TVSquad

(S02E09) "These bloody days have broken my heart. My lust, my youth do them depart. And blind desire of ambitious souls who haste to climb, seeks to revert. And about the throne, the thunder rolls." --Sir Thomas Wyatt (voiceover)

This was a dark episode. As much as I disliked Anne during her ascension to the throne and sided with the steadfast and pious Queen Catherine, I hated seeing Anne's demise come to a head this episode. Somewhere along the way, Anne became the victim on this show. The Tudors, in my opinion, has done a good job of creating a multi-faceted character on the part of Anne Boleyn. Once a villain, she ended up a sacrifice to male-dominated political power play.

(S02E08) Much to Anne's chagrin and Henry's delight, Jane Seymour joined the queen as the new lady-in-waiting. Henry, not as athletic and spry as he once was, was injured in a jousting match. Everyone scrambled to figure out who will succeed him if he does die. Pope Paul III decided to execute the Bull of Excommunication against the king. Jane Parker started planting her seeds of revenge against her husband. And Thomas Cromwell continued to do what he's done since the end of season one, play puppet master. (Okay, puppet master is harsh.)

What an episode! My review is after the jump.

Many people think that the term "cougar," which is loosely defined as "older woman on the prowl for younger men to date" was introduced on last season's How I Met Your Mother episode that had Jane Seymour seduce Neil Patrick Harris' Barney. But like I said in my review back then, I had heard that term before that episode aired. But we can definitely say that HIMYM popularized the term.

Now it seems like TV Land, which is becoming the network for reality shows starring people over 35, has decided to pick up a Bachelorette-esque series where a number of young men will be competing for the affections of "sexy and accomplished mature woman." The show is being produced by Mike Fleiss, who was the executive producer for the network's version of High School Reunion.

The Tudors just got picked up for a third season slated to air in 2009. Production will begin June 16th in Dublin, Ireland and Jonathan Rhys Meyers will star once again as Henry VIII. Season three will follow Henry as he weds Jane Seymour and then Anne of Cleves.

This really doesn't come as a surprise to me. The show, when it premiered in April 2006, garnered both a large audience and critical acclaim. In fact, the series and Rhys Meyers earned Golden Globe nominations. "The Tudors is now a fixture for us at Showtime and we're on our way to completing the entire saga of all six wives of Henry VIII," says President of Entertainment Robert Greenblatt. He goes on, "We are enormously proud of this show, the extraordinary cast, and the production team that recreates the grandeur of the Renaissance year in and year out. There is nothing like this anywhere on American television."

I only have one question, Is season three the season they will make Rhys Meyers wear a fat suit? I love the JRM but come on, he doesn't look one bit like the real-life portly king that changed the political and spiritual landscape of England.

She's been a vamp, a vixen, a medicine woman, royalty and she's even tried Dancing with the Stars. Now she will solve crimes. The Hallmark Channel has greenlit Dear Prudence, a Jane Seymour crime-solving Martha Stewart-type celebrity. They're calling this a backdoor pilot because Hallmark doesn't do series TV; however, if the movie were to be successful, it could become one of a rotation of star-driven mystery movies that Hallmark currently presents.

As you probably have heard, AOL TV has been releasing their giant list of television's sexiest women for the past several weeks. Apparently, some readers were a little miffed that some of their favorite television actresses were NOT included. So, to assuage their hurt feelings, AOL TV has released a list of 20 hot fan picks. The list comes replete with great pictures (except for the heinous one of Maura Tierney--ouch) and comments from the fans themselves.

As I browsed through the list, I wondered myself why some of these women weren't included in the original fifty. Kate Walsh is gorgeous. Jane Seymour is an exquisite beauty. Plus she was just on Dancing with the Stars so I can't see how she wasn't fresh in everyone's minds. I remember almost every guy I knew had a crush on Nicole Eggert back when she was on Charles in Charge. But my favorite add-on to the list has got to be Betty Rubble. Hubba. Hubba.

(S05E14) This week's Dancing With The Stars results show was, thankfully, what most viewers expected it to be. Compared to last week's surprising elimination, this week's show was fairly run-of-the-mill. The passing of George Osmond resulted in Marie's absence from the episode, but fortunately not from the show itself. The hosts wasted no time in letting Marie and Jonathan off the hook; she was declared safe even before the standard recap of Monday's dances.

(S05E14) The hosts of Dancing With The Stars were doing some major damage control in the wake of Sabrina's elimination. Viewers were warned at least a dozen times to remember to vote for their favorite celebrities. Personally, I think it's sad that people need to be reminded of the basic principles of this show, but oh well. The competition has changed now that Sabrina is gone--it's a battle of the fan bases! This week, the remaining dancers performed two dances, one in the Ballroom style and one in the Latin style. I'm always excited when we reach this point. You get a much better idea of who can handle the pressure and difficulty of learning two routines. As always there were some fun surprises and a few flubs.

