Imo shakespeare is like seinfeld.

So incredibly influential and popular that reading/watching is boring because everything that has been said by them has been said by everyone else, but better years/decades/centuries later.

I agree that shakespeare is a slog, simply because ive seen probably 50 “hamlet” television episodes that are better

Another great example: West-side Story is just a much better version of romeo and juliet which is slow for no reason in comparison.