TVSquad

Period television is hard to keep on the air these days, regardless of quality or ratings. And it always seems to come down to one thing...cost. After losing Deadwood, Carnivale and Rome before their time, it was with trepidation that I took a look at The Tudors. Showtime has touted The Tudors as the most expensive production they've ever undertaken. Looking at the extras on The Complete First Season DVD set would seem to back this up, and it certainly shows in the beauty of the sets and costuming on display on the screen. It's been renewed for a second season, but how long will Showtime be willing to pay for it? They did seem to save some money on the editor for the packaging of the DVD set, since she/he didn't seem to know which episodes were on which disc.

I am a huge history buff, and while The Tudors takes a fairly liberal approach in regards to historical accuracy, for pure entertainment value, it's top notch. Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Sam Neill are inspired as King Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey, respectively, and Maria Doyle Kennedy so beautifully captures the tragedy of Henry's innocent but embattled first wife, Queen Catherine.

Packaging and Presentation
Really it's a simple matter to pop in a disc and see what's on it. But the packaging of this set was completely screwed up in every way. Before I put the discs in, I was trying to figure out why they would divide the episodes the way the packaging said they had, namely:

Disc 1: Episodes 1-3
Disc 2: Episodes 4-7
Disc 3: Episodes 8-9
Disc 4: Episode 10 & extras

So three episodes, four episodes, two episodes and then one and extras? Thankfully the discs themselves were divided much more sensibly, with three per disc until the last one. But on both the backs of the plastic cases and on the insides where the episode synopses are, it's divided as above. Still, a minor and cosmetic complaint, I suppose.

As opposed to the fun gatefold packaging of older sets, The Tudors: The Complete First Season is a slim box with two plastic DVD holders on the inside, each containing two discs. The full episode synopses are printed on the disc packages, behind their respective discs (complete with inaccurate data as to where "Episode 7" can be found). As this is the new standard, apparently, I can't complain about it. There's a nice full cast image on the back with all the pertinent details, so it does its job. What more could you really want?

Picture and Sound
The reproduction of the episodes themselves is stellar. Crisp digital transfer in the preferred (by me!) widescreen format helps put forth the notion that we're watching something more cinematic than traditional television fare. The depth of sound captured, picking up all those little background noises that give a sense of realism to each of the myriad locales, enhances that sense of watching something beyond "TV." Whereas generally there is a distinct difference in production quality between a television series and a motion picture, which generally has a larger budget, one could easily see this as a ten-hour big budget film.

Extras
This is where the set really shines. When you have such a huge production as The Tudors clearly does, with period costuming and massive sets, it's fantastic for enthusiasts of the television medium, or even the time period represented when there are DVD extras spotlighting these facets of the show.

DVD
"Production Design"
A nice video spotlighting all the work that went into building the massive sets and location shots that would bring the world of The Tudors to life on screen. It does an effective job of showcasing how massive an undertaking it is and the thought that goes into the architectural decisions made.

"Costume Design"
Just like the above video short, this one focuses on the equally important costuming. The discussions on how to modify the period garb to better suit a modern audience without losing it's "sort of" authenticity were interesting. The juxtaposition of where historical accuracy matches up with art and the realities of television always make for fascinating compromises. As the cast where's a simply massive variety of outfits throughout the season, it was pretty cool to see how those outfits came about and what meticulous thought went into each one.

"Tudors Historical Sites"
Considering the liberties that The Tudors takes with true history, condensing time, merging siblings and rearranging events, I think this 20 minute video is a nice addition. Essentially we ride along on a "Tudor Tour" through England, where we can learn more the truth of how Henry lived and loved and see how The Tudors strays from that truth for dramatic purposes. It was nice to see an acknowledgment of the artistic licenses they've taken right on the disc, so history purists can quit bitching that Showtime has bastardized the story. See, guy. It's right here. They know they did. Still makes for some damned fine television. You'll just have to deal with it.

Free Episodes of... This American Life, Californication, Penn & Teller Bullshit!
This is one of those brilliant moves that many DVD sets don't seem to do, spotlight other shows on TV or DVD with full episode samples. And for Showtime, since they are behind The Tudors as well as being the network it airs on, it's brilliant to drop on some episodes from other shows that are on the air, particularly the much buzzed about Californication. The DVD-ROM portion of the disc takes this even further, but I'll get to that in a bit.

"Win a Trip to Ireland, " "Biographies," "Photo Gallery," "Previews"
Biographies of the principal actors, photo galleries from the show and previews of other DVD sets offered by the studio (in this case CBS/Paramount/Showtime) are pretty standard fare. But I could watch the commercial for "Win a Trip to Ireland" over and over again. Ireland is beautiful country and, as "Production Design" tells us, the filming location for The Tudors. Okay, actually the commercial is corny as hell and a bit funny that it's on here because how long will it be relevant? Ten years from now when I want to pop in the DVD, that thing's just sitting there taking up space with no relevance to the rest of the package. Save the contests and commercials for TV.

DVD-ROM (or n-CD)
I didn't like that I had to right-click my CD/DVD drive and select 'Open' to be able to find the 'Start.exe' and even access the DVD-ROM extras (how many technomorons out there will figure that out). And the video quality of this makes The Blair Witch Project look like it was filmed in High Definition, but there's still some good stuff on here. Okay, well actually it's just more stuff promoting other Showtime shows, only in poorer quality.

You can watch streaming episodes of the first two episodes of Dexter: Season Two (I don't know why we couldn't watch from the first season if they're trying to entice new viewers, but who knows). The video quality is grainy, spotty and crappy even at the standard resolution, which is about the size of six postage stamps side by side in a rectangle. You can blow it up full screen but then it looks even crappier.

The same for Bullshit!: Season Two, Episode 1. But now you can actually download for free the first episode of Californication. Personally, I would have probably put Dexter on the disc and maybe shifted This American Life to the online access portion, but what do I know? I don't have Showtime so the opportunity to sample these various programs may have just the response in me that they're hoping for. I might just have to order Showtime. HBO has run out of original programming I care about, so maybe Showtime should be my pay channel suite of choice now.