7- Quick Takes – the not so quick edition

  Join Jen and the other Quicktakers over at the Conversion Diary.

1. Sorry for not blogging this week – well, not really sorry. I think every once in a while I just need to take a break and this was one of those weeks. In it’s place I have been treating myself to a lot of historical DVD’s and streams on Amazon and Netflix.

A few months ago we started getting Netflix through our Wii. It’s only around $8 per month and eventually Netflix will be phasing out its mail/DVD service and putting everything through internet stream or through game systems like the Wii. There’s not a huge selection for streaming just yet, but they’re working on it!

2. Anyway, I was looking at their selection and came upon the Showtime Series, The Tudors. I love that period of history, probably because I remember fondly watching the old PBS show, The Six Wives of Henry VIII with my mother and grandmother.

I’ve been fascinated with Henry VIII and his wives ever since, and as I am always looking for historical fiction, documentaries and re-enactments to show my kids I thought I’d look this one over. 

Well, I probably WON’T be showing this to my children.  There are a lot of historical inaccuracies starting with the first episode.  After watching the first two episodes, I started watching it on my computer so that I could fact check… well just about everything.

Not that my teenage sons would care about the inaccuracies when there is so much nudity and sex! and lots of it in just about every episode.  In the third and fourth seasons, when old Henry (who doesn’t age much  at all and still keeps a thin physique despite weighing around 300 pounds in real life) should be slowing down, the rest of the cast can be counted on to keep the R rating going  In season three with the marriage to 5th wife, Katherine Howard, the sexual encounters per episode takes a sharp rise.

I don’t think the Catholic Church or the Pope is portrayed very well and St. Thomas Moore is portrayed in a rather milquetoast fashion compared to Pau Scofield’s powerful portrayal in A Man for All Seasons.
The first two seaons are available on Netflix.  The complete series including the last two are available
on Amazon.

3.  Still I did learn some new things. Katherine of Aragon is portrayed much as I have read about her in other historical accounts. She is kind and loving and yet determined to hang on to and live her Catholic faith, even when she is divorced and really forced into a sort of poverty.  I started wondering why she had never been canonized by the church and apparently other people have wondered that too!

Garrett Mattingly‘s book Catherine of Aragon was mentioned in that thread. Think I’ll add it to my reading list.

4.  I also learned about a new Saint, at least new to me, Blessed Margaret Pole who endured a bitter imprisonment and execution.

5.  Izzy, Noah, Gabe and I have been watching The Civil War.  I can only check it out of the library for a week at a time, so since I’ve renewed it now twice we are doing a marathon session with it today!  I have watched that series at least three times and I always get something new from it.  One of the Yahoo Groups for CLEP exams I follow recommends it for preparing for the American History I CLEP exam.  I really need to buy this.

6.  And of course I always, always weep for this beautiful letter, and have a strong urge to hold Mr. Pete close to me.

7.  Sam is now working at a local Pizza Shop that also sells a bucket of fish for Lent.  I ordered one today and Sam delivered it.  Noah immediately got a plate and started to fill it with fish and fries.

“Noah, go and get Gabe and your sisters,” I said.

Noah continued to fill his plate and I asked him again to go get the rest of the gang.

“I will mom, as soon as I’m done getting my food! ” he said.

“That seems kinda selfish Noah.”

“That’s not selfish Mom – that’s strategy!”

Ah the lessons of living in a large family!

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