The Hollow Crown

A generally well-made adaptation of the Henriad to television, effectively turning it into a series and bringing the Shakespearean dialogue to cinematic life in a way that may appeal to a wide audience. Season One: starts strongly but Henry V is a little weaker. Season Two fails to match the first, seeming somehow to have a shallower focus on power and its machinations, and to be limited by its status as a TV program rather than being opened up by that fact.

These are uneven and sometimes a bit too abbreviated, but they're well worth watching as an introduction to Shakespeare's history plays. I found the 'Richard I' particularly thought provoking, but each successive portrayal of kingship enriches its predecessor. And we all must reconcile our Falstaff dialectic somehow.

Shakespeare is just not my fella.