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Steamy sex, savage violence and historical fiction: It's good to be King in The Tudors.
With maturing Irishman Jonathan Rhys Meyers playing Henry VIII -- the King of England, Wales and Ireland from 1509 to 1547 -- The Tudors is a superior soap opera that has captivated viewers and generated a fanatical following.
The series works wonderfully well on television, including on the CBC in Canada.
It works even better as home entertainment. The DVD and Blu-ray releases are all uncut editions, increasing the intensity of the lurid scenes, and they preserve the original widescreen cinematography.
The Tudors: The Complete Third Season arrived this week on DVD as a three-disc box set. In addition, all three seasons are now available in Blu-ray.
Each Blu-ray is a three-disc set with identical bonus materials to the standard DVDs. With The Complete First Season, those extras are extensive, including a visit with creator Michael Hirst.
More significantly, there are long interview clips with Meyers, who demonstrates a remarkable grasp of the real history, the fiction in his series and the cinematic roots of the Tudor era.
The extras for Season 2 are still strong, if less extensive.
The extras for Season 3 are disappointing. The profane blooper reel, however, is pretty funny as actors let their guard down while flubbing lines.
When Season 4 -- the finale -- arrives in 2010, we do expect more.
The Tudors is stunningly beautiful on Blu-ray. Visuals are crisp, clean, richly coloured and simply glorious for showing detail, including in the rich fabrics. But Blu-ray is also unforgiving, so minor mistakes -- the cheesy London skyline in the very first episode -- are also emphasized.
As entertainment, The Tudors is terrific, especially with Meyers increasingly able to portray the nuances of Henry's mercurial character.