So I've seen posts on social media talking about how some viewers have cried at the finale of Wolf Hall, with some coming back with: "I have no sympathy for Cromwell, he did XYZ, orchestrated deaths, etc" which yes is all very fair, but I feel this kind of talk both dismisses the intelligence of most viewers who already know this about the character, but also I think sorta misses the point slightly.
I admittedly cried, probably for the final five minutes of the last episode, because the whole story was unbearable and presented in a way which felt suffocating. I saw a constant rolling cycle of death and waste. I saw men and women gamble and play high stakes, often using other people as bargaining tools, and it was horrible. I saw a capricious, terrifying king killing friend after friend, servant after servant, usually once he'd wrung them out to dry and often used them to enable terrible things or as a means to an end.
Wolf Hall is written from inside Cromwell's head, of course things are coloured in his favour, that's the point. You're seeing Cromwell's history, not an unbiased account. Maybe this isn't so clear in a TV drama. But you're also seeing how normal people, how very likeable people - who have families, who pet cats, who play cards, etc - do terrible things, and how many people around them don't stop them. Because people will always be people. And we have every right to cry at the horrifying inevitably of it all.
It's not true history but it's an excellent drama which lays bear some of the absolute worst of the human condition.
