The Serpent Queen

Review of Starz's "The Serpent Queen," a wickedly fun take on Catherine de Medici played by Samantha Morton.

"The Serpent Queen" premieres at Sunday, Sept. Easy as it would be to make Diane and Catherine's rivalry into an episodic sport, Sagnier and Hill, and Morton in later episodes, knit an uneasy détente that waxes and wanes in a way that ensures the tension in their performances never slackens. "The Serpent Queen" may be the latest Starz drama that plumbs the ghastly inner workings of court intrigue to remind us that in the past, as now, a woman's life was far from the stuff of fables. Everyone's working an angle to keep their heads on their shoulders, giving even her servants and confidantes who journey with her from Italy (wonderfully rendered by Kiruna Stamell, Amrita Acharia and Ruby Bentall ) a measure of power others don't possess. There's little about the Renaissance-era politics at play in "The Serpent Queen" that isn't familiar to viewers who favor period pieces like this. In choosing to adapt Leonie Frieda biography's with more claws and swagger, Haythe vindicates Catherine in ways today's audience likely understands better than those who might've watch her even a few years ago. Morton's cutting gaze, sly smile, and dangerously honeyed way of relaying Catherine's story establish an anxiety that buzzes with a seduction. [Britain's recently departed monarch](https://www.salon.com/topic/queen_elizabeth), there's no shortage of TV queens at the moment. But she's also constantly on guard, knowing her daughter-in-law Mary Queen of Scots (Antonia Clarke) would gladly see her deposed. Rahima is a pious young woman who puts up with the other servants' dehumanizing treatment, saying nothing when they refer to her as "It." And she does this while regularly reminding Rahima that while she may be her benefactor, that could change on a whim. [Catherine de Medici as a cultivator of chaos](https://www.salon.com/2012/04/07/the_bad_marriage_plot/).

Starz's new darkly satirical period drama The Serpent Queen tells the story of Catherine de' Medici, one of the most reviled monarchs in history, and takes ...

With Morton doing the framing, it looks like we’re going to cover the whole arc of Catherine’s life, so jumping ahead to perhaps the birth of her first child might be on the near agenda. In many ways a biography somewhat typical of the modern era, with a contemporary soundtrack and various formal quirks like regular fourth-wall breaks, the new series is reminiscent of everything from Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favorite to Hulu’s recent This article is a preview of The Serpent Queen season 1, episode 2 and contains details of the release date and where to watch online.

The actress calls the modern costume drama about Catherine de Medici "Goodfellas in the Renaissance."

“There's a complexity to her that I love to play, and also her story gets wilder and wilder, and it's absolutely fascinating. “I realized I knew more about her than I thought because of how the events that unfolded in her life have permeated society and are still here today,” she says. “I hope we get to tell it all because it's incredible,” she says. “The first time that we talked to Samantha, we said, ‘Well, how do you see the show?’” recalls executive producer Erwin Stoff. She's the cleverest person in the room at all times, and that's hard because you can't outwit everyone all the time. “Then I saw that it was The Serpent Queen, and I was like, ‘Oh, I know about that! “Stories that inspire us need to be told,” she says. Morton also did her homework, reading about Medici and studying her life, and became convinced that hers was a story that required closer examination. That's the trick: the truth of the story has to come first.” “I’d ask her who they had to play Catherine, and she’d say, ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ At that point I was this outside observer, but I was really interested, so I was suggesting all of these actresses I thought would be brilliant.” “As well as a huge responsibility to give her authenticity the best I could. Creator Justin Haythe’s version of history—which also stars Charles Dance, Liv Hill, and Ludivine Sagnier, among others—isn’t just another costume drama, instead it tells the story of a young girl who was raised in an orphanage and became one of history’s most powerful women.

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 ...

Catherine sees the orange she was eating and seems satisfied she found a new confidant. 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. 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. But in the few scenes with Morton we do see, we see how the years have made her even more cunning and wary. 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. Because she sees herself in the young Rahima, she starts to tell her story.

A new series debuts on Sunday night when The Serpent Queen premieres on STARZ at 8 p.m. ET. The show is the story of Catherine de Medici who, ...

The show dives into the history of de Medici. The show is the story of Catherine de Medici who, against all odds, became one of the most powerful and longest serving rulers in French history. A new series debuts on Sunday night when The Serpent Queen premieres on STARZ at 8 p.m.

Samantha Morton is thrillingly great as anti-hero Catherine de Medici in Starz's series 'The Serpent Queen.'

