For anyone who has read Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, I’m curious how much of your life you had to invest because I know it took me months!! Small print, giant book, tons of tedious details. None of the aforementioned description is meant negatively as it was also one of the greatest series I have ever read in my life.

Wolf Hall is a historical series that follows Tudor “bad guy” Thomas Cromwell as he rises through the ranks, starting as a servant to Cardinal Wolsey and ending in his downfall as the right hand of King Henry VIII. Mantel’s Cromwell is the same but different compared to the high school history version we’ve all been served: cold, ruthless, calculating, cunning, and incredibly talented, but also apparently a character we can grow to love and empathise with, despite the horrible deeds he commits in the name of the king. What is provided in Wolf Hall, while obviously fictional, is a revisionist version of Cromwell — and fiction or not, it makes sense to review those who were slandered in the reign of Henry VIII, as it is obvious history was written by those eager to please the sociopathic king as well as his cannibalistic inner circle.

That being said, when the series debuted in 2015, comprised of six episodes based on two of Mantel’s novels, like War and Peace, I figured there was zero chance this could do the author any justice — yet again, wrong. Wolf Hall, with the incredible Mark Rylance as Cromwell and Damian Lewis as Henry VIII, brought Mantel’s Tudor history alive in a way that not only pushed a revisionist narrative on Cromwell but one that was emotive. The six episodes covered Cromwell’s rise in conjunction with the rise and subsequent tragic fall of Anne Boleyn, played by the queen herself — Claire Foy. Cromwell was depicted as ruthless and cunning, someone who did the king’s bidding without flinching, including trumping up the case against Boleyn. However, there was a catch: Cromwell had a conscience that grew deeper with each dirty deed and, as a devout Protestant of the new faith, sought to reconcile his worldly deeds with his afterlife.

However, it took TEN YEARS for us to get to see the reconciling of his conscience and good deeds develop, as we had to wait for The Mirror and the Light to happen — and it only came out this year. Talk about incredibly cruel.

I find that often, when series take hiatuses of this nature, it’s very hard to get the feeling back — the cast has aged, sometimes cast members get replaced, and some even pass away. I was excited for The Mirror and the Light despite knowing its obvious ending, once Rylance and Lewis had signed back on, as I felt how can you go wrong with them reprising their roles? I had liked the book when I read it about five years ago; however, this series blew the book out of the water — truly.

With each episode, you watch with bated breath as you realise that Cromwell is falling out of favour with Henry, the entire time knowing how it ends. However, as it gets closer to the final episode, you’re on the edge of your seat because Cromwell has become — well — the good guy. He seeks to help others, is doing major charitable work behind the scenes, and reconciles with a child he didn’t know he had, all the while those around him are weakening his position, including his own inner circle — helping to set him up and seal his fate in the same manner he did to Anne Boleyn. There is some historical exaggeration — feeling for both Mary I and Jane Seymour — yet… it all works. Beautifully. As Cromwell walks to the block, my heart bled for him, and I felt he was misunderstood in the ruthless world of the Tudors. Mantel, who has since passed, was done an incredible justice.

If you haven’t watched either series, they are on PBS Masterpiece on Prime, and I highly suggest the books. The books, unlike the series, will take some time to get into — but they are worth it. The series is 6 episodes a piece and incredibly binge-worthy.

*** Side note I’m super annoyed about how cool this new collectible edition is compared to my OG’s!