#and tbh if i was writing this i would characterize benvolio as above and do rosaline exactly the same but ferociously devoted to verona

[words-writ-in-starlight]

SOME THOUGHTS ON STILL STAR-CROSSED

Obligate note that everyone is hot and I am having A Rough Time.  Especially Romeo and Rosaline.  Damn.  Relatedly, I’d die for Rosaline.  DAMN. Lovin’ that character interpretation and her friendship with Juliet.  I couldn’t give less of a damn about Benvolio/Rosaline, but give me all of Escalus cutting out his own heart to save Verona and Rosaline hating herself for not being able to hate him.  The scene of them in the church was some good shit.

This was EXACTLY the overwrought historically inaccurate Shakespeare nonsense I hoped it would be, frankly.  Sweeping beautiful visuals, sudden closeups for theatrical one-liners, slightly confused plotline timing, and The Drama™.  Good stuff.

I don’t generally care for versions of Romeo and Juliet where the love story is played straight (Shakespeare wrote it as a tongue-in-cheek tragedy, a lot of the narrative makes more sense with that perspective, and the love-at-first-sight angle is kind of desperately overplayed and therefore I Do Not Care) but I’m willing to roll with it because I knew what I was getting into.  And like they do a decent job with it, it’s very tragic, Juliet is good, I like her, Romeo’s death is nicely done.  Kinda annoyed that Juliet poisons herself rather than stabbing herself because I like the tragedy of “I will kiss thy lips//Haply some poison yet doth hang on them.”

That being said, I think it was a narratively good move to add some additional weight to the Montague/Capulet feud.  Like, on the one hand, yes, folks are being murdered in your streets, that is Not Good, but also let’s…have a solid reason for the Prince to care, seeing as that’s the whole plot of this show.  And it being Italy in the 16th century, concerns about a power grab by the winning family are pretty legit.  (I’ve watched a lot of Borgias lately.)

ANTHONY.  STEWART. HEAD.  AS LORD CAPULET.  Aw man y’all the part of me that really enjoyed the first two and a half seasons or so of Merlin (another show I have Opinions on) as a terrible romp through somewhat bastardized Arthuriana is real excited right now.

Glad to see Paris is a dick.  Very pleased.

The all out riotous brawl at the funeral was honestly the top thing on my wish list for this show and I feel intensely gratified to have gotten it.

The line “Escalus, Verona is burning” was my fucking shit to be honest.  Like, damn, son, Isabella is Athena, the clear-eyed goddess of wisdom and war, and I feel like the world deserves to see her with a sword in her hand.

Here is my #1 Complaint: they seem to have accidentally switched Benvolio and Mercutio’s personalities.  This is not to say that Benvolio is necessarily the voice of reason in the play (it’s a play of Bad Choices), but Mercutio is 100% the “I am drunk at 10 AM,” Do It For The Vine friend.  I got to the scene where Mercutio dies before I realized that the other guy wasn’t Mercutio, and I was solely tipped off by the fact that I knew Mercutio died.  I get it that they clearly wanted some sort of bad boy thing to be happening here, but I’m so salty about this.  Like, why WOULDN’T you want Benvolio to be loyal and honest and grief-stricken and desperate to do right by his best friends’ deaths for this thoughtless crusade?  Romeo, the hopeless romantic, and Mercutio, the laughing rogue, both dead from this hopeless feud, and Benvolio, true and dependable as good steel, the last one left alive, who will see it mended if it kills him but who can’t quite forget his friends’ voices enough to marry a woman he doesn’t love.  Like, what part of that DOESN’T sound like good shit.

….I mean…personal headcanon that he’s drowning himself in alcohol and misery because Mercutio doesn’t love him, and that he doesn’t care what happens to him afterward because Mercutio is dead.  Like, that’s the only way I can reconcile the dude in the show and the play character. But whatever that’s just me.

Ultimate conclusion: 10/10 on The Drama™, but it ain’t exactly Sense8 for structure or narrative cohesion.  Will I show my Shakespeare nerd parents?  Jury’s out.  Will I continue watching it?  HELL YES.