Best Historical Drama With 99% on RT Just Wrapped up Its Final Season – It's Time to Notice It
The most exciting costume show of the decade, true to the era in which it takes place.
In 2015, the British miniseries Wolf Hall, based on the novels of two-time Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel, became a TV sensation, making actor Mark Rylance a household name and raising hopes for new serious historical productions.
Nearly ten years later, its second season has quietly arrived.
The reason for this delay is that the final novel in the Cromwell trilogy, The Mirror & the Light, had not yet been ready. It was published in 2020, two years before the death of the author herself, who considered it the pinnacle of her work.
What Is Wolf Hall About?
England in 1529 is on the brink of disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country will be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon, and the Pope and some European monarchs oppose it.
But Thomas Cromwell, an unusual, charismatic, ambitious, idealistic and nihilistic man, enters the fight for his king and his own ambitions.
Wolf Hall Is Like House of Cards Set Five Centuries Ago
Wolf Hall is like House of Cards, but it takes place 500 years ago in England. Thomas Cromwell was one of the most enigmatic political figures of the time.
It is strange that no one had made Cromwell a main character before: in Shakespeare's Henry VIII he had about a dozen lines, and in the movies he was made into a secondary villain.
But Cromwell's fate seems a perfect illustration of the world of power. It is no coincidence that the plot of Wolf Hall can so easily be paralleled with the setting of House of Cards.
Wolf Hall Is the Most Realistic and Historically Accurate Show In Recent Years
The TV screen has been conquered by the trend of Bridgerton, that is, neo-historical series with almost contemporary realities set in stylized settings.
And now, quite unexpectedly, a serious historical project has reappeared, breathing new life into the genre of historical TV drama.
And the main breakthrough here is not in the outstanding direction or realistic costumes, but in the impeccable plot and smoothly constructed story. It is rare in historical cinema to feel the excitement of the present rather than a romantic portrayal of the past.
Wolf Hall is a show that has brought modern charm back to historical costume dramas.