Shakespeare Uncovered
Is anyone else watching Shakespeare Uncovered on PBS? I saw the first two episodes on Friday night (...and may have watched them again since in repeats. Shut up, it's not that often that there's Shakespeare on my television). Of course, because for some reason PBS doesn't advertise its Shakespeare offerings very well, all the commercials were only for the Ethan Hawke Macbeth episode, even though they showed two of them back-to-back (I get the monthly members' guide, so I was prepared for this, at least), but I suppose I should just be glad that there *were* commercials, since I never saw a single one for David Tennant's Hamlet.
Anyway. The first episode was on Macbeth, and the second on "the comedies." (In practice this was basically just Twelfth Night and As You Like It, but that was the title of the episode.) I rather liked the Macbeth one, particularly because they interviewed Antony Sher and Harriet Walter, who played Macbeth and Lady M opposite one another in 2001, so we got some lovely little details of how they played that relationship. I found Ethan Hawke a much more engaging host than I had expected; he was earnest and a little clueless, but that's not a bad thing for an introductory look at the play. Joely Richardson, on the other hand, seemed to be trying a little too hard to impress - or maybe I'm just miffed that she kept interrupting the Globe rehearsal scenes to talk about how much she loved some theme in Twelfth Night. And I didn't come to this episode with the best grace, anyway, precisely because of the decision to treat any comedy as every comedy, as so often happens: you'd never see someone cram Macbeth and Hamlet into one episode because they both deal with the murder of kings, but Twelfth Night and As You Like It both have heroines who dress up as boys, so they're obviously completely the same and couldn't possibly each deserve an episode. (I'm not saying they both should have gotten an episode, necessarily. I just think they should have picked one play and really concentrated on that one, instead of forcing everyone to talk in vague generalizations about how Shakespeare does the same things in so many of his comedies, and they have great, strong heroines, and are about the difficulties of love.)
This week we get Richard II, which I am greatly looking forward to even if Derek Jacobi does apparently get all anti-Stratfordian in spots*, and Henries IV and V, hosted by Jeremy Irons.
*I may have spent some time crooning "Jaaaaamie" in an unseemly way during the commercials for this episode, even though I have already seen his clips as Richard II thanks to the Jamie Parker Shakespeare tumblr. You'll have to guess, because I'm not telling.
Anyway. The first episode was on Macbeth, and the second on "the comedies." (In practice this was basically just Twelfth Night and As You Like It, but that was the title of the episode.) I rather liked the Macbeth one, particularly because they interviewed Antony Sher and Harriet Walter, who played Macbeth and Lady M opposite one another in 2001, so we got some lovely little details of how they played that relationship. I found Ethan Hawke a much more engaging host than I had expected; he was earnest and a little clueless, but that's not a bad thing for an introductory look at the play. Joely Richardson, on the other hand, seemed to be trying a little too hard to impress - or maybe I'm just miffed that she kept interrupting the Globe rehearsal scenes to talk about how much she loved some theme in Twelfth Night. And I didn't come to this episode with the best grace, anyway, precisely because of the decision to treat any comedy as every comedy, as so often happens: you'd never see someone cram Macbeth and Hamlet into one episode because they both deal with the murder of kings, but Twelfth Night and As You Like It both have heroines who dress up as boys, so they're obviously completely the same and couldn't possibly each deserve an episode. (I'm not saying they both should have gotten an episode, necessarily. I just think they should have picked one play and really concentrated on that one, instead of forcing everyone to talk in vague generalizations about how Shakespeare does the same things in so many of his comedies, and they have great, strong heroines, and are about the difficulties of love.)
This week we get Richard II, which I am greatly looking forward to even if Derek Jacobi does apparently get all anti-Stratfordian in spots*, and Henries IV and V, hosted by Jeremy Irons.
*I may have spent some time crooning "Jaaaaamie" in an unseemly way during the commercials for this episode, even though I have already seen his clips as Richard II thanks to the Jamie Parker Shakespeare tumblr. You'll have to guess, because I'm not telling.