Showtime

The Tudors returns for a rather triumphant third season. The series attempts to modernize the story more than a little. Henry’s attire is more akin to a rock star than a 16^th century ruler. The language is also more updated, often filled with modern colloquialisms and the like. The story of Henry VIII is well known, but this is not the Henry your history teachers told you about. This Henry is a slim, energetic man. There are only hints in regard to his famous lust for food. His appetites for women are not so subtly portrayed. The series follows Henry’s alliances and break-ups with France and his growing disfavor of members of his own court. If the series is to be believed, Anne Boleyn was placed in his path by her scheming father. In any case, by the third episode his growing infatuation with Boleyn takes center stage in the series. Henry grows weary of the Church after he is constantly blocked from divorcing his Queen Catherine to marry Boleyn. This is also the story of his own rise and fall along with the Church’s influence on England’s culture. There is an almost soap opera aspect to the storytelling, which is admitted by the show’s writer, who credits shows like Dallas and Dynasty as well as Rome and The Sopranos as inspiration. Side stories like a gay musician’s coming of age populate the background, but serve merely as distractions. When The Tudors works best is when we are with Henry and his court engaging in matters of global importance.

Let’s talk about the cast. At first I must say I completely hated Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry. But that was last year, and by the third episode I absolutely loved his performance. He commands the screen whenever he is on it. James Frain gets a ton of time as Thomas Cromwell, who is advising the king to his own ends. He plays the part with little emotion, but it does fit the role quite effectively. Alan Van Sprang plays the King's assassin and spy, Sir Francis. He is a character that moves in and out during the season, having less screen time than you might imagine, but he makes the most of it. Annabelle Wallis gets the unenviable task of following a strong female lead, now playing Jane Seymour. She's not near as attractive or as good an actress. She's not there all that long, of course, and manages to hold her own. Still the shadow of Natalie Dormer remains throughout.

What can I say about Showtime’s huge hit, The L Word? If you don’t already know what this show is about, and I was surprised at the number of people I talked to who didn’t, then I’m pretty sure this isn’t the show for you. Remember the old days when you used to watch Sesame Street, and each day the show would be brought to you by a letter and number of the day? Today this review is brought to you by the letter L and the number 6. L stands for lesbians, and 6 is how many seasons the series would be fated to last. Unlike that adorable count, I won’t be able to take you through the count, as I have never seen the show before last season and so only have seen 2 season releases. If you’re a fan and have collected the previous years, this is the portion of the review where you can go to your DVD shelf and count the sets. When you’re done, you may return to the review.

Finished? Good. Now unlike that wonderful muppet inhabited street we were just talking about, The L Word is strictly for the adults in the group. There is little doubt that the series is not only about gay women but for the most part is targeted to that same demographic. If you take a look at the limited extras, it is quite obvious who the intended audience is. There are obvious winks to the lifestyle that I’m really not able to understand, so I missed many of the in jokes. The storytelling is also very much in the vein of a soap opera, so you need to already know these girls before you can really get into these stories. It also doesn’t help to come to this party so late. If you have not been following the show to this point, this is not the time to join in. I suggest that if you are at all interested you go back and start from the beginning. Time and money make that impossible for me, so I’ll have to tell you what I think based on this limited exposure.

I think it’s safe to say that HBO changed the face of television with the arrival of The Sopranos back in 1999. The show raised the bar for television across the board. Before we knew it, many of the cable networks were scrambling to offer up the next show that would generate the same praise from critics and audiences alike. To this day that show has generated more subscribers to a pay network than any other. So we really can’t blame the network’s rival Showtime for trying to have their own Sopranos. And that’s exactly what The Brotherhood is.

The focus of this crime drama centers on two brothers. It’s the classic sibling rivalry story. It’s Cain and Abel; it’s Jacob and Esau. Michael (Isaacs) is the criminal brother and the eldest. In the first season we have Michael returning to Providence after fleeing a hit contract years before. The motivation for Michael is that he wants to regain his power hold on his former territory. Younger brother Tommy (Clarke) has taken a far different path in life. Overcoming his family’s ties to crime, he has become a Rhode Island congressman. Far from a “good guy”, Tommy has his own demons. His marriage to Eileen (Gish) is falling apart, but they continue to put up the expected front for his ambitious political dreams. There is a rather clever moral twist on the two brothers. It is Michael who has the traditional family values, willing to make sacrifices for his family, while it’s Tommy who neglects his family for his own political ends. Now it’s his own wife who is having an affair and has become addicted to drugs, something that can fatally harm his re-election bid. The boys have a mom (Flanagan) that would shame even Livia Soprano. She’s manipulated both brothers toward her own definition of family. Finally there’s sister Mary Kate (O’Malley). Outside of the immediate family is their main nemesis, State Trooper Giggs (Embry). You get the impression they were all real tight as youths, but now Giggs wants to get the legal drop on the entire Caffee family. Talk about bitter. This guy has a ton of baggage, from his own marriage break-up to disgrace on the force. He appears to see the Caffee boys as his ticket to redemption.