I don't know--from the start Ari is there for about one-half of each episode. He's always been a major player and one of the bigger-name draws for the show.

Good to know. I really need to catch up on the old episodes sometime (I keep hoping they'll do a full re-run like they do with the Sopranos occasionally).

I did a rewatch over Christmas to pimp the show to Fay, and saw seasons 1-3 all in one big gulp. It was extraordinarily good its first season.

It was extraordinarily good its first season.

you think so? i actually found myself hating everyone(except E and Ari who i just loved to hate) and not really knowing if i wanted to keep watching. season two was much more watchable to me. season three has been awesome.

heh, it was the reverse for me. I loved season one, remained pleased with season two, and I'm very iffy about season three.

Season 3 is the current one, correct? Season 2 was the Aquaman season?

Yep.

Cool. I think I saw all of sesaon 2, so that's only one season to catch up on.

i actually found myself hating everyone(except E and Ari who i just loved to hate) and not really knowing if i wanted to keep watching.

I'm with tiggy. I'm sort of glad I saw season three first, because the characters are much more likable by that point. Season one is okay, but season two is better, and I, too, really love season three. Which was my first. Well, the first half of it, at least. Or whatever.

I suspect that when the show was created (I only started watching last season so I don't know what it was like initially) that Ari wasn't supposed to be such a central character, but that Piven's been knocking it out of the park so much that they had no choice but to enhance his role.

Like SA said, Ari's always been important, but it does seem like they made Ari a little more sympathetic than he otherwise would have been because Piven's performance was so great and made him a fantastic character and a fan favorite. A friend of mine notes that there's a line in the first episode or two that really implies that Ari sleeps around, but this season, he specifically said that he's never cheated on his wife (when they were married).

So, hey, The Tudors. I'm sure everyone who might have tuned in when it started have subsequently tuned, but I have to say, it's turning out to be pretty entertaining. I mean, it definitely helps if you watch it thinking that this is basically an emotional drama full of ridiculously pretty people in ridiculously pretty clothes that happens to be set "historically." Since I adopted that perspective, I found I enjoy it way more than I did when I was trying to think of it as a historical drama a la Rome.

They do an exceedingly poor job of conveying both the history and politics of the time they are trying to portray. This is a shame, because the politics of the time can and have made for fascinating television/film.

However, I've become impressed by the emotional staging of the events. JRM starts to grow into the role as we move along, bringing a passion and zeal to a character who was known for his, er, passions--but does so in a way that deals with religion, desire, politics, and faith all wrapped up into one. He's deliciously selfish, which is a quality JRM portrays well (and has done well in the past) and also is smokin' hot.

Okay, truthfully a large part of me finishing out this first season is how insanely gorgeous everyone is on the show. And I mean everyone. There's a scene with Sam Neill and his lover, and even *that* pinged me, and I haven't thought he was attractive in about eight or ten years. But in particular, the actress who plays Anne Boleyn stands out. It's a difficult role--there are so many ways you could take the character, culturally and historically. But this version, a canny, self-aware, heady young Anne, has captured my heart and my other stuff and made me sit up and beg. I didn't think we'd get much out of her when she was first introduced, but holy mother of cthullu was I wrong.

Not only is she stunning, but she carries herself so well; every little motion she makes is weighed and utilized for maximum impact, and the result is driving both Henry and the audience (ie me) crazy for her. Damn. Also, she and JRM have some mad chemistry (at least when you take into account that JRM's general relationship with on-screen chemistry resembles many of Dave Boreanaz's early attempts at acting); yet despite this JRM still manages to convey the slow passion of a man being driven wild with desire for someone he shouldn't have, can't have, but has anyway.

So. I don't recommend it if you're a history buff. I do recommend it if you like watching pretty people prance around in cloth-of-gold and fucking with each other. Er. Literally and figuratively.

and related, some surprising news from e!:

The Golden Globe winner's decision to seek treatment is likely somewhat unnerving for Showtime, as the network has a lot riding on the 29-year-old actor. The Apr. 1 premiere of The Tudors drew record numbers for the cable net, with 870,000 viewers tuning in for the initial broadcast and an additional 440,000 watching an encore episode. The network was sufficiently pleased with the strong numbers to give the drama series an early renewal, announced earlier this month. The second season, which deals with Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn and (spoiler alert!) her subsequent beheading, was scheduled to begin filming in Dublin next month.

It was unclear whether Rhys Meyer's stint in rehab would delay production.

Much like Rome, is it really a spoiler if it's history? But anyway, obviously the ridiculouly pretty prettiness of the cast won over the ratings. I'm still surprised there's going to be a second season thought.