Bandits! Sword fights! Buboes! Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Zosia Mamet and co have a whale of a time in this plague-riddled comedy-drama set in 14th-century Italy
Put down your Boccaccio, which I know you picked up the instant you heard Netflix had commissioned a series called The Decameron, keen to refresh your memory of the 14th-century Italian doorstop. A re-read is not needed at this time. The series retains only Giovanni B’s framing device; 10 characters fleeing plague-ridden Florence and taking refuge in a countryside villa. In the book, they each tell a story a night to keep themselves entertained. Here, they have been invited by wealthy Count Leonardo to simply get on with life. It soon becomes as messy and soapy as you would expect of 10 strangers trying to settle down together – not least as one of them is an extremely attractive doctor.
That’s Dioneo (Amar Chadha-Patel), the servant of hypochondriac manbambino (“I thought my excrement looked extra black this morning”) Tindaro (Douggie McMeekin). They are both drawn to Licisca (Tanya Reynolds, Sex Education’s alien-pornography lover), a handmaiden posing as her padrona Filomena (Jessica Plummer) since the spoilt latter fell off a bridge on their way to the villa (a rescue attempt neglected, given the opportunities presented by her absence). Licisca is drawn to Dioneo, but must try to elicit a marriage proposal from his boss to secure her future.
