"I do not understand you, Cromwell. Why are you not afraid? You should be afraid."
It's been... yeah, many, many years. Use the search function if you'd like to see my reviews of the earlier series, adapting Hilary Mantel's first two novels- I did; I certainly needed my memory refreshing. So much life has happened for me since then....
This first episode is extraordinarily powerful. Story, stript, acting, look, direction- all are superb in depicting the sheer peril of politics where the tyrant at the centre of it all is a highly intelligent, scarily volatile and utterly caprucious monster such as Henry VIII, a tyrant of truly terrifying proportions.
As per The Private Life of Henry VIII, a film which, oddly enough, I saw only weeks ago, we begin with the horrifying juxtaposition of Anne Boleyn walking to the scaffold as Henry prepares to marry Jane Seymour the same day. This sequence alone, beautifully shot, says everything. Horrifyingly, Anne keeps looking up, to the windows of the Tower, imagining that there may be hope...
Yet much of the episode concerns the fascinating and deadly games of power. Cromwell may be at the centte of all yet, as Chapuys amusedly pointds out, he is utterly dependent on the King, with no one to save him should he falter. No wonder he is carefully writing a book on how to handle the King.
The King, at this point, seems even worse than before, seemingly contemplating the execution of his own daughter for refusing to sign the oath, yet turning on a sixpence at the end to embrace his cowed child. As for Cromwell himself... he plays such a dangerous game. At one point, when Henry seems to turn fully against Mary, he himself even acknowledges that things certainly appear bleak.
I'm going to enjoy this series so very much- telly at its best.
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