Building Storm

Decisions, decisions.  Public Broadcasting (PBS) broadcasts four channels in my state.  The primary channel was going to air the first episode of a new murder mystery series based on some classic books.  The second channel PBS  was broadcasting at the same time a performance of King Lear.  The second channel is for programming created by the state or reruns from the primary channel.  Therefore, this King Lear performance had aired at sometime before.  It's important to watch the first episode of a series to see a) if it's worth watching the rest and b) be introduced to the characters and their relationships.  However, there is little that can compare to a play by the bard.  I googled the murder mystery series.  Critics raved about it (but then so did they on the Magpie Mysteries and Grantchester - both of which didn't do anything for me.)  I googled this version of King Lear.  It was described as "mixed gender".   That usually means some of the traditionally male roles are played by women.  The write up on this one said the director wanted to explore the different chemistry created between a mother interacting w/ her daughters. The play King Lear is heavily about gender roles in the first place (Lear gives up his power to his daughters).  Plus, except for changing pronouns, a female King Lear would speak the same lines as a male King Lear.    I decided the murder mystery was a better bet.  The murder mystery ended earlier so I switched over to the end of the play in case I was wrong.  Nope.  The play was surprisingly worse than I expected it would be.   It takes really bad acting to mess up great writing.