Black comedy miniseries The Decameron lands on Netflix on Thursday, July 25 Zosia Mamet as Pampinea and Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Misia in The Decameron. Photo: Netflix A scene from The Decameron, Netflix's new ensemble comedy (Photo: Netflix) If you took assorted pieces of Blackadder, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and peak-period Mel Brooks at his most gloriously iconoclastic and fed them into a mincing machine, what came out the other end would probably look a lot like black comedy miniseries The Decameron (Netflix, all episodes available Thursday, July 25) — although with those ingredients, you’d hope it would be a bit better than it is. The Decameron – loosely “inspired by” Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century book about 10 people sheltering in a villa from the Black Death who pass the time by telling one another stories — is a sweary, knockabout romp full of slapstick, farce, sexual shenanigans, broad satire about class and religion, and even broader performances.
The Decameron | Official Trailer It’s all so exaggeratedly and cartoonishly bawdy that if you took away the Netflix-sized budget and the ravishing, beautifully shot setting, you could just as easily be watching something called Carry On Black Death. The irreverent tone is struck in the opening scene. In Florence in 1348, a raven lands on a window ledge and is hit by a well-aimed stone thrown by a young boy in the street below.
“Food!” he shouts as he picks up the dead bird, and then calls out: “Mom! I got a chicken!” With the plague ravaging the populace, a nobleman called Eduardo puts out the call to his fellow rich and entitled citizens to come and wait it out at his luxury pad in the countryside. Among those rushing to take Eduardo up on his offer is Filomena (Jessica Plumber), a spoiled brat who abandons her ailing-but-not-quite-dead-yet father. Filomena drags along her long-suffering maid and general dogsbody Licisca (Tanya Reynolds), who thinks the old man, who loved her like a daughter, has expired.
A scene from The Decameron, Netflix's new ensemble comedy (Photo: Netflix) Along the way, Filomena and Licisca have a row about the latter stopping to give a starving peasant some bread. Licisca loses her temper and pushes Filomena off a bridge and into a raging river. She panics, then has a brainwave: she’ll pretend to be Filomena.
Also on her way is Eduardo’s bride-to-be, Pampinea (Zosia Mamet from Girls) , a whiny, needy, hysterical drama queen who treats every minor inconvenience as a personal tragedy of operatic proportions. Pampinea also has a servant, Misia (Saoirse-Monica Jackson from Derry Girls), who has a pageboy haircut and wears what looks like a monk’s robe. Misia is a lesbian and, unknown to Pampina, has smuggled along her dying girlfriend inside a wine casket.
She dies shortly after arrival. Curly-haired Tindaro (Douggie McMeekin) is a mewling, hypochondriac man-baby and proto-incel who’s accompanied by his personal physician, the hunky, smouldering Dioneo (Amar Chadha-Patel), whose profession puts him in a limbo between the upper and lower classes. It might have worked better if the eight episodes were shorter than an hour each The final two guests are Panfilo (Karan Gill), the son of a prominent political family, and his wife Neifile (Lou Gala).
The couple have a celibate marriage. Panfilo is secretly gay, while Neifile is a religious fanatic — although she also happens to have a libido that rages like a bushfire. Making up the 10 are Eduardo’s servants Sirisco (Tony Hale) and Stratilia (Leila Farzad).
When the guests arrive, there’s no sign of Eduardo. Pampina is angry that her betrothed is late for their celebration. “Late” is the operative word.
Eduardo has died, but Sirisco and Stratilia are keeping this a secret in case they end up being kicked out of the villa. By the end of the first two episodes (which were all I could stand in one sitting), Sirisco has discovered Misia is also hiding a dead body, Panfino and Neifile are both lusting after Dioneo, Dioneo is lusting after Licisca, the villa is attacked by a trio of peasants, one of who is stabbed to death by Liciscia, and Filomena inconveniently turns up alive and well, if a little the worse for wear. There’s some fun to be had from The Decameron, at least for a while.
But it starts out at a high pitch and stays there, and some of the characters — particularly Pampinea and Tindaro — eventually begin to grate on the nerves. Everyone overacts, especially Jackson, whose gurning and eye-rolling make her performance in Derry Girls seem like an audition for a Harold Pinter play. It might have worked better if the eight episodes were shorter than an hour each.
It’s an awfully long time to be stuck inside four walls with this bunch. Join the Irish Independent WhatsApp channel Stay up to date with all the latest news.
