I have resurrected this blog specifically to talk
about how awful TNT’s Will is, and
how much I love it.
Will
is
the story of a baby-faced William Shakespeare (Laure Davidson) coming to London
for the first time to embark on his great goal of becoming the greatest
playwright of all time and accomplishing all of his secondary goals, like
power, success, and freedom. What exactly a white male needs freedom from is
debatable (possibly his wife and children, whom he leaves behind in Stratford,
true to historical fact, and who also make it difficult for him to get it on
with Alice, the theatre owner’s daughter who is an A+++ editor, 10/10, would
hire), but he wants it and he’s going to get it. All of this glory is impeded
by the very small problem of Will being a recusant Catholic and letting an
urchin steal an incriminating letter meant for a Catholic priest cousin along
with his Rosary after having been in London all of maybe half an hour.
As you may already know, William Shakespeare was
many things but a Catholic he was not. However, historical facts have never
stopped anybody from believing what they want to believe, be it that humans did
not evolve from a common ancestor with apes, or that climate change isn’t real,
or that Shakespeare wasn’t Catholic, or that John Donne wasn’t secretly
Catholic (Dr. Mattison, if you are reading this, I would like to repent of my
badly written and argued essay). However I, frankly, am all about alternative
timelines where everybody is secretly Catholic. Especially timelines where Will’s priest cousin
has an underground anti-Elizabethan printing press that can run circles around
Protestant inquisitors. Do I love Queen Elizabeth as much as anybody? Yes. Have
I also thought about what it would be like to have my guts ripped from my body
as a Catholic living in England under her rule? Yes, and Laura told me that was
weird, but it doesn’t make it less true.
This show is ostensibly named Will, but it is Jamie
Campbell Bower (playing Kit Marlowe) that really takes the stage. His hair
represents all of my hair goals. He parades around London wearing all black,
with his shirt so low-cut that I can see at least two tattoos at all times. He
once calls Will “William Shakeshaft” in front of hundreds of people and regrets
nothing. In one scene, he kicks everybody out of his house after an all-night
bacchanalia because it’s a writing day and he needs to write.
He is also madly, badly in love with William
Shakespeare.
So much so, that he throws the Protestant
Inquisitors off of Will’s trail and onto someone else’s (did I mention that
Marlowe is A SPY FOR THE CROWN?!?! And that this is definitely something that
happened historically??? You can’t make the really good stuff up, guys, it just
is) and then tells Will that Will owes Marlowe his life, etc. etc. etc., and
then follows Will around trying to make out with him at bad moments.
Oh, did I mention that Kit is super gay? As he was
in real life, if his plays have anything to say for it. Even if Will is a
completely bumbled version of the Bard who keeps dropping quotes from Romeo and Juliet years before he’ll
actually write it to make TNT’s audience feel literate, the authors have got
Marlowe on point. If this keeps up, Will will have to cast Kit as Tybalt. He’s
that fight-me-punk, kiss-me-gorgeous, and let’s-get-wasted.
Also Jamie Campbell Bower is gorgeous and we share a
birthday, so we’re soulmates now.
I realize, of course, that the clothes that everyone
wears are very inappropriate for the time period. And that the Catholics are
depicted as slightly evil and grasping. And that it does not past the Bechdel
test. And that it’s a very horrible television show that PBS would scorn to
play on Masterpiece. And that Will Shakespeare was not a Catholic.
But none of us are without sin, and TNT has created
a show for us lawless, sinful people.
The first six episodes are already streaming online.
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| Is this Kit Marlowe? Because it looks like me. |
