyped, the details of the settings and some of the connections we are invited to make caused me to think about the significance of this period and how it still affects us today. I particularly liked the representation of Thomas More as "not a saint." I did not know that he had burned six people for heresy (true). I'm not going to subscribe to Show Time, but I do want to find out what is going to happen next.

Susan L. gave it a4:
I can't get over the non-Tudor hair. It's all just so wrong.

WIlliam D gave it a7:
The first season seemed so protracted. In the end, Hanry still did not get his final answer nor his reaction to it. It was more of a study of Wolsey and maybe Catherine than Henry. The actor who played Henry was terribly miscast in an otherwise brilliant emsemble of actors making their roles believable. Wonderful re-creation for the eyes, however, of that time period wiht a little poetic license.

Hélène F gave it a6:
The rating is mostly for the magnificent costumes and th e sets The show is slow & more like a soap opera with thin beauties pushing up their boobs. Obviously made to appeal to the masses leaving out all the best history has to offer us.

Caleb C. gave it a10:
A stellar start to what will be one of the best new shows. The acting and directing is perfect here.

Natalie o gave it a6:
Nothing saves the fact that they get so much wrong historically

Tudors, The SERIES: Showtime, Sunday 10:00p (60 minutes)

Tudors, The
SERIES: Showtime, Sunday 10:00p (60 minutes)