That’s right, there were times that your high school English teachers most likely had a stack of papers sitting right in front of them and rather than grab that red Paper Mate pen, they grabbed the remote. Trust me – you would grab the remote, too, if you read your tenth student essay that opened with, “In this essay, I will be writing about…”
Nothing makes English teachers want to literally Netflix and chill more than a series based on literature. This season, we get not only one but two series that feature authors most frequently mentioned on the AP Literature test. So sharpen those pencils, sit in the front row, and get your Cliff’s Notes ready.
Time After Time
Author: H. G. Wells
Famous Works: The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds
What He Really Looked Like:
What He Looks Like on the Show:
It’s uncanny. Actually, no it’s not. It’s the polar opposite of uncanny.
The premise: Based on the book by the same name, Wells actually builds a time machine like the one he imagined and goes forward in the future to stop a time traveling Jack the Ripper. Okay, I know. It sounds…not the highest caliber of network television. Truth be told, I wouldn’t have looked twice at this show. But then I saw Josh Bowman as Jack the Ripper – complete with accent, hot guy beard, and six pack abs – and forgot the storyline.
Of course, after seeing the preview, this led to further research of the show. Just kidding. I Google stalked Josh Bowman and found this photo, which is pure porn to every high school English teacher:
A hot British man holding the greatest American novel? Well, hello my loins. I believe you are on fire.
Will
Author: (Actually, in this case, it’s a playwright and poet. Nerd card taketh.) William Shakespeare
Famous Works: Um, really?
What He Really Looked Like:
What He Looks Like On the Show:
They got the earring right. That’s what really matters.
Premise: Remember when you were in high school, and you were required to read Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and MacBeth? Remember when you couldn’t figure out what the eff this guy was saying? Remember when you discovered Cliff’s Notes entire Shakespeare collection? Aww, memories.
Will takes a look at the young man who would pen – or quill – some of the greatest comedies and tragedies in theater, and who also inspired Claire Danes’ animal mating call of a cry.
Sure, there was Shakespeare in Love, but that was just an overrated production of Gwyneth Paltrow’s fake British accent and boobs. This production takes us into a more modern Elizabethan London, filled with debauchery, scandal, scurvy, and bard insult battles amid a soundtrack fueled by punk and hip hop. Don’t act surprised: you know damn well that if Shakespeare were alive today, he would have totally purchased Kanye’s The Life of Pablo and followed Bon Iver around the country.
It’s also not bad that they reduced Will’s famous five head to a forehead and casted Jamie Campbell Bower as some dark, dangerous Brit with amazing hair…like he is in every production.
