SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

mmabruzzo-988-281485 I am a huge History buff, and when I saw an ad for this on TV two years ago, I thought "What a cool topic!" But then I saw the PBS logo and grew disheartened. From my experience, PBS documentaries often show the only good bits of the show in the trailer, and the rest is boring. This was FAR, FAR from the truth in this case! But fast forward two years, and I am sitting at home with nothing to do. I am scrolling through the IMDb pages of my favorite actors, trying to find something new to watch. On Tom Holland's page, I found Wolf Hall and remembered back to the ad from two years ago. I thought I'd give it a whirl. And boy was it fantastic. I will admit, all of the jumps in time were confusing at first, and Thomas' daughters looked like the daughters of his sister-in-law, adding to my confusion in some of the scenes. But once you get the hang of the time jumps, the show really shines. The acting was fantastic, Mark Rylance's performance especially. The political drama was not at all boring, and it was very satisfying to watch all of the pieces come together and to watch Cromwell's "playing of the game," as Petyr Baelish from Game of Thrones would call it. This is a must watch for all history buffs out there, as well as for anyone into a good political drama with relatable characters and a good plot. As a side note, I love to play a little game where I try to spot as many familiar actors as I can in a new show. Careful viewers might be able to spot King Theoden, Tycho Nestoris of the Iron Bank of Braavos, Qyburn, Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Captain Winters, the brother of the actor who plays Stannis Baratheon, and if you are really careful, Shireen Baratheon. Happy hunting!

qcloes09 I've seen all of the episodes of Wolf Hall so far, and I absolutely love Mark Rylance's performance! I rarely have the opportunity to see one program that shows a character from history played so well. Rylance takes us through it all with his subtle acting. At the beginning he's heart-breaking when almost all of his family dies from disease. Then we see his conniving in the background to work with the powers that be. We see him shift from quiet "toady" to a conniving, creepy and dangerous man. The series goes slowly through the politics of Henry III and Anne Boleyn with all the backstabbing in the shadows.We loved this series and hope to see it continue to the end of Thomas Cramner's life.

Mac Murrah I recently watched this entire series in a sort of binge fashion. What a terrific series and A+ acting by Mark Rylance and Damien Lewis in the lead roles. It is somewhat refreshing to see Damien Lewis perform in his native accent. Rylance is a superb theater actor and he certainly doesn't disappoint here. You can notice he is not entirely happy with the outcome of his plotting and the demise of the Queen, which almost universally now has been accepted to be false charges. Very good series and strongly recommend. It would have been nice to his rise and fall in the second season as he too meets a similar end, but it appears there wont be a 2nd series.

Cinefill1 -Wolf Hall is a British television serial first broadcast on BBC Two in January 2015. The six-part series is an adaptation of two of Hilary Mantel's novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, a highly fictionalised biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII through to the death of Sir Thomas More, followed by Cromwell's success in freeing the king of his marriage to Anne Boleyn. Wolf Hall was first broadcast in April in the United States on PBS and in Australia on BBC First.-The series was a critical success and received eight nominations at the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards and three nominations at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards, winning for Best Miniseries or Television Film.--Reception:-Critics have been "almost unanimous" in their praise of the show with particular reference to the costumes, sets and direction, as well as the performances of Rylance as Cromwell and Foy as Anne Boleyn. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the show a 100% rating based on 29 reviews with an average rating of 8.6/10. The critical consensus reads: "Beautifully filmed and brilliantly acted, Wolf Hall masterfully brings Hilary Mantel's award-winning novels to life." Sam Wollaston in The Guardian called it "sumptuous, intelligent, event television." Will Dean, writing for The Independent, gave it four out of five stars. He did not believe it compared favourably with the stage adaptation of the book, yet predicted it would "secure a devoted following." James Walton in The Daily Telegraph gave the first episode five stars out of five, commenting: "it's hard to see how this one could have been done much better." Audience figures did not reflect this, however, with a substantial fall between the first and second episode and complaints about the slow pacing.--Discussions on historical accuracy or ideological bias:-There has been criticism by some Roman Catholics of bias and inaccuracy in the series (a similar claim made with the novels), particularly regarding a perceived favorable depiction of Thomas Cromwell and an unfavorable depiction of Thomas More. Among Catholics, George Weigel has referred to the series as "Upmarket Anti-Catholicism".-Gregory Wolfe wrote in The Washington Post that Wolf Hall "will entertain millions – and threaten to distort history in the process", and noted scholarly opinions on Cromwell, More, and Henry VIII in support of his argument. Several American Catholic bishops have been similarly critical. -Elsewhere, several historians (including non-Catholics) have expressed concerns about historical inaccuracy in the series. -Constitutional historian David Starkey has said: To reach such a conclusion about More and Cromwell from the very difficult and complicated 16th-century sources is just silly. Both men believed in the idea of enforcing ideas on others by persecution and execution. They only disagreed which ideas. When pressed, Starkey stated a slight preference for More for dying "nobly with magnificent insouciance".-Simon Schama has stated concerns about how it depicts historical figures.