...what can one say about the Melancholy Dane that hasn’t already been said? It’s the big one, the work that casts the longest shadow in all of English literature outside of the King James Bible. We quote it without thinking. It helped inspire The Lion King. And its most famous soliloquy has launched a thousand parodies. Will and James break down the epic monologues, the bloody action, the meditations on mortality, depression, mental illness, tortured love affairs, murder, suicide, conspiracy, invasion, and a savagely bloody denouement in which (spoiler alert!) everyone dies. // CREDITS // Intro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous); Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous); Illustrative Excerpts: “Tales from the Public Domain,” The Simpsons, dir., Mike B. Anderson (2002); “Hamlet,” feat. Kenneth Branagh, dir. Kenneth Branagh (1996); John Gielgud,“Ages of Man,” Caedmon Records (1959); “Hamlet,” feat. Clarence Smith, dir. Simon Godwin, Royal Shakespeare Company (2016); “Hamlet,” feat. Bill Murray, dir. Michael Almereyda (2000); “Hamlet,” feat. Andrew Scott, dir. Robert Icke (2017); “Hamlet,” feat. David Tennant, dir. Gregory Doran (2009)