What was on TV? Fri, Nov 19, 2004

Spongebob Squarepants was in movie theaters. There was malice at the palace. Let's see what was on TV.

8:00 Henry VIII (recorded)

Part 2, aired on Masterpiece Theatre

The spousal abuse! It's too much! Henry manages to abuse two more wives in this. Anne of Cleves is only spared because he ignores her, Catherine Parr is spared because he can barely move.

This is probably historically accurate. But I hate it. He beats Jane Seymour (the token good wife in these narratives) and then she goes into labor and dies in childbirth. Expecting me to sympathize with Henry after that is just bad writing. Also, apparently all of Henry VIII's bad decisions were the fault of his evil, evil councilors. Peter Morgan's gonna Peter Morgan.

However, this miniseries is still worth watching because a pre-Devil Wears Prada Emily Blunt plays Catherine Howard.

Catherine Howard is my favorite wife of Henry. Part of it is that she's always branded as the slutty one, and that's just fun. Emily Blunt is introduced mid-coitus, and she makes errand boys put fancy jewelry on her while she's in the bath as her handmaids watch. This is truly a must-watch for Blunt-heads, she is sexy and magnetic and excellent in this.

The other reason that Catherine Howard rules is that she's basically a bad sequel. She has the same name as the first wife, and she's the second wife's cousin. And meets the same fate as the second wife. When you get to the Catherine Howard, you can make things meta, as everyone in-universe starts to get sick of this shit. And Catherine's b-list, bad sequel status gives her a real pathos, a sense that she's trapped inside the cycle. She reached for the stars and fell. It's tragic and all-too-relatable. Blunt nails the slutty stuff, but she nails the pathos too, even though there's maybe half an hour between Catherine's introduction and death. Her death scene is especially good: she plays by the rules and gives the perfect speech and then begs for her life and rails against the cruelty of it all.

This miniseries was written by Peter Morgan. Morgan is the writer of The Queen, The Crown, and several other stories about the British Royal family.

This miniseries was directed by Pete Travis. Travis has directed a bunch of television in Britain as well as the 2012 feature film Dredd.

Later Everwood (recorded)

3x08 "The Tipping Point"

James Earl Jones returns for what I expect is the last time. Good thing he turned in his best performance yet, getting in some good Shakespearean yelling and then some wonderful tenderness and humor. Elsewhere, Dr. Brown grows closer to Anne Heche's Amanda. This character is so saintly, caring for her husband after a stroke robbed him of most of his mental faculties. It's a good thing they cast Anne Heche. She's such a steely presence and a totally unexpected (and brilliant!) choice in a part like this. The moment when she runs to her husband on the bridge is so good, as is the moment in which she returns to the party, ready to give her loved ones hope that she can't share.

And I'm caught up! Yay me! And I'm sad I can't watch the next episodes (I watched most of these while I had a cold, and this is the perfect show to watch when you're sick).

This episode was written by Michael Green and David Hudgins. Green is the showrunner of Blue Eye Samurai and the screenwriter of Logan and Blade Runner 2049. Everwood was Hudgins first tv writing job. He later wrote for Friday Night Lights and Parenthood.

This episode was directed by Jordan Levin. Levin helped found the WB and eventually became the network CEO before he was pushed out in 2004. He has since worked for Rooster Teeth, AwesomenessTV, and the NFL.

Late Night

This is a good episode of Late Night. William Shatner makes a special appearance during the "In the Year 2000" segment and Gun-Toting, Nascar-Driving Jesus makes a special appearance during Shatner's interview. And there's a really funny commercial for the "atomic clog-o." But my favorite part of this episode was a great musical performance by the Neville Brother, who prestige tv dorks will know as the band that performs the theme song for season three of The Wire. Their version of "Way Down in the Hole" is a total bop, and always makes me do a dance on my couch, and seeing them perform another (also great!) song is awesome.

What Else Was On

Tonight's special sweeps guest star: Nick Lachey on Hope and Faith

TiVo Status

The three hour Masterpiece Theater miniseries The Lost Prince, the four hour disaster miniseries Category 6: Day of Destruction, one Frontline episode, and The Office Christmas Special from across the pond (I’ll watch that one closer to the holidays, after I’ve rewatched the series), and one episode of Peep Show. 10.5 hours, 18.5 hours of space left.