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AKA the deeply ahistorical drama about William Shakespeare where Jamie Campbell Bower plays a Christopher Marlowe who is often naked. (Since Christopher's nickname was Kit and 'take your kit off' is British slang for taking clothes off I was tempted to go for a very strained pun no one would get, so instead I am explaining the joke... which is worse)
The show starts off a hot mess and while Jamie playing a sexually active gay man who is often naked is definitely up my alley, honestly it's hard to enjoy because of the various ways the show is messed up. Outside of modern make up, hair dye, slang, songs, etc, Will gets to live in an Elizabethian England where there are no worries about casual sex with unmarried women, because STDs and pregnancy just don't enter into it... Kit is stuck in an Elizabethian England dealing with his casual sex being complicated by homophobia, the dominance of Christianity and the other realities of the day. Will and Kit are barely even in the same show. They are rarely in scenes together and Kit's story is a lot darker, far less ahistorical and has no musical dance numbers.
The show does start to course correct on this and a few other issues. One of the things that is hardest to deal with in early episodes is that you've got lead actors giving great performances but most of the other actors and extras can't even manage the dialogue. It feels like an elaborate prank is being played on the main actors.
In the early episodes, Kit is clearly a villain, hanging out will villains, and is an emotionally isolated gay man who is jealous of Will's creativity. Will has all the soul and friendship Kit lacks. It... wallows in predatory gay villain tropes so openly it's hard to believe it's from 2017 and not like late 90s or mid 00s. But the show does course correct on this... then seems to drift back into bitter stunted gay man territory. Jamie's performances are great. The scenes of him grieving and ugly crying are impressive.
Kit is struggling with believing himself to be literally damned for loving someone. They've given him an interesting high drama story that just doesn't fit with Will's ahistorical magic bubble.
The show did make me interested in some of the real stories about Will and Kit, but one thing I did learn from being an English major, having gone to Stratford Upon Avon, seen RSC productions, etc is that there are very few reliable facts. Lots of people have pushed BS theories about Will being illiterate, etc. It's a mess. What is fact and what is fiction? It's a mess. People who should know better have championed the illiterate Will theory. Trying to learn the 'real history' is basically tossing yourself into a rabbit hole. Also Kit there are good reasons to think Kit may have been one of the Queen's spies, so reliable historical records about him are a wreck.
Basically, Shakespeare is such a big historical figure that people hard pushed weird theories about him even before youtube, much less tiktok, existed and way too many of people looking to make a buck off of a controversial take were actual historians. This is just one of those parts of history that too many people have been weird about and it's best to just... not. It's better to accept 'we dunno' than to try to chase what is actually real.
The one thing that show does very well is show the conflict between the overarching social issues of the day with living your daily life. Helping being a moral person about religious prosecution can cause harm to family and friends. The Catholics are oppressed. Characters like Will are angry about it more because of harm to his relatives than really caring about differences in dogma. Also, supporting Catholics is complicated by the one priest character being clearly a monster. It's an impressively complicated and nuanced storyline in a show where the main cast gets drunk in a bar and then goes into a James Brown's Get Up Off Of That Thing song and dance number with blank expressions like it's an unintentional parody of the show. It reminded me of a skit from Community where people get possessed by glee club's glee.
A few final notes: The show goes hard on Catholic Will, which there is no real evidence for. A lot of the casual sex like it's NBD for the women would have been less jarring to me in 2017 than it is currently.
Now I can move on from this show and just enjoy it through tumblr gifs and text posts that completely and utterly misrepresent the show
The show starts off a hot mess and while Jamie playing a sexually active gay man who is often naked is definitely up my alley, honestly it's hard to enjoy because of the various ways the show is messed up. Outside of modern make up, hair dye, slang, songs, etc, Will gets to live in an Elizabethian England where there are no worries about casual sex with unmarried women, because STDs and pregnancy just don't enter into it... Kit is stuck in an Elizabethian England dealing with his casual sex being complicated by homophobia, the dominance of Christianity and the other realities of the day. Will and Kit are barely even in the same show. They are rarely in scenes together and Kit's story is a lot darker, far less ahistorical and has no musical dance numbers.
The show does start to course correct on this and a few other issues. One of the things that is hardest to deal with in early episodes is that you've got lead actors giving great performances but most of the other actors and extras can't even manage the dialogue. It feels like an elaborate prank is being played on the main actors.
In the early episodes, Kit is clearly a villain, hanging out will villains, and is an emotionally isolated gay man who is jealous of Will's creativity. Will has all the soul and friendship Kit lacks. It... wallows in predatory gay villain tropes so openly it's hard to believe it's from 2017 and not like late 90s or mid 00s. But the show does course correct on this... then seems to drift back into bitter stunted gay man territory. Jamie's performances are great. The scenes of him grieving and ugly crying are impressive.
Kit is struggling with believing himself to be literally damned for loving someone. They've given him an interesting high drama story that just doesn't fit with Will's ahistorical magic bubble.
The show did make me interested in some of the real stories about Will and Kit, but one thing I did learn from being an English major, having gone to Stratford Upon Avon, seen RSC productions, etc is that there are very few reliable facts. Lots of people have pushed BS theories about Will being illiterate, etc. It's a mess. What is fact and what is fiction? It's a mess. People who should know better have championed the illiterate Will theory. Trying to learn the 'real history' is basically tossing yourself into a rabbit hole. Also Kit there are good reasons to think Kit may have been one of the Queen's spies, so reliable historical records about him are a wreck.
Basically, Shakespeare is such a big historical figure that people hard pushed weird theories about him even before youtube, much less tiktok, existed and way too many of people looking to make a buck off of a controversial take were actual historians. This is just one of those parts of history that too many people have been weird about and it's best to just... not. It's better to accept 'we dunno' than to try to chase what is actually real.
The one thing that show does very well is show the conflict between the overarching social issues of the day with living your daily life. Helping being a moral person about religious prosecution can cause harm to family and friends. The Catholics are oppressed. Characters like Will are angry about it more because of harm to his relatives than really caring about differences in dogma. Also, supporting Catholics is complicated by the one priest character being clearly a monster. It's an impressively complicated and nuanced storyline in a show where the main cast gets drunk in a bar and then goes into a James Brown's Get Up Off Of That Thing song and dance number with blank expressions like it's an unintentional parody of the show. It reminded me of a skit from Community where people get possessed by glee club's glee.
A few final notes: The show goes hard on Catholic Will, which there is no real evidence for. A lot of the casual sex like it's NBD for the women would have been less jarring to me in 2017 than it is currently.
Now I can move on from this show and just enjoy it through tumblr gifs and text posts that completely and utterly misrepresent the show
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