Series · Prime Video · 2022
The Serpent Queen
A court, cold and witty. Useful as a warning about power. Not a queen to imitate.
Catherine's narration is the show's trick and its limit. A woman who was bought, ignored, and then necessary is a true story. A woman who teaches a girl that poison is competence is a dangerous tutor.
Adults who know the century can watch the politics. Do not let the asides become the history. The bodies of Saint Bartholomew are not a punchline.
The eight
Industry
5/10
Ruling is shown as management: marriages, debts, poison, a household of rivals.
Household
4/10
Children are pieces and also, sometimes, the reason she will not yield.
Piety
2/10
Religion is a faction. The massacre sits in the history whether the show flinches or not.
Courage
6/10
She outlasts men who were supposed to replace her.
Republic
5/10
A kingdom as a court. The people are offstage.
Temperance
4/10
The wit is the pleasure. Cruelty is the method, and the show enjoys the method.
Truth
6/10
It does not pretend the court was kind. It does let her charm the record.
Stewardship
3/10
What she hands the girl is a lesson in survival, which is not the same as a conscience.
Live historicallyIf you admire a person who survived a cruel room, ask what the survival cost the people who were not in on the joke.