PBS 'Hamlet' OK -- it's better if you like 'Dr. Who'

Up here we’re having 40 degree weather and freezing rain, so this weekend is a good one to bundle up and consume some media.

First, I want to highlight a couple of PBS releases. It’s pledge drive, so PBS is trotting out all the great programming to draw the viewers that it doesn’t air so much during the other, not-pledge drive weeks. One of those great programs was the Great Performances presentation of “Hamlet” featuring “Dr. Who”s David Tennant and the “X-Men”s Patrick Stewart.

While their higher profile resumes may be weighted toward scifi, Tennant has acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company since 1996, and Stewart is so associated with Shakespearean roles that as Enterprise Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” his ready room featured a pulp copy of Shakespeare’s collected works. He and Tennant have been presenting “Hamlet” on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company since 2008 and last year crafted the film version aired on Great Performances this week.

“Hamlet” is structurally a challenging presentation, and this production had a couple of themes that didn’t work as well as they might have. There was a broken mirror motif that meant more to the director than it did to me. The updated costumes and camera technology belied the messenger services required to send and fetch. If Hamlet’s got a camcorder where’s his cellphone? And the security feeds throughout Elsinore too unnecessarily doubled Polonius as peeping tom and spy.

Polonius is just creepy in this production and too, too present. The first half of the three-hour presentation I thought I might be watching Shakespeare’s lesser known production titled “Polonius.” It’s not a matter of keeping every line the Bard wrote for him. It’s how much emphasis it’s given. The man addressing his children in prattling proverbs gives them such weight and gravitas as to suggest that this is what the play is about. In allowing him to take the time and focus the director too actively demonstrates what Hamlet dismissed later in two lines, calling him a “tedious old fool.” The stairwell scene with Ophelia, Laertes and Polonius seemed to take forever.

When we finally get to the courtroom, the celebratory Claudius is still putting the bravest possible public face on the recent wedding with Gertrude as even the most obsequious of hangers-on, Laertes on leave from France and Fortinbras of Norway are taking their leave. Ophelia is staying on as Hamlet’s girlfriend although something has gone south in recent weeks -- possibly Hamlet’s melancholy regarding his father’s death and his mother’s o’er-hasty marriage with Claudius.

This is the first presentation of Hamlet I’ve caught the Dane’s ambivalence regarding succession. This was the first Hamlet I’ve seen not merely bummed out about his mother’s inconstant heart but also about the fact that his father is dead and yet he is not king. And this is also the first Hamlet I’ve seen where there were palpable doubts concerning his readiness to be king. Where Hamlet says I will masque as madness, others are at the “smile and nod” stage of participating in the delusion, even a shade or two from Horatio, who at least has seen some way of knowing why his friend may be losing it.

Take that for what it’s worth, Tennant’s turn as literature’s broodiest stepson is a compelling force throughout. He is a master at his craft with a full toolbox at his disposal and he brings it all to bear. His lunacy with Polonius, his zany transactions with Rosenkranz and Guildenstern, his sharpish babbling throughout Gonzago and in Claudius’ presence, Tennant maintains a wild-eyed demeanor. In his private moments we comprehend his clear-eyed scheming. Sadly, by the time we get to his choicest bits we’re worn out from Polonius speaking every word in the language -- at the expense, incidentally, of a third of the soliloquy, which I feel contains the nutshell of Hamlet’s agony, the pangs of despised love and the law’s delay.

For a crime has been committed, yes, a high crime mere treason and Claudius is the whodunit. Hamlet is moved to action by the appearance of his father’s ghost but resolved by Claudius’ pangs of guilt in witness to the play-within-a-play and its not-at-all hidden meaning. Here’s where Stewart fell a bit. Claudius finds no absolution in prayer but he seems not to understand that he’d done anything wrong in the first place, speaking in “ifs” and subjunctives, and in the speech he gives Stewart appears to construct his horror. But his brother the king is dead lo these many months hence and he knows exactly who did it so for his pleas to be as a child’s, “Help, angels,” is a difficult read.

