Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Serpent Queen’ On Starz, A Drama About How Catherine de’ Medici Held On To The French Monarchy

It’s too easy for a period show to fall into familiar rhythms, with women in corsets and wigs and men in pantaloons politely dancing and talking in very baroque language. But the more successful period shows eschew that and give these characters modern dialogue and behavior. A new series on Starz about Catherine de’ Medici’s ascension to the French throne does just that. 

THE SERPENT QUEEN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A woman in servant’s clothes wakes up suddenly. “Are you the one they call ‘It’?'” asks another servant. “I have a name,” she says.

The Gist: The servant, Rahima (Sennia Nanua), is sent into the chambers of the French queen, Catherine de’ Medici (Samantha Morton) as more or less of a sacrificial lamb, as she has a reputation of being cruel to the staff. But at first, it seems that the queen takes a liking to Rahima; it’s 1560 and her son Charles IX is about to be crowned King. She’s bored of all the hoopla and wants someone to talk to. Because she sees herself in the young Rahima, she starts to tell her story.

In 1536, a young Catherine (Liv Hill), born in Italy and orphaned when her parents die of syphilis and her grandmother also mysteriously passes, is plucked from her orphanage by her uncle, Pope Clement (Charles Dance), for the sole purpose of marrying her off to Henry (Alex Heath), the second son of France’s King Francis (Colm Meaney). He thinks Catherine is a mess that needs a major glow-up before they present her to French royalty, it’s still important that she gets married, in order to keep the peace between the two countries. Even Catherine knows what’s at stake, declaring her initial makeover “not enough” and demanding the pope increase her valet’s budget.

When they do meet, they hit it off. “I fell in love,” the young Catherine tells the camera. She even thinks her cousin Diane de Poitiers (Ludivine Sagnier), who has been a surrogate mother to Harry, has been a good influence. But all of that changes after their much-watched consummation on their wedding night; that’s when Catherine finds out she’s going to have a rough road as Harry’s bride.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Serpent Queen gives of similar vibes to Becoming Elizabeth, another period show on Starz from earlier this year.

Our Take: Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road) adapted the non-fiction book Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda to create The Serpent Queen, and he decides to eschew the usual period piece stuffiness in order to really communicate how ruthless Catherine was.

How does he do it? By giving his Renaissance-era characters modern dialogue, by having young Catherine break the fourth wall, and by simply playing into the idea that she was a highly intelligent person who played the weaknesses of the system she was in against it. It’s evident in the scenes with the younger Catherine, who might not have liked being sold off to another country willy-nilly, but once she realized she was in that situation, took full advantage of it.

The first episode shows much more of young Catherine — and Liv Hill communicates the fact that Catherine’s mind was always working, even at a young age — than we see Morton’s middle-aged Catherine. But in the few scenes with Morton we do see, we see how the years have made her even more cunning and wary. Does she love that she had to play the game and get treated like a side of beef instead of a human being with a brain? Of course not. But play the game she did, and we’re looking forward to seeing how both young and older Catherine navigate around the obstacles that might prevent her from ascending to the throne and keeping the line of succession in her family.

Sex and Skin: There’s certainly some skin and simulated sex in scenes, though the wedding night consummation scene was fully clothed. We’re expecting to see more of both sex and skin.

Parting Shot: Catherine, citing that she doesn’t trust anyone, has Rahima thrown in a cell, but Rahima is happy when she finds an orange in her pocket. Catherine sees the orange she was eating and seems satisfied she found a new confidant.

Sleeper Star: Kiruna Stamell plays Mathilde, who ends up being the fool in Catherine’s retinue. We appreciated when she told the pope, “I could pass gas and people would find it funny.”

Most Pilot-y Line: The pope tells Catherine that she has to be a blank canvas as a bride and do whatever her husband wants. “If he wants you to sodomize him with his mother’s hairbrush, you will do that.” Boy, the pope was very specific there, wasn’t he?

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Serpent Queen has just enough irreverence to make what could have been a boring period story a lot more interesting, emphasizing Catherine de’ Medici’s cunning over being prim and proper.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast