The Big Picture
- Hulu's
Shardlake
takes viewers back to the Tudor era with a focus on a disabled lawyer sent to investigate a murder mystery. - The series brings Tudor England to life with visually appealing scenes and explores the complexities of justice vs. faith during Henry VIII's rule.
- While the show leans heavily on the classic murder mystery format, the performances of the cast, particularly Anthony Boyle, shine through.
While Hollywood certainly has its fair share of murder mystery shows that take place in Victorian times — I mean, how many times have we seen Sherlock Holmes adapted for the silver screen? — it’s rare that the format extends any further into the past. It’s a fairly specific one, all things considered, but it seems that Hulu’s taken that idea as a challenge, taking us all the way back to the Tudor era for their newest series, Shardlake.
Rather than follow a detective — as the term didn’t really take hold until the nineteenth century (hence all the top-hatted procedurals) — the new series focuses on a disabled lawyer, Matthew Shardlake (Arthur Hughes), who is sent by Thomas Cromwell (Sean Bean) to investigate the death of a commissioner at a remote monastery. He’s joined by Cromwell’s man, John Barak (Anthony Boyle), a proud-of-face swordsman who’s far quicker to draw than him, and finds himself quickly embroiled in a conspiracy that’s far more than he bargained for.
Visually, the series is a Tudor enthusiast’s dream. (If you’re okay with a handful of inaccurate costumes, but that’s nearly always the case.) Streaming’s been blessed with a wealth of period dramas recently, from the serious (Shōgun) to the not-so-serious (The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin), and Shardlake slots in on the drier side of things, imagining a world where the crown’s chief minister sends lawyers off to do his bidding and solve murders for the good of the commonwealth.
It’s an element that enhances what might otherwise be a fairly cut-and-dry murder mystery with a couple of Shakespearean plots tossed on top. Rather than solve the murder to bring justice for the dead or to take a killer off the streets, Shardlake is embroiled in Henry VIII’s theological upheaval that changed the face of religion in the United Kingdom forever. His goal is not to jail a murderer, butto find an excuse to shut down the convent, and have it and all its riches surrendered to the king. It complicates the matter of who to root for — even if, unlike me, you’re not intimately familiar with the workings of perhaps England’s most infamous ruler. Justice and faith are constantly at odds, with Shardlake himself as the only constant.
Shardlake (2024)
Set in the tumultuous period of Tudor England, the Shardlake series follows Matthew Shardlake, a hunchbacked lawyer turned detective, as he navigates the dangerous politics of King Henry VIII's court. Tasked with solving complex cases that often involve the highest echelons of society, Shardlake not only seeks justice but also grapples with his own moral dilemmas and the challenges posed by his physical disability. The series intricately blends historical detail with gripping mysteries, illuminating both the grandeur and the grim realities of 16th-century England.
- Release Date
- May 1, 2024
- Cast
- Arthur Hughes , Sean Bean , Anthony Boyle , Babou Ceesay , Paul Kaye , Ruby Ashbourne Serkis , Peter Firth , Matthew Steer , Brian Vernel , Irfan Shamji , David Pearse , Miles Barrow , Mike Noble , Kimberley Nixon
- Main Genre
- Drama
- Seasons
- 1
- Writers
- Stephen Butchard
- Streaming Service(s)
- Hulu
‘Shardlake’ Casts the King’s Men Well
In terms of who we’re meant to root for, however, it’s incredibly difficult not to be on their side. Boyle, naturally, outdoes himself, even in the stiff constraints of a setting like Tudor England. His flashy, charismatic confidence carries over from Masters of the Air to Shardlake, and it’d be no surprise if he comes out the fan favorite, if only in colorful video edits on TikTok. (I’ve certainly seen enough for Masters.) He gets the most time to live beyond the constraints of the murder mystery, even as it plagues him at every corner, and it helps to ease some of the stuffiness naturally present in period pieces, especially his scenes with Ruby Ashbourne Serkis (yes, of that Serkis family).
However, that flashiness does mean that Hughes is underserved as the show’s lead, despite his clear ability to stack up against (and oftentimes outdo) the more popular Boyle. Seeing a disabled actor playing a role of such intelligence and weight is a welcome sight,and Hughes carries off Shardlake’s inner turmoil (often expressed through soliloquies not dissimilar to that of Shakespeare’s heroes) with impressive strength and ease. Even in his scenes with Bean’s Cromwell — he’s the only actor to go toe-to-toe with the Lord of the Ringslegend more than once — he stacks up without breaking a sweat, and it makes me wish the series had spent more time on him, given him more space to expand and inhabit what’s clearly a compelling, multi-layered character.
‘Shardlake’ Leans Heavily on a Classic Format
For all its masterwork in laying out a Tudor setting, and its excellent performances, the real framework of the series still manages to poke through. At its heart, Shardlake is still very much a murder mystery, a procedural wrapped in codpieces and capes. It’s especially obvious when the titular lawyer is questioning those at the monastery about the death; despite searching for answers not to find justice, but to condemn the monastery and have it closed, he sounds almost exactly like any other TV detective, albeit with a bit of a Shakespearean tinge to him. It’s hard for Hughes to shake the clue-finding manner that characterizes every great fictional detective, and the modernness of the practice — or at least, the way my brain immediately draws parallels to contemporary shows — jars the brain a bit.
It’s a bit of a non-starter for anyone who was hoping the series would be more historical drama than procedural. It seems like it’s getting harder and harder to successfully pull off any of those in our current climate, at least when streamers demand that episode count get shorter and shorter, and refuse to let us live in and relish the characters we’re meant to sympathize with.Really, we’re given little time — actually no time, really — to sink into the inner lives of these characters in only four episodes.
Barak hints at some personal turmoil that never comes to pass, some hint of treachery or aggrieved history, and we rarely explore Shardlake’s personality beyond being called a “crookback” by others — the Tudor equivalent of a slur for disabled people. I suppose that’s meant to be saved for if the series were picked up for a second season (there are more than enough Shardlake novels to cover a couple more), but it means that the season as it stands fails to do the key thing most people are looking for in a new show: making me give a damn. The only interesting character developments are given to Barak, even though they're few and far between. Four episodes is not nearly enough time to sit with the complex dealings of Shardlake, even if it’s operating on much the same system as Law & Orderor NCIS underneath it all.
There’s still hope for the series if it continues, however. In some twisted way, not being given enough time with Shardlake and Barak makes me want more from them, to learn their strange quirks and backstories and embrace their rough but endearing chemistry as they solve more mysteries. It’s the mark of a great team, and even greater leads, and it makes me worried about the fate of the series, in a world where shows are hardly given a chance to make an impression before being axed — and in some cases, scrubbed from existence entirely. There’s potential in Shardlake, and with at least five more novels’ worth of work to adapt, I hope it gets the chance to see it through.
Shardlake (2024)
Shardlake is a competent murder mystery series that turns the format on its head with a new premise and a talented cast.
- Arthur Hughes and Anthony Boyle make a wonderfully paired set of leads as a Tudor-era Sherlock & Watson.
- The series' Tudor setting makes the murder mystery element all the more interesting by complicating its sense of justice.
- With only four episodes, the series doesn't have enough time to flesh out its characters or situation.
- Those that want more historical drama than murder procedural might find the series lacking.
Shardlake premieres May 1 on Hulu in the U.S.
Watch on Hulu
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