The White Queen Season One

You could say I'm a fan of Philippa Gregory. It was her The Other Boleyn Girl that introduced and hooked me on historical fiction. But this series, about the York wars, didn't interest me much. But I've been known to enjoy the movies made from books more than the books themselves at times, so I was eager to watch this. I also love a good period drama.

The costumes, the acting, the twists, did not disappoint.

The first two episodes, two or three hours, I think, tells about the Rivers woman of the Lancanshires. Old King Henry has been pushed aside and the throne taken by force by a York named Edward. Behind is Warwick, the "Kingmaker". These episodes chronicle his rather short reign. 'Cause let's be realistic here...once the throne is taken by force and the anointed king thrown in the tower...well, you've give people ideas and shown how very easy it is... As I said at the end of watching this bit, to the rather dumb Elizabeth, "What did you expect? Duh, lady."

E

After fending off her rapist, suddenly she's in love with this brute?What I hated about this: The sex. It was GROSS. And the romance between Edward and Elizabeth, while def better than what goes on between the Kingmaker's daughter and George, was yuck! Oh, they were passionate enough about each other later, but their first stages of "love" made me literary gag. He sees her ONCE and makes it clear, by saying it repeatedly, he must have her, that's he's desperate and even goes so far as to attempt to rape her.

Edward

Something totally flew over my head here. I didn't get it. From that point on, every time I saw them embrace, kiss, couple--and the show made it quite often. We weren't ever to forget they wanted each other's bods, badly--I cringed.

Just YUCK.

But all that aside, the court intrigue, the moving around of lands to those Elizabeth favors, the witchcraftery, and then a young Henry's mother keeps the pace moving and kept me intrigued. 

Margaret, Henry's mother....what a horrid character. I liked her better in the book, whereas the Rivers women, I liked them better in the movie. The magic was cooler in the movie too, whereas it felt out of place in the novel. Especially liked the storm...

While Margaret is super irritating, her young Henry stole my heart. But then the show had to ruin that by impression by showing an older Henry "going at" a woman from behind. What's with all the sex and nudity? I think we can get the idea without it being so vulgar.


You either love the characters or hate them, with passion. Great acting. They really sucked me into the tale. Oh, I wanted to slap Anne Neville.

It seems to me, however, that they pretty much summed up all three of PG's books, so what's going to be covered in season two? Are they just going to continue until they cover her Tudor series too?

I liked it, didn't LOVE it, but liked it. I would watch season two if it came my way, but I don't think I'd pay for it.

I received the DVDs via Amazon Vine.