Short answer: no.

Long answer. no. Duh!

But it's the question being asked over on Access Hollywood's web site. With Jennie Garth falling and Marie Osmond passing out and Jane Seymour's mom dying and then Seymour getting food poisoning, it sounds like Dancing with the Stars is cursed! Well, actually it just sounds like sometimes wacky things happen when you're on live television. I like how they add in (probably because they're aren't enough real examples to make all of this sound like a "curse") Seymour's home almost being burned in the Malibu fires. And since when does someone being voted off the show (Sabrina) count towards a "curse?"

(S05E12) And then there were seven. The competition continues to progress, but it feels just a little different this week. With the exit of Mark Cuban last week, the level of the competition ratcheted up another notch. We're not into the all out race to the finale just yet, but it's getting very close. Tom said in his opening that with one misstep, anyone could go home this week. I'm not sure about 'anyone', but I'll agree that the potential for a shocking result Tuesday night is out there.

(S05E11) Tom opened the results show by noting that this week of Dancing With The Stars was meant to be sexy, but ended up being full of drama. I was disappointed that the footage of Marie fainting was shown again (and again and again). Nothing terrible happened to Marie, but does that justify playing the footage several times more? I thought it was insensitive. Tom added a teaser for the Jennifer Lopez performance (for which I was totally psyched), and warned viewers that "nothing can be taken for granted."

(S05E10) Tom opened the show with the promise that this week's performances would be the sexiest of the season. In what had to have been a shout-out to Edyta, he said "Let's not waste time or fabric." He was certainly right about showing skin. Several of the celebrities and the pros were scantily clad--lots of open shirts from the men and gravity-defying cleavage from the ladies. I caught a glimpse of Tori Spelling in the audience. Those West Beverly alumni are a tight-knit group, aren't they? We're at a good point in the show--very little dead weight, and a lot of the celebrities are showing considerable progress.

(S05E09)Tom opened the show talking about a night where controversy rocked the ballroom. I wouldn't call it so much rocking, as I would annoying, but that's just me. It does appear that some of that will be put to rest now. Len made a point of praising the pros for their excellent work, but warned them that he didn't want to see any more lifts. From here on out, they will incur a penalty from the judges.

They went right to the recap after that. Mark was really happy to be called the little engine that could. Floyd talked about his new experience, calling ballroom dancing better than hip-hop. Mel took the truck driver comment in good stride, asking for the truck driver vote. Jane was left trying to defend the lift again. Jenny ignored that lift nonsense and said she looks forward to continuing to improve. Cameron was excited about his three nines. As you would expect, Sabrina was thrilled to have the first perfect score of the competition.

(S05E08) I have to say, considering that we are only to week four, I'm really impressed with the level of the dancing this season. As the show kicked off, Tom announced that last week was the highest scored week three in the history of the show, and week four kept the ball rolling. We even saw our first perfect 30 of the season. If that wasn't enough, Samantha Harris is back from maternity leave, and didn't miss a beat.

Things weren't all rosy though. Carrie Ann made it her personal crusade to annoy the crap out of everyone in her new role as the lift police. If you have watched the show over the last couple seasons, it's something that has come up before. And every time, it leaves me wondering just why they have that rule. It's not a competition sanctioned by anyone other than ABC, so that can't be it. To protect the dancers? They let Monique jump 12 feet, backwards, off of the stage. It makes debating whether or not a heel was half an inch off of the stage seem a little silly. I'm actually all for doing away with the rule and getting on with the dancing. Anyway, a rundown of all the performances after the jump.

(S05E07) At the start of the show, Drew announced that tonight would be his last as co-host. Samantha Harris will be returning to work next week, which should make many people very happy. I still wish they had used a different former contestant each week, but Drew was a logical choice. They emphasized the men versus women angle again, and the women were declared the "winners" this week. The ladies dominated the leaderboard, leaving the men in the bottom half of the rankings.

In the post-performance confessional, Cameron was pumped about getting a higher score this time around. Mark said that he needed to truly believe he was a dancer before he could improve. Work isn't everything. Wayne had another humorous response to the judges' criticism. He thought that anyone who says you can lead a lady is out of their mind. I love that Wayne is always ready with a comeback for the judges and the hosts. Floyd felt like he let his partner down, but Karina assured him that this wasn't the case. Helio didn't let his middle-of-the-pack scores get him down.