Title: Yorick: A Skull’s-Eye View
Format: Limited Miniseries (6 Episodes, with a twist for expansion)
Genre: Dark comedy, historical fantasy, tragicomic metafiction
Logline:
Twenty-three years after his death, the ghost of Yorick—the king’s jester and Hamlet’s childhood companion—watches the events of Hamlet unfold from the graveyard, determined to piece together the mystery of his own death and the downfall of Denmark. As bones stir and secrets rise, Yorick begins to suspect that the rot in Elsinore began long before Hamlet’s madness… and perhaps with him.
Series Overview:
This Hamlet-adjacent series explores the Shakespearean tragedy from the macabre, absurdist, and deeply human perspective of Yorick, reanimated in ghostly or skull-bound form (depending on the episode), watching events he can’t fully intervene in—but might influence in unexpected ways. Tonally, it’s part Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, part Dead Like Me, part The Sandman.
Episode Summaries:
Episode 1: “Alas”
A gravedigger unearths Yorick’s skull. Lightning cracks. Time blurs. Yorick awakens—conscious, skull-bound, stuck in the graveyard. He’s sarcastic, wistful, and has no idea what’s happening. As the gravediggers argue and drink, Yorick begins to remember flashes of his life—playing with a young Hamlet, entertaining Queen Gertrude, a strange illness, and… something darker. Hamlet enters the graveyard. Yorick watches with growing concern.
Episode 2: “Infinite Jest”
We flash back to the living Yorick, a jester navigating the dangerous politics of Elsinore under King Hamlet’s reign. Yorick keeps secrets for the king—and is punished for knowing too much. Meanwhile, in the present, Yorick tries to communicate with Ophelia (on the edge of madness) and becomes convinced that Denmark is unraveling due to a curse he may have helped trigger.
Episode 3: “Skull Talk”
Yorick discovers he’s not the only dead person watching. A sarcastic ghost chorus of former Elsinore staff—including chambermaids, assassinated rivals, and a cook who saw too much—gather in the crypts each night. They trade gossip, warnings, and regrets. Yorick grows obsessed with his death—was it illness… or poison?
Episode 4: “The Dumb Show”
In a surreal flashback, Yorick stages a play to expose a courtly betrayal—foreshadowing Hamlet’s play-within-a-play. He suspects that Claudius has ambitions, and confides in King Hamlet… who laughs it off. In the present, the Ghost of King Hamlet visits Yorick, but says nothing. Yorick begins to suspect that both kings may have more in common than anyone wants to admit.
Episode 5: “Dead Reckoning”
Yorick relives his final days: he discovered a plot involving Claudius, Gertrude, and perhaps even young Hamlet. Before he could act, he was silenced. He realizes the King's Ghost may have lied to Hamlet—or at least, not told the whole truth. As Hamlet spirals, Yorick tries to warn Horatio by possessing the body of a raven. It fails, hilariously.
Episode 6: “The Play’s the Thing”
Hamlet, Laertes, Gertrude, and Claudius all die. Yorick is alone again. But just as the dust settles, a new gravedigger appears—a girl of around twelve, bright, witty, and oddly familiar. She digs up Yorick’s skull, and—shockingly—speaks to him and hears him. She claims to be Yoricka, his daughter, born in secret and raised abroad. She has come to Denmark because of whispers of ghosts, kings, and unfinished stories.
As the series closes, Yorick (now voiced by a more purposeful tone) tells her:
“If you want to understand this kingdom, my dear... we’ll have to start before Hamlet.”
Cue series title: Yoricka: The Fool’s Inheritance—Coming Soon.
Future Seasons Possibility:
The twist of Yoricka, an original character, allows for a new ongoing series exploring the post-Hamlet power vacuum, with Yorick as a ghost mentor, and Yoricka—a mix of comic jester and budding detective—as the last heir to Denmark’s crumbling soul. Think The Crown meets Six Feet Under, but with skulls and iambic pentameter.
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- I pointed out that if Yorick died 23 years ago (as stated in the play), his daughter couldn't be 12.
- The gravedigger has been at work 30 years, the same as Hamlet's age. Halmet was 7 when Yorick died.
- Hamlet's father was also named Hamlet (King Hamlet).
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Original prompt.
Tom Stoppard wrote a play which told the story of Hamlet from the perspective of Rosencrantz and Gilderstern. Write a treatment of the story of Hamlet, but told from the perspective of Yorick. It could be a streaming movie or it could be a limited miniseries. If you make it a limited miniseries, include a twist that could possibly lead to an ongoing multi year series, but include that toward the end as a surprise.
