Please note: I am not knocking Tehart. It's just that other than Hamnet's age, these happened to be mostly the same points that I had noted while watching too. I'm not trying to be snarky or obnoxiously contrarian, I mostly just felt the opposite of Tehart.
1. "The music is awful..." Sure, "London Calling" was a bit too on the nose, but I actually enjoyed the moment in the second episode where members of the theater troupe, in celebratory glee, break into a modern pop song sung in the style of a 16th century "Hey Nonny Nonny". That part was a genuine hoot.
2. "Hamnet's the wrong age..." Meh. Per the Full Cast list, he's only in this episode... so...
3. "Torture porn.." Completely agree. It was off-putting, especially because it was unexpected. The only positive was to give a visceral sense of urgency and inherent danger to Shakespeare's bio and that it may not become a feature (fingers crossed) because the torturer's boss was pretty annoyed that they had snatched the wrong man and states that genuine investigative work is more effective/modern than the old slice'n'dice methods. This fits nicely with the setting: the beginning of the Elizabethan golden age.
4. "Christopher Marlowe..." Completely agree and not really sure why Tehart saw this possible foreshadowing as a negative.
5.& 6. "The secret Catholicism..." & "the street kid..." I think rosaries, in general, would be an important enough thing to keep because that was major part of the whole point of keeping to your beliefs at the risk of death. Also, Will is careless about this whole intrigue because it was pressed upon him by his parents and not something he wants to think about. He didn't properly hide it (so the kid stole it easily) because he wasn't all that engaged in that particular task. Also, Will actually caught the kid, but the kid pulled a knife and wounded Will before escaping once again. I don't think Shakespeare was supposed to be a superhero. He's not even particularly macho. Also, I was wondering if the kid is supposed to be a young John Webster -- like the street kid in "Shakespeare in Love"? The cast list apparently states that the character's name is Southwell. That's a shame, it would have been cool if it had been Webster.
7. "... Elizabethan stage is not punk rock..." Now me, I liked this Baz Luhrmann/Tom Stoppard mash-up. I like the sensibility. I loved the iambic "rap battle" in the pub. I loved the way people around Will use versions of lines that he will eventually write into his plays and how he pulls out his notebook to make note of what he hears. I love that Alice cross-dresses, which gives a possible reason for Will's future use of this plot device. And I really loved how the playwright who dies so that Will might take over his position in the company and become the Great William Shakespeare(!)is named Baxter. He's literally The Baxter. How can one not love that?
1. "The music is awful..." Sure, "London Calling" was a bit too on the nose, but I actually enjoyed the moment in the second episode where members of the theater troupe, in celebratory glee, break into a modern pop song sung in the style of a 16th century "Hey Nonny Nonny". That part was a genuine hoot.
2. "Hamnet's the wrong age..." Meh. Per the Full Cast list, he's only in this episode... so...
3. "Torture porn.." Completely agree. It was off-putting, especially because it was unexpected. The only positive was to give a visceral sense of urgency and inherent danger to Shakespeare's bio and that it may not become a feature (fingers crossed) because the torturer's boss was pretty annoyed that they had snatched the wrong man and states that genuine investigative work is more effective/modern than the old slice'n'dice methods. This fits nicely with the setting: the beginning of the Elizabethan golden age.
4. "Christopher Marlowe..." Completely agree and not really sure why Tehart saw this possible foreshadowing as a negative.
5.& 6. "The secret Catholicism..." & "the street kid..." I think rosaries, in general, would be an important enough thing to keep because that was major part of the whole point of keeping to your beliefs at the risk of death. Also, Will is careless about this whole intrigue because it was pressed upon him by his parents and not something he wants to think about. He didn't properly hide it (so the kid stole it easily) because he wasn't all that engaged in that particular task. Also, Will actually caught the kid, but the kid pulled a knife and wounded Will before escaping once again. I don't think Shakespeare was supposed to be a superhero. He's not even particularly macho. Also, I was wondering if the kid is supposed to be a young John Webster -- like the street kid in "Shakespeare in Love"? The cast list apparently states that the character's name is Southwell. That's a shame, it would have been cool if it had been Webster.
7. "... Elizabethan stage is not punk rock..." Now me, I liked this Baz Luhrmann/Tom Stoppard mash-up. I like the sensibility. I loved the iambic "rap battle" in the pub. I loved the way people around Will use versions of lines that he will eventually write into his plays and how he pulls out his notebook to make note of what he hears. I love that Alice cross-dresses, which gives a possible reason for Will's future use of this plot device. And I really loved how the playwright who dies so that Will might take over his position in the company and become the Great William Shakespeare(!)is named Baxter. He's literally The Baxter. How can one not love that?