The blade slips on a sublime season of “The Tudors.”
Even the most casual student of history dreads the fate awaiting Anne Boleyn (Natalie Dormer) in the superb second season finale of the Showtime costume drama (Sunday night at 9).
Now imprisoned in the Tower of London, she is convicted of trumped-up charges and sentenced to die.
“I am content,” she says upon learning the scheduled date for her execution.
But as the final hour of “The Tudors” details, what follows is a series of dark comic events that delays the execution and threatens her resolve.
Teenager Mary can’t wait for her stepmother’s head to roll. “Is the harlot dead?” she demands.
Elsewhere, a young Elizabeth learns painful lessons about the vicissitudes of life as a royal. In the wake of her mother’s conviction, she is declared a bastard and her life of luxury ends.
Adding insult to royal humiliation: Henry takes funds out of her estate to pay for her mother’s imprisonment.
“The world is a slippery place, my lady,” one attendant tells another as a young Elizabeth watches, a little pitcher taking it all in.
Henry (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), meanwhile, seems besotted in equal measure with Jane Seymour (Anita Briem), whom he believes will give him a male heir, and the swans nuzzling outside his castle. Both infatuations foreshadow portentous changes in his realm.
The Seymours recognize that their fortunes rest on Jane’s future, but they are no Boleyns.
Speaking of which, master manipulator Thomas Boleyn (Nick Dunning) is surprised by his own change of fortune. Dunning has been utterly convincing as a loathsome father who views his children as tools to further his social standing and wealth. His final encounter with Anne is wrenching.
Dormer has truly grown as an actress this season. As Anne, she glides between calm, fear and desperation. She reveals Anne as a tragic figure, a pawn in a game she never had a chance at mastering. Dormer’s departure from “The Tudors” leaves a void. (The network has renewed the series for a third season to explore Henry’s third and fourth marriages.)
As this season of “The Tudors” has proven, Showtime has eclipsed HBO as the home of premium dramas.
By Mark A. Perigard
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