Review: The White Queen ‘The Princes in the Tower’

Last time around, the idiot Richard went and took the crown for himself at the urgings of his ambitious wife and mother.  This left Elizabeth and her family on the run, except for her son and the rightful heir, Prince Edward, who remains locked in the tower.  Margaret is still plotting away, using the newfound turmoil to put the two sides against each other with the hope that she’ll be able to worm her way in somehow and put little Henry on the throne.  This week, a whole bunch of stuff happens all at once - as usual.

Right off the mark, Richard is acting the fool and handing out titles to his enemies.  Margaret and her husband have gathered a nice, little traitorous band and Richard can’t tell his friends from his enemies.  Anne is playing at being Queen, but has nothing to offer as far as proper plotting goes.  Mostly she just screams for Richard to do something and he tries desperately to block out the noise that is her voice.

With Elizabeth’s son as the only major threat to both Richard’s crown and little Henry Tudor’s chance at the throne, everyone is plotting to kill him.  But Richard refuses to take that road and does what he can to protect them, even though his enemies begin spreading rumors that he’s already offed them.

Margaret and her allies are still dealing with Elizabeth, planning to betray her once her usefulness is gone, but she figures out that things aren’t what they seem.  Eventually, she switches sides back to Richard in an attempt to prevent Henry Tudor from snatching the throne.  Richard manages to weed out a few traitors, including Margaret (who is betrayed by her own husband), but rebellion is still imminent.  And only now does Richard realize what he should have done to keep the peace in the first place.

This one rushed through a whole slew of events, about a third of them seemingly not important.  Sure, all events are important in the context of history, but with less than an hour to each episode, they probably should have picked their focus a little better.  Plots being made and foiled seemed better as background information.

Still, I’m actually glad I kept up with the series.  It’s been an interesting ride through this piece of England’s past, even if it came out a bit rushed.  Next week, the grand finale, in which everyone not important will die and the rest will finally get control over the throne.  For a preview, check out this site.

Photo Credits -           

Richard and Anne courtesy of uk.tv.yahoo.com