Vamp, Camp, and a Whole Lot of Tramp

Or, "If at first you don't succeed in pimping your daughter to the King, then try, try again with the other one." That's the Showtime drama The Tudors for you. Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who is the acting profession's personification of petulance, playing Henry VIII, history's personification of capriciousness, it's not bad, actually. Court life back then was alot of humping and killing, and The Tudors brings plenty of that. It stays pretty close to history, though it does make out Henry to be a bit of a Philistine, when by all accounts he was very learned and fluent in a number of languages--for example, during one episode the Dauphin throws a bunch of French at him and he acts like he doesn't understand.

I am biased, though, because I am fascinated by this time period in English history. From Henry V and the start of the Plantangenet dyanasty until Henry VIII and the beginning of the Tudor dynasty, the family tree of British royalty is a big circle. The War of the Roses, Shakespeare's histories, all that sort of thing make it even more compelling. I've only watched a few episodes, but so far I dig it.