Netflix is embracing the dirty side of the dark ages with the first trailer for “The Decameron,” Kathleen Jordan’s upcoming comedy that’s also executive produced by Jenji Kohan. The Netflix original premieres on July 25.
Filled with shots of sickly people coughing, the trailer starts with a title card placing this series in the middle of the Black Plague in 1348 Florence, Italy. As death fills the streets, the series zooms in on the privileged, healthy and wealthy nobles as they travel to their countryside retreat in Villa Santa.
“We’re here to eat and drink and move into a bright new future,” Pampinea (Zosia Mamet) says in the trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qevpw-h-4o
It isn’t long before that bright future includes some risqué offerings. “I’ve been having sinful thoughts,” Licisca (Tanya Reynolds) confesses in a voiceover as the camera shows her watching a shirtless man bathe in a fountain.
But it’s not all steamy confessions as this group’s plan to wait out the plague in an idyllic wine and sex-soaked paradise quickly goes south. The series follows these nobles and their staffs as they’re forced to fight for their survival as the world around them is on the brink of death. Watch the full trailer above.
“‘The Decameron’ is a soapy dark comedy that examines the all-too-timely theme of class struggles in the season of a pandemic,” a press release for the series reads. Loosely based on a series of short stories from 14th century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio, the eight-episode comedy comes from Jordan, who is known for being the showrunner of “Teenage Bounty Hunters” and a writer for “American Princess.”
In addition to Mamet and Reynolds, the comedy also stars Amar Chadha-Patel, Leila Farzad, Lou Gala, Karan Gill, Tony Hale, Saoirse-Monica Jackson Douggie McMeekin and Jessica Plummer.
The series is executive produced by Jordan and Kohan (“Glow,” “Teenage Bounty Hunters,” “Orange Is the New Black”) through Kohan’s Tilted Productions. Other executive producers include director Michael Uppendahl (“Fargo,” “American Crime Story”) as well as Tilted’s Blake McCormick and Tara Herrmann.
