You wouldn’t think the Black Death would make for good material for a comedy, but since it’s been almost 700 years since it happened, we think enough time has passed since then to look at it in a funny way. A new Netflix series, loosely based on Giovanni Boccaccio’s collection of short stories published seven centuries ago, used the plague as the basis for a dark comedy.
THE DECAMERON: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening shot: “FIRENZE, ITALY. 1348”. A crow lands on a windowsill and a child immediately hits it with a rock. As it falls to the ground, we see random bodies.
The essence: The Black Death has gripped Florence and the corpses cannot be collected quickly enough. The “plague” has affected people from all walks of life and Viscount Leonardo de Fiesole (Davy Eduard King) has invited the city’s nobility and their servants to his Tuscan villa in the “beautiful uninfected countryside.”
Pampinea (Zosia Mamet) goes because she will become Leonardo’s fiancée when she arrives, and her maid Misia (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) is doing everything she can to make sure her mistress has everything she needs. Filomena (Jessica Plummer), one of Edward’s (John Hannah) few surviving daughters, is invited, but her maid Licisca (Tanya Reynolds) won’t leave the plague-ridden Edward’s side. Filomena forces Licisca to go when she assumes her father is dead, though she doesn’t know for sure.
The doctor Dioneo (Amar Chadha-Patel), who is not very bright, advises him to go, because of the diseases he sees in Tindaro’s urine and feces, which Tindaro hands him in a handkerchief. Panfilo (Karan Gill) has to deal with his wife Neifile (Lou Gala), who prays for everything.
On the way to Tuscany, Licisca and Filomena get into a fight over feeding bread to someone in need, and Licisca accidentally pushes her mistress over the side of a bridge into the river. No problem; she’ll just pretend to be Filomena. While the others make their way through, Sirisco (Tony Hale), the villa’s caretaker, has a bigger problem to deal with: Leonardo recently died of the plague, and he’s been busy burying him in a shallow grave. He and his wife Stratillia (Leila Farzad) are the only members of the staff who haven’t died. Sirisco needs the noble guests to continue to believe Leonardo is alive so they can prove how indispensable they are to whoever claims the property.
What shows will it remind you of? The DecameronCreated by Kathleen Jordan and based on Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th century collection of short stories, it reminds us quite a bit of the Dark Ages of Miracle workersOne of the other EPs on the show is Jenji Kohan, and there are elements of the same dark humor we saw in Kohan. Orange is the new black.
Our opinion: As we see at the end of Episode 1 of The DecameronThe supposedly peaceful and pest-free Tuscan village will not be like that at all. People hide secrets and have to make deals when others discover them. The plague-ridden commoners are constantly ready to plunder the property and everyone is excited with each other.
This is all supposed to be humorous, but it isn’t. There are little moments of humor here and there, like when Panfilo jokes that if they miss the welcome meal, they’ll be forced to eat “pasta, pasta, pasta,” but those moments are fleeting and the lines ultimately never get said.
What the show tries to do is that all the characters have ulterior motives, they say modern phrases like “they got kicked out” and that, well, they’re all hot for each other. But there’s nothing else to hold on to when it comes to these characters’ stories.
The characters who have the most potential are Misia and Licisca, not just because of the performances by Jackson and Reynolds, respectively, but because they both seem to have some backstories and a sense of loyalty and loss. Misia’s officiousness in dealing with Sirisco has a lot to do with who she brought to the villa, and we’re not talking about Pampinea. And with Licisca, she knows her time to play nobility is limited, but as she tells Panfilo, who is aware of her deception, “I’m going to do what I want in the time I have left.”
Most of the other characters, however, remain difficult to read. Pampinea remains under the impression that Leonardo is alive, but he may not want her because he is (gasp!) 28 years old. So far, that seems to be the extent of her character. Neifile prays a lot, but seems to be in love with a seat on a foot-powered water pump. Tindaro is sick and clumsy; Dioneo wants to have sex with everyone.
As the plague spreads through the village and the group within establishes their mini-society, we get to know these people better. Kohan managed to control OITNBThe show’s huge cast gives us flashbacks to most of the main characters, and that may be something she’s guided Jordan to do here. But we don’t know if we like these characters enough to stick around and find out more about them.
Sex and skin: They don’t have much skin, but both Neifile and Panfilo prove that sex is on everyone’s mind in the village.
Parting shot: Licisca gets a scare when Filomena appears very much alive at the door of the villa.
Sleeping Star: We liked Saoirse-Monica Jackson in Derry Girls And it’s equally fun to see her here as Misia, a woman eager to please.
Pilot’s most typical phrase: We like Depeche Mode, but the soundtrack seems to be very Depeche Mode-heavy.
Our calling: TRANSMIT IT. We are giving The Decameron A lukewarm recommendation because there are characters we want to follow in this dark comedy and we trust that the narrative will help to deepen the characters we don’t like. But the comedic elements fail to make an impact most of the time and we wonder how much effort it will take for viewers to really believe what is happening in this Tuscan villa.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting, and technology, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV addict. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and elsewhere.
