28 photos in galleryAnne is basically the worst human being in the world, and very ungracious in victory, so it’s hard to feel bad when someone tries to burn her whilst she sleeps. In other news, Henry VIII suffers that infamous jousting accident that makes him into a total nightmare, Queen Katherine finally shuffles off this mortal coil, and we’re reunited with both Dr Clarkson AND Jimmy from Downton.
Fug File: Wolf Hall
Fug The Show: Wolf Hall Recap, “Anna Regina”
In which I realize I cannot TOTALLY follow the passage of time on this show; one of the great lady villains of Tudor-related Historical Fiction appears; there’s a Protestent flash mob; a dude gets tossed into the Tower and burned at the stake; and Call-Me-Risley makes a brief but very well-accessorized appearance.
Fug file: Fug The Show, Fugs, Wolf Hall
Fug the Show: Wolf Hall, episode 2, “Entirely Beloved”
In which Cromwell wins over Henry VIII to land himself a spot on the privy council, Wolsey kicks the bucket, and we all learn that life at Sir Thomas More’s house is really, really weird.
Fug file: Fug The Show, Fugs, Wolf Hall
Fug the Show: Wolf Hall, “Three Card Trick”
First of all, apologies for how long it took me to get to this! The recap of Sunday’s episode will hopefully come to you in a more timely fashion, now that I’m not on walkabout for The Royal We. Second: this show is extremely interesting. This episode, at least, feels quite internal, which is apt given that the books are HIGHLY internal, and Mark Rylance’s performance as Cromwell is spectacularly subtle. This show is in many ways the polar opposite of The Tudors – The Big Plot Moment that happens herein is handled with a minimum of bombast — and so far, I think it’s really compelling and so well done. Let’s dive in. To the Tower!
Fug file: Fug The Show, Wolf Hall
Fug the Show: Wolf Hall recap, “Master of Phantoms”
Well, this escalated quickly. Additionally: although this final episode was, I thought, VERY strong and easily the most compelling of the series, I also felt like we were missing some connective tissue in the story. I know that Masterpiece has a way of trimming scenes between the original and the US airings — which drives me bonkers — but I rather felt like this particular episode was counting on the viewer’s knowledge of basic history to fill in the blanks. Obviously, everyone who wasn’t in a coma throughout history class knows that Anne Boleyn loses her head — there is no historical tale used more often to wake up high school students after lunch than Henry VIII and his many wives, and for extremely good reason — but it seemed weird to me from a narrative perspective that we never got a scene where Anne was specifically told it was OVER, for example. That doesn’t take away from how great this episode was, but: LET’S DISCUSS.
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