The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses

This 2016 follow-up to the original 2012 BBC miniseries The Hollow Crown covers the Wars of the Roses through three of Shakespeare's history plays: Henry VI, Parts 1 & 2 and Richard III, edited down to focus on the battle for the British throne. These are darker dramas, full of betrayals and treachery, culminating in the murderous rise to power of Richard III, played as a borderline psychotic by Benedict Cumberbatch in a performance filled with twitchy asides and nervous tics. Cumberbatch's flamboyance steals the show from the more conventional dramatics of the superb cast, which includes Judi Dench, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Adrian Dunbar, Keeley Hawes, and Sophie Okonedo (haunting as the mad deposed queen), and separates the final installment from the somewhat plodding theatrics of the first two plays. Like the 2012 series, this six-hour production aims for a lavish feature-film look rather than stylized stage sets—shooting in castles, courtyards, and villages, and mounting battles on fields that are full of extras in armor. And even though the plays are truncated here, they remain faithful in spirit to Shakespeare's presentation of British history as a violent, bloody struggle with little honor and many victims falling to the greed of monarchs. Extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette and deleted scenes. Sure to be of interest to fans of British TV and historical drama—not to mention Cumberbatch—this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)