I loved Menzies' performances. Since the beginning I've been much more interested in Frank than in Jamie, whom I find sweet (and majorly attractive) but sort of dopey.

Isn't the Hugh Grant character supposed to be Wickham?

@avclub-1fe6afd6b9a130b35a374afcbd1dea80:disqus If I remember correctly, I think your summary is pretty much accurate—once you zoom out from all the arguments about economics and arms races and the like, he essentially argued that England both caused the war and magnified its scope, and that everyone in Europe (and…

I took a class on World War I and was assigned The Pity of War just to see what bad history looked like. I remember sitting in the library reading that Keynes was only opposed to the war because it meant all the hot young English boys were being sent to the front. I wanted to throw something.

This is the first thing that I think of whenever Malcolm Gladwell writes something new: http://www.vanityfair.com/c…

The entire Seattle police department in The Killing.

I totally agree in theory, and would love to see it done that way, but for the most part I really loved them both (Richard and the Henrys) as standalone pieces, and I don't think it's hugely distracting that there's cast turnover. The four year difference isn't really discernible to the viewer: for example, at the end…

There's actually a little bit toward the end of Richard II where Bolingbroke is complaining that his son (the future Henry V) is squandering his youth in the company of gluttons. And Percy (aka Hotspur in 1 Henry IV is also a minor character. I think they cut Percy out of this adaptation of Richard II but it might…

I think that's true by the time Hal accedes, but I can't see Hal's arc as one elaborate con. There's a huge sense of fatherly disappointment between Hal and Henry V. In real life, Hotspur was about twenty years older than Hal; Shakespeare tweaked the chronology so they were the same age, emphasizing how Hotspur seems…

I finally figured out who he reminds me of! Am I the only person who thinks he looks like he could be Aidan Gillen's brother?

a. They recast Little Red. She's the girl who played Annie in the recent Broadway revival, so she'll presumably be able to sing and act, in addition to making the sexual creepiness with the Wolf much more doable.

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks!

I really don't get the quote. King Lear ends with Albany, Kent, and Edgar feeling sad because everyone is dead. Does Dustin Hoffman want Shakespeare to write more interesting stage directions? A more elaborate description of Lear's body convulsing as he dies?

Jealous! How was it? I'm going to hazard a guess that it was excellent.

Shakespeare Uncovered! Worth it for the shots of Jeremy Irons strolling around the site of the Battle of Shrewsbury dressed like an impoverished Renaissance minstrel.

Richard III is also very different in tone than the Henriad and is often classified as a tragedy, as it is in the quarto edition. I don't think it would fit with these other plays.

I actually liked the lack of flashiness in the Henry IVs. They're much more about the muckiness of politics, whereas Richard is a wannabe philosopher trapped in a king's body and essentially is deposed while he's offscreen in Ireland, so the visual beauty made more sense to me to highlight the discord between his…

Agreed on all counts, especially Allam and the underrated-ness of 2 Henry IV. My issue with Beale was that I often struggled to understand what he was saying. It was very mumbly and the (no doubt appropriate) accent was difficult for my poor Yankee ears to process.

Exactly. It's really hard to find someone who can play both Hal and Henry V, and he's just not believable as the latter. It may have something to do with his size—he seems so lanky, while Kenneth Branagh was believable because he was so solid and powerful-looking. There's a bit at the end of Henry IV Part 2 where…

I am a sheep and will buy an exorbitantly expensive movie ticket for this with great enthusiasm.