How will Catherine navigate the treacherous, misogynistic French court, and how will she use her power with allies and enemies? Catherine also chooses her retinue, Mathilde (Kiruna Stamell), a survivor of the convent attack, to be her fool; fortune teller Ruggieri (Enzo Cilenti) she met earlier as her magician; Aabis (Amrita Acharia), a dressmaker; and a parfumier's daughter, Angelika. She returns to Henri's room and receives a rude shock: Diane is in bed with Henri, smirking at Catherine over his head. The two women bond at the wedding banquet, and Diane gives her a quick rundown of the court, pointing out the members of the King's council and other power players. Like many upper-class women in the period, she was dumped into a convent where she ended up as a servant, like Rahima, bullied and abused. Her parents died of syphilis, and her grandmother died shortly after when she was a young child. Diane is a widow, very enthusiastic about being not under the control of a husband or male relatives. Rahima (Sennia Nanua) is the very lowest in the servants' pecking order, and she's been chosen by the kitchen staff to serve the Queen because they're all terrified of her. France, 1560: The aging Catherine of Medici (Samantha Morton), Queen of France, is bored. So when a lowly servant arrives with a trayful of food, Catherine decides to entertain herself in the way she does best––lure in a victim with easy, vicious charm. She knows all about the sort of treatment Rahima experiences. Was Catherine of Medici a monster or a damaged child?

Irreverent Starz series tells the tale of the cutthroat French monarch.

People are gonna be in for a ride, and I think they’re really gonna enjoy the relationship dynamics between both of them. I love the fact that — she actually said this in some interviews — she channeled a mafia don, that Catherine was kind of the original Goodfellas. For me, that was really, obviously a very generous thing of her to say, because she must have known there was a little bit of imposter syndrome or being overwhelmed by tackling such a character — and also stepping into the shoes of Samantha Morton! I think that is well deserved, but also I think it’s important because there is, especially as the show progresses, a lot of power play and political and foreign policy discussions. I think audiences will see it’s a really juicy series with lots of love triangles, the quite universal unreciprocated love. I remember that my sole intention for the whole time I was working on the three episodes I worked on was survival, and that kind of influenced how I was motivated during my scenes. Later in the further episodes, it’s about trying to secure her place in court by having a baby. She doesn’t even realize people cared about her until her uncle came to get her in a rather violent way, and then she rolls with everything that happens next. I think it absolutely is a risk she had to take. Catherine squares up against her uncle, the Pope, in the premiere a couple of times — challenging him, forcing his hand with her dowry. [Samantha Morton](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/samantha-morton/) ( [Tales of The Walking Dead](https://www.tvinsider.com/show/tales-of-the-walking-dead/)) leads as the adult Catherine in the series, which premiered Sunday, September 11, but her younger counterpart, 22-year-old [Liv Hill](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/liv-hill/), is the main event of the series premiere as the 14-year-old Italian royal. Born in 1519, she grew to be a cutthroat and power-hungry monarch during her rule.

The Serpent Queen Season 1 Episode 1 introduces us to Catherine de Medici, both young and in her prime, and our views on the evil queen...

She's a member of the On that day, many years earlier, Catherine learned not to trust a single soul in the world. All of that went out the window on her wedding day, thanks to her cousin, Diane de Poitiers. Life may have given her lemons, but she'd had a lifetime of making lemonade. As smart as she was, Catherine still got swept up in the moment. She was eager to get to know him and be his wife. It's an ugly story in which, from the moment of her birth, Catherine was nothing more than a pawn on a chessboard. The daughter of the most hated family in Italy, Catherine was tossed aside like rubbish. Our armies are beaten; our soldiers who didn't have the foresight to get themselves killed in the field of battle are all starving; the people blame the Medicis, which makes you the offspring of the most despised family in Europe. Catherine was like a sponge, listening and learning at every opportunity. She's ornery and unwilling to sit back and allow all decisions made for her to be made without her. One can always hope that the world won't let you down even when you've come to expect it, to rely on it.

Breathtaking and wondrous, Samantha Morton and Liv Hill shine in The Serpent Queen. TheSerpentQueenTopper Starz. If you've been tuning into ...

Bottom line: The Serpent Queen is a bold spectacle, perfect for our times. As the queen’s confidant, Mathilde, she lights up the screen whenever she appears in a scene. The actress commands the screen, delivering a pitch-perfect, award-worthy performance to relish. Morton infuses Catherine with a steely resolve, stuffing whatever discomfort she may have, and goes about the task of later redirecting the course of her fate. Danny Kirrane stands out as Louis de Bourbon, who has a vested interest in controlling the king’s financial interests so long as they benefit him, his family, and his country. It’s one of the most lavish, fully imagined series to come along in a while, hitting just the right beats, knowing when not to be overbearing. A lot of that comes from the creative end, but Samantha Morton delivers that “edge”—in spades. The Serpent Queen tells the story of Catherine de Medici (played here by Liv Hill and Oscar-nominee Samantha Morton) who, against all odds, became one of the most powerful and longest-serving rulers in French history. “It’s a shame you didn’t inherit your mother’s looks,” the pope muses to his niece. As played by Morton in Catherine’s later years, she seems to be defending her actions, revealing the lessons she’s learned to a new servant girl, Rahima (Sennia Nanua). If you’re a fan of their films, take note: they bring stellar production value to The Serpent Queen. Wickedly fun, thoroughly inventive, and bound to become addictive viewing, The Serpent Queen is royal filmmaking at its finest.

