Romeo & Juliet (2013)

It's not often that a movie makes me angry, but this lousy adaptation of Shakespeare's masterpiece did just that. What's more the pity - it didn't have to be this way. The acting is largely solid and set design is quite beautiful, and when the actors were given the chance to actually speak the language of the play they did it quite well. However, the script dropped in and out of Shakespeare's verse liberally, making up chunks of story, character development and speeches that simply don't exist in the play. It would be one thing if they ditched the verse altogether, but they don't, which makes the liberties done with it so much more vile and obviously wrong. I only made it as far as the death of Tybalt before I turned it off in anger. There is simply no need to rewrite Shakespeare like this and I cannot condone it, not for a minute. 1.5/5

Romeo & Juliet (2013) on Netflix

The Tempest

Julie Taymor missed the mark ever so slightly with this retelling but tremendous acting truly saved it. Djimon Hounsou was perfection as Caliban but Mirren not nearly as evil as she should have been. Interesting take. 3.5/5

The Tempest on Netflix

Sling & Arrows Season 1

Wonderfully perfect Canadian series about people who love Shakespeare. Paul Gross is _so_ very good in this.

Whoops. Forgot the stars. Five stars. Six, even. I rank this up there with the UK Office, it's that good. And that was only season one!

More: Why isn't Paul Gross a bigger star? Seriously. He's so good in this it's ridiculous. It;s the kind of performance that could make you want to chuck your life and go try to be an actor just so maybe someday you get to be 1/5th as good in something.

Slings and Arrows Season One at Netflix