The Black Death? Not a fun period in history. That was when the bubonic plague ravaged 14th-century Europe, killing roughly 50% of the population. So how do you go about making a comedy out of that? Well, that’s exactly what Netflix’s dark comedy The Decameron attempts to pull off, with the help of a great ensemble of comedic talent including Tony Hale and Zosia Mamet.
Created and showrun by Kathleen Jordan, The Decameron follows a group of nobles who, with their servants in tow, attempt to wait out the plague at a countryside retreat. So how do the elite and the peasant class pass the time in such a situation? With lots of drinking, and lots of sex.
Along with Mamet and Hale the cast includes Amar Chadha-Patel, Leila Farzad, Lou Gala, Karan Gill, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Douggie McMeekin, Jessica Plummer, and Tanya Reynolds.
Here’s the synopsis: You are cordially invited to a wine-soaked sex romp set in the Italian countryside. The Decameron is a soapy dark comedy that examines the all-too-timely theme of class struggles in the season of a pandemic. In the year 1348, the Black Death strikes hard in the city of Florence, and a handful of nobles retreat with their servants to a grand villa to wait out the plague with a lavish holiday. But as social rules wear thin, a scramble for survival ensues, brought to life by a cast of characters both cunning and outrageous.
The Decameron hits Netflix on July 25th.
