Shakespeare is like screenwriter catnip. We all want to find a way to weave his stories or even his language into our work. And for good reason; guy's got chops.
But a lot of the time, especially on TV, it comes off pretty clunky. Your best bet is to use Shakespearean plots and themes, but definitely stay away from the language. And even then...I think the problem is, how do you do in a way that isn't just a stunt? That's the thing, right? I love the Episode that Is Unlike any of the Other Episodes episodes. I think a lot of viewers do; they often end up being some of the boldest and most memorable episodes of a show.
But the only way they work is if they stay grounded in the rules and characters already established. TED LASSO can have a Coach Beard episode that is completely weird and crazy because they've established that is who he is. Yes, it's not normally how the show works, but it's okay, because it still fits.
How do you do that with Shakespeare? It's not easy. The clearest way, which STATION ELEVEN sets up from the beginning, is to have a troupe of actors. So the performance is actually a performance.
But then the question is, so what? Why am I watching Shakespeare in a show about wandering a post apocalypse? What's the relevance? And it's really interesting to watch what the show does with that. The first time, in episode 102, Kristen is doing Hamlet and as she's delivering this grief-stricken monologue, we see remember how she learned as a child that her parents had died. So the present performance becomes a way of expressing the pain of her past.
The finale is even more interesting, and the scenes are absolutely a must see. Both before the Prophet agrees to perform the role of Hamlet, when he's with his mother, and then again on stage with his mother and Clark, the situations are perfectly matched. The Prophet absolutely is Hamlet mourning his father, his mother desperate to reconnect with him, and Clark as Claudius understood as the villain who betrayed them. And part of what makes it so brilliant is that until then we were never fully let in on the fact that Tyler (the Prophet) is grieving his father. So not only do the scenes lock into place emotionally, they add an element that is new to us.
What makes them sing, though, is that they express exactly what each of these characters is feeling and has been unable to say. If I had to offer one sentence about how to do Shakespeare well in a TV show or movie, it would be that: Have the emotions and situation of the play enable the characters to express things that they have been unable to do. It's just exquisite writing from Patrick Somerville.
