The show’s sets and costumes look fairly realistic to this layman, although clearly emphasizing the glam rather than the mundane. Rather than eating bon-bons on his throne, Henry is constantly shown to be a virile jock: mounting up for jousting, facing off in wrestling, and getting his puffy shirt sweaty in tennis. As for the stories, the creators seem to be playing fast and loose with actual historical events to milk the maximum sensationalism out of them, but that’s just fine considering that the production is paid for by Showtime, not The History Channel. True history buffs might get their doublets in a twist, but as pure entertainment the show works great.

The Season 1 box set has all 10 episodes, but does some odd distribution with them by cramming all but 1 onto the first 3 DVDs, then using the 4th DVD to pimp full episodes of other Showtime series Californication, Penn & Teller's Bullshit, and This American Life. None of the episodes feature audio commentary, and other bonus features are fairly limited and uninspired. I have no problem with Showtime promoting their other shows, but this really should have been a three-DVD box set with a limited pack-on bonus disc of the other shows if they really wanted to take that route. As it stands, the box set is a moderately priced collection that really doesn’t offer much more than what was available during the show’s original broadcast. It’s fine if you want to complete your collection, just don’t expect to gain much additional insight into the production of the show.