Mariam-Henry IV Part II-⭐⭐.5

So this is the play I have rated the lowest out of all the plays so far and I wonder if I'm being too harsh because we have a lot of poorly filmed stage plays to get through. Of course the cinematography is not the issue at all. As all of the Hollow Crowns so far, the sets and costuming are fantastic. 

I was just...bored. 

Remember, I was scared of the Henriad when we started this project? Well, it was not so bad especially watching it. I imagine reading it would have been torture. Additionally, it seems I've gotten through the worst of it and they get better from here. 

Chronologically, some lists put the Henriad as Shakespeare's first. The literary critic Harold Bloom makes the argument that the Henriad is some of Shakespeare's best work, but I, some sort of critic, argue that if you have a huge literary career it's unlikely that your first work is your best work. That is, I say Shakespeare gets a pass.

This story briefly is the continuation from the last. Hotspur's contingent is upset and make a little bit of noise and then kind of settle on their own with some machinations of the other prince. (Eh? Yes, four other princes just sprout from somewhere, most of them teenagers.)

Henry IV and Hal (V) are still having father-son spats that are not nearly as royal as you think. The concerns are: does my son just want me to die so he can have the crown? Does my dad really not see the genius of my plan to (pretend to but kind of also really) frivolously spend my princehood so then I can do an AWESOME reveal of my reformation when I am king?? (Umm if that sentence doesn't make sense, it's not supposed to, what mental gymnastics he must have gone through to come to that conclusion, my goodness gracious.)

Then Henry IV tells Hal that the best way to keep a country united is to attack foreign countries. He dies. Hal does a magnificent reformation which mostly consists of him publicly rejecting Falstaff in a really awful way. The end. 

I agree with Missy this Falstaff was just pitiful. That made it clear that Hal's plan had been mean and nasty the whole time. All of the noble class hated Falstaff and this rejection of him probably made Hal instantly part of the nobles' club. So Hal got to spend his youth having fun and then got to be a respectable king too all at the expense of pathetic old man. Less genius and more underhanded.

I don't know that a funny Falstaff would have made this less true. 

The three storylines of the dissatisfied nobles, Falstaff, and Henry IV and Hal either barely overlapped or never did. This made the Falstaff story feel forcibly injected into the whole plot. Again, I feel this is an issue with the writing rather than this particular version.

There's nothing even that interesting to screenshot...

I'm falling asleep just writing this. I'm sorry Shakespeare, I was bored.

Twelfth Night next, watched on actual twelfth night!