The Black Death Sparks Bacchanalian Excess In 'The Decameron' Trailer

“The pestilence has cast a strange spell on us all,” a partygoer insists in the trailer for Netflix's upcoming historical dramedy The Decameron, and if it weren't immediately obvious that this show is set in medieval Italy, you might wonder if it were actually set in our present-day instead. The vibes, as the kids say, are certainly right.  

A soapy dark comedy-drama, The Decameron follows the story of a group of rich, pretty, mostly young people invited to a lush villa in the countryside to hide out and escape the deadly plague that's ravaging Florence. The group sets out to do little more than eat, drink, and be merry. But as social rules among the group wear thin, chaos ensues, and it's suddenly everyone for themselves, in every sense of the word. Does the threat of imminent death bring out the best or the worst in humanity? Or simply expose our true selves? 

The eight-part series is very loosely inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century collection of tales, which is also called The Decameron. The hundred short stories are told by a group of young people --- seven women and three men --- over ten days while sheltering together in a villa while the Black Death raged nearby. The tales include everything from tragic love stories and moral life lessons to witty jokes and bawdy sexual encounters, often satirizing familiar medieval storytelling methods such as allegory and basing many of their characters on real people. 

Much like Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales --- which Boccaccio's work would one day influence --- The Decameron has cultural significance that goes beyond its literary value. The collection provides something close to a contemporaneous historical record of how the plague struck Florence in 1348, how people reacted to the outbreak, and the staggering number of deaths that followed. Ultimately somewhere between 30-50 million people would die before the Black Death passed, and the aftermath would see most of European society restructured completely. 

Whether any of these more realistic elements will find their way into the Netflix series inspired by the original Italian short stories is anyone's guess. If the trailer is anything to go by, this Decameron seems to be a chaotic tale of excess and debauchery, that may or may not have something to say about any of the themes raised by the original. But the idea of a group of wealthy people who think their status means they can (or somehow deserve to) escape a deadly pandemic feels more timely than even Boccaccio himself could likely have ever predicted.

Here's the series' 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.

Saoirse-Monica Jackson (Derry Girls) and Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education) co-star alongside Zosia Mamet (Dickinson) and Jessica Plummer (The Girl Before). The rest of the ensemble cast includes Amar Chadha-Patel (The Wheel of Time), Lou Gala (Julia), Karan Gill (Flesh & Blood), Douggie McMeekin (Harlots), Leila Farzad (I Hate Suzie), and Tony Hale (Drunk History). 

The Decameron is created by Kathleen Jordan (Teenage Bounty Hunters), who also serves as showrunner and lead writer, alongside James Rogers III, Anthony Natoli, Megan King Kelly, Marie Hanhnhon Nguyen, Zoe Jarman, and Stephen Unckles. Ratched's Mike Uppendahl directs four of the show's eight episodes, with Andrew DeYoung and Anya Adams splitting helming duties across the other four. 

"When the COVID-19 pandemic happened, I wanted to figure out how to write about it and the things I was noticing in our culture with a little bit of ironic distance," Jordan tells Entertainment Weekly. "It occurred to me that the plague is a good breeding ground for some of those thematic conversations."

Jordan also executive produces alongside Jenji Kohan (Orange is the New Black), Blake McCormick (Mad Men), and Tara Herrmann. 

The Decameron premieres Thursday, July 25 on Netflix.