Created by Justin Haythe
Based on Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda
Starring Samantha Morton, Amrita Acharia, Barry Atsma, Enzo Cilenti, Sennia Nanua, Kiruna Stamell
Executive producers Stacie Passon, Justin Haythe, Francis Lawrence, Erwin Stoff
Producer Nick O’Hagan
Production companies 3 Arts Entertainment, Lionsgate Television
The Serpent Queen
Of course, the BBC is famed, and justly so, for its period-piece dramatizations, often focusing on royalty or the aristocracy, with lush costuming, elaborate sets, and historic settings. A miniseries dealing with France’s infamous Catherine de’Medici would be right up their alley. Get together a largely unknown but brilliant cast, coach them in French Renaissance grammar constructions, and away you go. Bob’s your uncle, as Louis XIV would say.
But suppose someone else took a crack at it? Say, 3 Arts and Lionsgate studios for the Starz network?
What you end up with is a French period piece with a nearly all-British cast written and produced by Americans. Which might explain how Colm Meaney wound up as King Francis of France.
Now, if the BBC has a weakness in their presentations, it’s that the depictions can be a bit slow and stuffy, especially if the subject matter is dark and serpentine. And Catherine de’Medici is about as dark and serpentine as they get, hence the title of the series. Well, she was, in fairness, trying to hold 16th century France together despite the determined efforts of Catholics and Protestants, and an increasing restive peasantry, and she did as good a job as anyone could have.
This series is not slow and stuffy. It has an air of almost gleeful insouciance, with Catherine often breaking the fourth wall to share a pithy thought or two with the audience. The dialogue is witty, often amusing, but never silly. If the viewer hadn’t already grasped the irreverent tone by the end of the first episode, the closing music might provide a clue. Patti Smith’s cover of “Gloria.” (“Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine.”)
They decided they didn’t need some twit’s notion of what French royalty of the 16th century would have sounded like if they spoke English with a West End accent, and told the actors to just use their own mannerisms of speech. So it’s not too surprising to hear the King of France tell the cardinal to bugger off, or a queen-regent to tell a servant to go have a shufti.
The amazing thing is it works beautifully. The took all the strong points of a good period piece and kept those intact. And the acting is generally excellent, with exceptionally strong performances by both actors who play Catherine (Liv Hill as the 14 year old commoner suddenly thrust into royal circles, and Samantha Morton as the Machiavellian queen-regent of France over a thirty year period). They, and they alone, have the privilege of asides with the audience.
You might think it’s going to get ridiculous, but it does not. Remember who this is about. It gets dark and fairly bloody. The writing is solid, the dialogue moves the complicated plot along in a brisk and clear manner, and the pacing works accordingly.
Since we’re just at the end of the fifth of an twelve-part series, and Catherine has just had her first rodeo as queen-regent and King Henri II is still alive, I suspect at least one subsequent season is planned. Something to look forward to! The series is engaging, with colorful and challenging characters that made the first five seasons of Game of Thrones such a treat. Why, there’s even a little person!
Now on Starz and of course, the BBC.