overrated?

Agreed

These days? Yes. I read so many people being dismissive of his writing, never seeming to grasp the poetry, the power, the humour, the wit, or the depth of his work. They say it's old and irrelevant (at best), conveniently forgetting that sitcoms to this day borrow from plot structures he laid down. They forget how interwoven his turns of phrase have become throughout the English language.

At worst, the claim will be made that Shakespeare is bad and is lumped in with some kind of Colonialism and oppression and that he should be removed from the canon because of some -ism or other. These people worry me, not just because of their adherence to censorship and partisan propagandizing of literature, but also because they might gain enough traction to remove the Bard of Avon from school systems and perpetrate a great crime on education.

Me either. I find them hard to follow with all the archaic language like "Thee, thous, etc".

It takes a while, but you eventually get used to it. Don't give up--he's worth it.

There are some "translations" out there!