All Hail King Henry

So I have resisted the urge to subscribe to Showtime but after watching the 2nd Season of The Tudors there is no way that I can resist much longer. I cannot wait for the iTunes release of Season 3 because I am so hooked. I love the story, I love the scandal, and truthfully...I love the men. What I can say? This show is a wonderfully delicious guilty pleasure of mine.

Let's start with Henry Cavill. I was fond of him when he played Albert Mondego in the 2002 Count of Monte Cristo and remember thinking that there is a touch of magic in his smile. It is the type of smile that is dangerous to women. So he has been perfectly cast as the notorious player Charles Brandon. What woman would be able to resist a smile like his? It almost outshines his beautiful eyes. Add his sexy accent to those features and it is almost too much to take.

Jeremy Northam is brilliant in his portrayal of Thomas More. He doesn't ooze the sex appeal that some of his co-stars do but and yet I find myself drawn to him. Perhaps it is his confident, uncocky demeanor or it is perhaps his determination not to loyal to the King while not betraying his soul. I don't know...but I was drawn to him and found myself crying when he lost his head.

But lets face it...there really is one reason to watch the show...and that is for Jonathan Rhys Meyers who is the absolutely perfect King Henry VIII. He just seems to be growing more and more sexy as the show progresses. Even his once buggy blue eyes that freaked me out in the first season are sexy. His accent is irresistible and then the lines that he says...well lets just say that it is once again almost more than I can stand.

Meyers is in a unique position as an actor. He is portraying a character who would be easy to hate....and yet he is playing it so well that you cannot help but love him. Sure he banishes his best friend from court, threatens to behead him, beheads his long time mentor, is a male whore, who creates mass chaos to get his way...none of that matters because of how well Meyers is able to do with it such emotion and visible conflict that you cannot help but love him. There are two scenes in particular that especially melt my heart. Oddly, they are in the same episode.

The first one is when King Henry finally goes to Queen Anne after her miscarriage and finds her in tears. In a rare display of vulnerability the Queen asks if he stills cares for her. In the sweetest voice he comforts his queen, assuring her that he does still love her. At this point we all know that he has been unfaithful and that he has begun to doubt her but you wouldn't have guessed it from the way that the comforts her. I know that it is TV show but I couldn't help being a little bit envious of the tenderness that he showed her and of his efforts to assure that everything would be alright.

The second scene was when they finally beheaded Sir Thomas More. Now from the moment that he is addressing the crowd, I had tears in my eyes. As he laid his head down on the block, the tears threatened to fall but I was still okay. And then....just at the moment when the axe drops it cuts to King Henry who lets out a passion-infused, heart stopping scream that absolutely broke my heart. I began to shed a waterfall of tears, not just at the death of the good man but also at the obvious pain that it caused King Henry. Sure he was the one who ordered the beheading (though he did save his mentor from being tortured as originally sentenced) but how could anyone resent him for it after that scene?

Jonathan Rhys Meyers has once again been nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in this series. He probably won't win because I want him to and as it was so kindly pointed out in last nights post...I am doomed to bet on the losing horse. Regardless....I am so in love with this show and he is the main reason why.

For those of you non-iTunes people out there...season 2 comes out on Tuesday.