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Ascension? It's a Royal Pain, in Suspenseful 'Future History' Drama 'King Charles III'
8 / 10
First, it's bracingly suspenseful for a story that hinges on a parliamentary bill. Next, there's a misandrist streak here for the ages-one departs with the notion that royal males are oafish, and the U.K. is run by emboldened women. Last, the story is told in iambic pentameter and modeled on a clutch of Shakespearean tragedies and histories. The language, though, is contemporary and straightforward: 'But now I'll rise to how things have to be. The queen is dead, long live the King. That's me.'
