Intro: The Serpent Queen Review
Where to Stream It? STARZ (New episodes Sundays)
Starring: Samantha Morton, Liv Hill, Barry Atsma, Amrita Acharia, Enzo Cilenti, Sennia Nanua, Kiruna Stamell
Created by: Justin Haythe
The first five episodes were screened in advance for this review.
I’ll admit I’m not the biggest fan of historical dramas. I’ve never much cared for the history of royal families and I find it a bit odd when American actors speak English with British accents while playing the nobility of non-English speaking countries.
One would think I’d fall far outside the intended demographic for The Serpent Queen, a show about the life of 16th Century French Queen Catherine de’ Medici.
What I found in watching this show, however, was a surprisingly modern tale about a woman’s efforts to make it in a world that gives women even at the highest points of society very little autonomy over their lives. The Serpent Queen kept me intrigued for every episode I screened for this review with its blend of delicious drama, complex female characters, and even a few nods to Grimms' Fairy Tales sprinkled in.
A Woman Scorned
The show is based on the book Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda and adapted for the screen by Justin Haythe. It follows the life of the famed Queen as told through a series of flashbacks as she recounts her life to a servant girl named Rahima (Sennia Nana).
Catherine de Medici (played by Samantha Morton in her later years and Liv Hill in her youth) had an unconventional path to the French throne.
Although born into a noble Italian family, she was orphaned as a girl and spent much of her early years in a convent. When the convent was sieged by soldiers, she was held at ransom until her uncle, Pope Clement VII (Charles Dance) arranged for her rescue and trip to France, where she would marry King Henry II (played by Alex Heath and Lee Ingleby).
After her marriage she discovers her new husband would rather sleep with his mistress, the beautiful Diane de Poitiers (Ludivine Sagnier), than her. She has difficulty conceiving an heir and consults the help of someone trained in the magic arts (Enzo Cilenti).
Catherine is mocked by the other members of the French nobility, especially her brother-in-law Dauphin Francis (Louis Landau) who perceives her as unattractive and unwelcome as an Italian. These experiences help her grow a thicker skin, and along the way she develops ways to get back at her enemies, including by poison.
Icon or Villain?
It was that fondness for poison (including poisoned apples) along with her alleged magic mirror that helped Catherine de Medici become part of the inspiration for the Queen in Snow White. The show makes some visual nods to the classic fairy tale, including a dress worn by Rahima.
While de Medici is an unquestionably powerful woman, she makes some ethically compromising decisions along her way to that power. The kinship between herself and Rahima is also something with an unclear outcome- can Rahima really trust Catherine?
From the show’s earliest moments we hear a rock-n-roll soundtrack over the opening credits as CGI snakes slither out from under her dress. The creators of this show position Catherine de Medici as a badass woman of history. While her story is compelling, one has to wonder if this framing is really appropriate for someone guilty of backstabbing and murder.
Like most historical dramas, there’s liberties taken with certain factual details. I’ll save it for the historians to determine how accurate this story really is.
A challenge with projects with multiple actors playing the same role at different stages of life is to make sure the performances gel together. At times Morton and Hill feel like they are playing different people. That issue aside, the cast (particularly Samantha Morton) do a fantastic job. Her chilly demeanor perfectly encapsulates de Medici’s character.
Final Thoughts: The Serpent Queen Review
Whether you are fan of historical dramas or not, The Serpent Queen makes for a fascinating character study. Morton’s performance as Catherine de Medici helps anchor a show about the ways in which a woman can rise to power even as the odds are stacked against her.
