Take a lot of “Reign” the CW drama that was alleged to be about the early life of Mary Queen of Scots, a little bit of “Game of Thrones,” and a very little bit of Shakespeare and you will get “Still Star-Crossed,” the ABC summer series that premiered recently. The show is nothing less than a sequel to “Romeo And Juliet,” the play that most people read in high school on the assumption that the travails of a pair of sex-crazed 15th Century Italian upper crust teenagers would be relevant to the modern variety.
The story so far
Everyone knows the basic plot of “Romeo and Juliet.” Boy meets girl.
The boy and the girl exchange sweet nothings under the balcony. The boy and the girl get married in secret. The boy kills a guy in a street brawl. The boy has sex with the girl before fleeing for his life. The girl pretends to kill herself. The boy really kills himself after killing someone else. The girl wakes up and then kills herself for real. The local prince makes a big speech about how horrible everything is.
In fair Verona where we lay our scene
“Still Star-Crossed” is set in an alternate version of Renaissance Verona where everyone wears odd clothing, some of which is of the period, some not. Also, fair Verona seems to be more ethnically diverse than the real one likely was, to the extent that people of different races seem to be related to one another.
Casting diversity in Shakespeare has been the rule ever since Kenneth Branagh cast Denzel Washington as Don Pedro in the excellent film version of “Much Ado About Nothing.” The Spanish city where the series was filmed is gorgeous and will likely be seen as a new tourist destination if the series takes off.
Rosaline and Benvolio are now star-crossed
The Prince, now a young man, has a problem with the Montagues and the Capulets still soiling the streets of his city with their blood. The family feud, while being annoying, is a dangerous distraction from Verona’s real problem, the desire of either Venice or Milan, two bigger Italian city states, to annex the town.
His Highness hits on a solution. Rosaline Capulet, a lady with whom Romeo was in love with before spying Juliet, and Benvolio Montague, Romeo’s cousin and good friend, need to get married so that the two families will be united and will stop killing each other.
The course of true love never did run true
The problem is that Rosaline and Benvolio hate one another, even if, as is typical in stories of this type, they secretly are also attracted to one another. Even worse, the Prince and Rosaline are secretly in love with one another. And so we have the beginning of what may or may not be an interesting hour every week to spend time on.
