The Decameron review, silly uninteresting people stuck in a villa

In the Decameron by Boccaccio, ten people flee Florence during the Black Plague. They hide out in the countryside and amuse themselves by telling 100 stories during the long nights. In this TV version of the story, we don’t get much storytelling but plenty of exploration of characters.

This version of the Decameron is about personality. Very few characters in the story had personalities worth knowing about. The nobility were entitled, whining a**holes. The servant class were more grounded and likeable.

They all congregated in the luxurious villa of a man dead from the plague. He was supposed to marry Pampinea (Zosia Mamet), who claimed to be married to him and entitled to the villa the moment she arrived. She also claimed to be pregnant with his child. She knew how to maintain her delusions.

The best person in the whole motley crew was Stratilia (Leila Farzad), the cook. If they’d all been as sensible as she was, the bunch of them might have survived. Well, they mostly survived the plague, but they did have some problems with thieves, murderers, and debauched guests.

Besides the cook, the only other servant still alive at the villa was Sirisco (Tony Hale). He did his best to keep the place going despite all the ridiculous people who were currently enjoying the villa.

I also rather admired the couple pictured at the top, Neifile (Lou Gala) and Panfilo (Karan Gill). They were in a never consummated marriage but loved each other. Panfilo was gay and Neifile was overly religious and struggled with a raging libido, but they were a good team.

Misia (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) was Pampinea’s handmaiden. Mistreated and abused, but loyal. Another noble woman there was Filomena (Jessica Plummer), who had her identity stolen by her handmaid Licisca (Tanya Reynolds). Licisca was another mistreated and abused servant, but definitely not loyal. If one character was leading the story it was Licisca – it started and ended with her.

The servant girl Misia and the noble woman Filomena fell in love. They weren’t the only same sex pair in the series.

The rich Tindaro (Douggie McMeekin) was there with his poisonous doctor Dioneo (Amar Chadha-Patel). Tindaro was supremely annoying, while Dioneo was supremely sexy.

As an English major in college, I had to read all the dead white guys, so The Decameron came across my radar. I always thought the only reason it was remembered and studied was because it was debauched, sex-filled, and somehow still around after hundreds of years. The TV series had sex, but it wasn’t terribly sexy. It had some debauchery but that was more threatening than interesting. It had some comedy but that was more dumb than funny.

For a series of 8 long-winded episodes about character, it was hard to find characters to root for and hope they survived. (I wanted the cook to make it.)

Only one woman was on the directing crew. Anya Adams directed 2 of the 8 episodes.

To summarize, in terms of period drama/comedy (or any drama/comedy for that matter), The Decameron is not the best series you’ll find. It’s on Netflix, if you want to see for yourself. The comments are open for your agreement or disagreement. Let’s hear it.