[Tyson]

Preamble
A modern telling of Shakespeare's English history plays.  Things I liked - they are cut down a LOT and the action MOVES.  They talk like normal people instead of that sing-song delivery everyone else seems to love.  They seemed like real people living through these times rather than a bunch of thespians delivering their hallowed lines from on high.  Warning, spoilers below.

Haiku

Shakespeare, by way of Game of Thrones.

Richard II

Effeminate.  Spendy.  Weak. 



Luckily the manly man Henry IV is able to usurp the crown!



And Richard ends up, very quickly, dead.





Henry IV

Things don't go well - Henry IV gets old and goes mad.


And he has a crappy son that just sits around and parties all day with this dude.


Henry IV dies a broken, sad, regretful man because he knows he stole the crown and his son is a piece of crap.  Damn, that's bleak. 




Henry V

Luckily France insults Henry with some tennis balls.


So, begone wasted youth.  Henry V is right pissed and now its off to war with France!!!!

Everyone looks great!


And everyone dies.



Hooray, victory!  Happy ending for Henry V, right?

Uh, no.  This is Shakespeare.  No one gets a happy ending.  Just wait till Hollow Crown War of the Roses (the next set of movies). 

Things go to sh!t for Hal, just like they always do for anyone who gets on, or even near, a throne in Shakespeare.

[Randy]

I have the set. Starts out good, with "Richard II", the best in the series. Each successive episode gets worse than the last one, until they become nearly unwatchable. Going by historical accounts, the Shakespeare portrayal of Richard II is pretty accurate. The "Henry IV" episode, one of my favorite English kings, is pretty well done too. "Henry V" is terrible.

[Tyson]

So you liked them except the Henry V?  I do agree it was the weakest, mainly because Hiddleston is mis-cast as Hal.  The actor just seems too guarded and calculating to be an inspirational leader like Henry V is supposed to be.  So I think we agree on that.

On the other hand, have you seen the second set - the War of the Roses?  IMO every single movie in that set is better than the best movie in this one.  They really upped their game with that set.  I'll be doing another movie haiku on that set in the next few days.