Of course, Claudius is a difficult character. He’s a villain from the moment we meet him and not just by some perspective, you should try to see things from his point of view, he’s a stone cold murderer and an ambitious one. Stewart tries to make him sympathetic, honorable, a leader, a king, but in this he must fail. Claudius ends as he does and by such means as he would destroy the rightful heir to the throne of Denmark. Even Penny Downie as Gertrude knows precisely what she is doing drinking that poison and does so anyway. Hamlet’s confrontation with her breaks her heart until she’s so longing to follow Ophelia into a grave she determines to do so. I’d suggest hers was the most honest performance in the production, although it seems to lack much definition.

Madness is difficult to portray, but I think Ophelia should give it a go. She loses her mind when she learns her father is dead, but Mariah Gale’s goofy outbursts here are unworthy of any read of this play and it feels as though she’s been trapped in bad direction. Laertes actually turns in a reasonably measured response but even in leaping into Ophelia’s grave he picks her up and shakes her about like a rag doll, which reminded me of a “Family Guy” episode. Speaking of which, like everything else in the production that graveyard scene just seemed to go on and on and ON -- and in reviewing it, so have I. Apologies.

Ultimately, if you’re a fan of “Dr. Who” you’ll enjoy nearly everything David does. You’ll probably enjoy Patrick Stewart saying the word “Enterprise.” I’d say the performances outstripped the production -- by the end I wasn’t even sure where the action was taking place and the director himself seemed to have given up, including the full pre-swordfight speech from Osric because, hell, at this point we’ve sat through everything else. David presents an outstanding Hamlet. The show, unfortunately, too heavily focused on everyone else. It was OK Shakespeare, but unless you’re a big fan of anyone involved, you can give this one a miss.

I said I’d talk about a couple of things on PBS and in this market they’ve been airing episodes of something called “mn originals.” I can’t really say when they’re on -- the scheduling is really funky and haphazard. But in the same way I subscribe to the “Out and About” podcast by Nathan Irwin at WCBU-FM in Peoria to get a sense of arts coverage in other markets, “mn originals” interviews visual and performing artists in the Twin Cities area, combines them with some slick graphics and puts the result on the air in half-hour segments. The pilot episode aired last week in this market, and three others have followed in no readily apparent pattern but if the arts are of interest to you, you can try tracking it down on PBS.

In cable productions, “Breaking Bad” has investigators closing in on mild-mannered meth cooker Walter White, known on the show as “Mr. Heisenberg.” Two assassins have targeted him as well but they may ultimately save him from the lead investigator. Yay, he’d be free to cook up all the crystal meth he wants in the big fancy lab his corporate benefactor constructed for him, but oh, one little hitch, that lead investigator? It’s Hank, Walt’s brother-in-law. Hank actually pulled the trigger on Tuco, the dealer the assassins are trying to avenge, so it’s all legitimate, but Walt doesn’t know about this deal. When he finds out, his reaction will go a long way toward establishing how he, as a character, sees himself, and how far he’s willing to go to save his family.

For those who are wondering, I’m glad “Glee” is back, but it hasn’t taken the centrality of focus for me as it has in the past. I like all the kids, I like their continuing to push themselves to regionals, and I like how secrets and lies continue to shape the story. But what I do not like is how dense everyone has to be in order for these secrets and lies to remain in place. I was also a little thrown when, after Finn’s mom started dating Kurt’s dad this past week, how Kurt was more upset that his dad enjoyed talking to Finn than he was overjoyed to now have an endless supply of perfectly good reasons for sleepovers at Finn’s house, in that Kurt has a serious and unrequited crush on Finn. I enjoyed the Madonna episode, by the way. What I’m not enjoying is how for whatever reason my DVR consistently loses the last minute or so of this show because of FOX’s scheduling weirdness. Stay classy, FOX.

I’ve not spoken about “Happy Town,” ABC’s creepy new mystery drama -- I haven’t had a chance to see it yet, actually, so I’m going to hold my thoughts for a bit longer. I’m hearing bad things but I don’t always agree with my source on that so I’m keeping an open mind. I’ve actually been having some trouble with my DVR not recording things I really need for it to so I’ve got to go back in one of these weeks and reset my recording priorities. But “Happy Town” is absolutely on my list of shows I’m keeping an eye on.