The king never does an upleasent thing. Lord Cromwell does it for him.
Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2024
#6 : Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light
Had it really been nine years? Series two of the stately adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Booker-winning Tudor novels seamlessly maintained the astonishing quality of the first outing, with Mark Rylance’s screen-owningly hypnotic turn as Thomas Cromwell arguably a career-best performance. For a show based on possibly the most bloody marriage saga in history and a seismic upheaval of cultural and religious life, it’s remarkable how understated, how intricate, how tiny the details were that viewers were given in this tale of the final four years of Cromwell’s life. An absolute powerhouse.
Skipping over Slow Horses (#4 here, #8 in Empire's list) and Industry (#5/#3 - and one day I'll get round to it) we come to this and, as The Guardian says, it's hard to believe it's really nine years ago that we last visited Wolf Hall. I watched the first season and really enjoyed it - for a season with a very strong male cast, it was impressive how effortlessly Claire Foy blew them all away as Anne Boleyn. It all ended with her head in a basket so I suspect she's unlikely to be back, but I'm still expecting some quality TV here.
Yup, it's all very quality indeed - story, acting, sets, everything. Mark Rylance is Thomas Cromwell who is involved in all sorts of machinations to try and keep Henry VIII (Damian Lewis) happy - and boy is that a tricky task indeed. The whole thing is so political and complex that I'm not going to make any attempt to explain any of it to you other than to say that if you fancy this then you need to start with season 1 (and you'll be in a much better position than I was with nine years between the two of them to try and remember who was who).
You'd obviously expect the main men to pull out the acting stops and they certainly do - Cromwell is a fascinating character and portrayed interestingly and sympathetically by Mark. Damian suffers slightly in comparison because Henry was an absolute lunatic, but he depicts the lunacy well and everyone around him is suitably terrified of his mood swings and what may result from them. The core of the male cast is strong with plenty of faces you recognise even if you don't always know their names - Timothy Spall, Jonathan Pryce, Thomas Brodie-Sangster (who's very good), Charlie Rowe, Harry Melling and Karim Kadjar all do sterling work. The female cast does suffer in comparison partly because women really weren't allowed to do a lot back then and partly because they're not Claire Foy, but Lillit Lesser and Kate Phillips give it a good go.
If I was to have a niggle or two, it would be on the pacing front - some bits of this do not exactly race by. I wasn't expecting an action-fuelled drama and, yes, some of the politicking is nicely intricate but I do think some of it could have been compacted (and it is also overly keen on flashbacks at times) - having said that, the last episode is very wordy but works very well. It also feels a bit harsh to complain about the whole thing being driven by the whims of Henry (because that's historically accurate) but it does make you wonder why any of them bothered trying to do anything?!?
However, what also can't be faulted from a historical accuracy point of view (as far as I know anyway) is the costume and sets - this is lavish, man. Just getting into some of those costumes must have taken longer than filming the scenes that use them - and it makes me very glad I don't live in those days and so can get away with a teeshirt and jeans. The lighting is also very well done - it's very beautiful and atmospheric.
This is certainly proper telly done well, but I can quite understand that plenty would be utterly bored with it in the first five minutes and the idea of watching six episodes of it would be unimaginable. I enjoyed it, but I do feel that four episodes or a bit more plot as opposed to plotting might not have been the worse idea ever. But if you like a historical drama then this feels to be up there with the best of them - but make sure you watch the first series beforehand.
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