In a word, it's a 'natural' for the screen. Even if you don't have the faintest idea of English lines of kingly and queenly successions (I know I took it in college, but quite honestly, it's all a blur now), most of us know Henry VIII and his pursuit of the comely Anne Boleyn - while still married to the inconvenient Catherine of Aragon, the former wife of Henry's brother Arthur. Henry VIII has always been a reliable movie subject because writers see within the monarch's real-life lusts and passions, a seemingly inexhaustible supply of anecdotes and scenes that make for exciting drama.

But those looking for anything other than surface characterizations and the thinnest of motivations will find The Tudors a pretty, but empty, vessel. And on that level, it succeeds quite well. Deliberately designed as a soap opera for grown-ups, The Tudors works well as TV eye candy, providing plenty of nefarious, double-dealing subplots and tons of cable-ready sex, fitted into a souped-up, historically suspect framework.

Re-imagined from the traditional movie representations of Henry (think portly and imperious) as a whipcord thin, fiercely emotional monarch, the Henry of The Tudors preens and struts about the luxurious sets like a rapacious punk rocker, with shorn hair and various leather get-ups that emphasis is outre sexuality. Hoping to capture some of the critical laurels of HBO's lavish period-piece Rome (while garnering the buzz and ratings of HBO's iconic The Sopranos), Showtime premiered The Tudors last April, a lusty, fast-moving 10-part series detailing the sexual and political escapades of 16th century England's Henry VIII.

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