Mob figures such as Tony Soprano, Don Corleone from "The Godfather" were major influences on the new Starz series "The Serpent Queen" starring Samantha ...

Morton explained how this use of speaking directly to the viewer is key to making the show feel modern and draws comparisons to “Fleabag” star and creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. It wasn’t new on ‘Fleabag.’ We’ve always had that breaking the fourth wall, talking to the camera,” she added. But I quite liked the fact that it isn’t so stuffy.” “She [Waller-Bridge] breaks the fourth wall so brilliantly [in ‘Fleabag’],” the British actress said. You think about ‘The Sopranos’ or ‘The Godfather’ or [‘Goodfellas,’ ](https://nypost.com/2022/08/09/remembering-the-best-cinematic-gangsters/)they’re always men,” she stated. “We wanted to approach her like you would [‘The Godfather’](https://nypost.com/2022/03/24/the-gutsy-calls-pranks-and-fate-that-made-the-godfather/) or Don Corleone.

Goldstone talked to IndieWire via Zoom and explained that de Medici was not only a fierce strategist, but a brutal and bloody queen with a bevy of murders under ...

Goldstone noted Catherine de Medici was also a proponent of Nostradamus, the infamous astrologer who claimed to predict all manner of future events. While Catherine loved the mysticism of the time period, it’s impossible to know if the series is taking artistic liberties with Catherine believing she can see the future in her dreams. The young de Medici lived in relative comfort until she was eight years old, when the de Medici power faction was overthrown and Catherine was placed in a series of convents. [hopping into bed together](https://www.indiewire.com/2022/06/becoming-elizabeth-review-starz-tudor-drama-dares-different-1234729648/), “The Serpent Queen” situates the relationship between young Catherine (Liv Hill) and Henry (Alex Heath) as one-sided. Because of that, she wasn’t on the same level as her husband but was still a worthy choice for the second son of the King of France to marry. Unlike the series, which presents Catherine as being trapped in a physically abusive convent before she’s liberated by her uncle Pope Clement VII (Charles Dance), it was this final location that Catherine claimed she lived the happiest days of her life, according to the biography “Women of Power: The Life and Times of Catherine de Medici.” In Kathleen Wellman’s book “Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France,” Henry and Diane de Poitiers became romantically involved the year after he married Catherine de Medici; Henry was 15 and Diane was 35. In fact, much of the early episodes’ emphasis on Catherine’s extensive dowry was to further prove she was not a commoner. And Catherine understood Henry’s devotion to Diane so would feign being nice to her. Diane didn’t want Henry overthrown because of an illegitimate marriage, so she regularly forced him to do his “kingly duties” with Catherine — Catherine would bear 10 legitimate children for Henry. Filled with fourth-wall breaks, and a joke that feels pulled directly from Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas,” “The Serpent Queen” almost feels like the anti-historical drama. Catherine de Medici was born to Lorenzo de Medici, the Duke of Urbino and his wife, Madeleine, the Countess of Boulogne.

Should The Serpent Queen viewers trust Catherine's narration? Creator Justin Haythe weighed in.

[about the future Queen Elizabeth I](https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/why-becoming-elizabeth-star-alicia-von-rittberg-thought-there-was-a-mistake-in-her-audition-to-play-elizabeth-tudor) ending just a little over a month before The Serpent Queen premiered), this is a different kind of series. [The Serpent Queen](https://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/100412901/type/dlg/sid/cinemablend-us-1307348956867460600/https://www.starz.com/us/en/series/the-serpent-queen/64208) (opens in new tab) with new episodes on Sundays at 8 p.m. Sundays are competitive nights of television this fall [thanks to House of the Dragon](https://www.cinemablend.com/game-of-thrones-news/should-house-of-the-dragon-fans-read-george-rr-martins-fire-and-blood-i-have-thoughts-after-the-game-of-thrones-prequel-premiere) bringing the Game of Thrones universe back to HBO at 9 p.m. After the first episode, her purpose seemed almost to toy with Rahima for her own entertainment, but there’s certainly going to be more to the story there. While young Catherine is directly addressing viewers, it’s actually because the older version is telling this story to Rahima, played by Sennia Nanua. Even before the first episode aired in