Picture the scene: a deadly pandemic is sweeping the nation, causing debilitating sickness, record numbers of deaths and mass panic, and no one knows how to cure it, how to avoid it, or even how it’s being spread. No, we’re not talking about Covid in 2020 – this is 1348, and the bubonic plague is rife in fair Florence, where we lay our scene. We enter the world of Netflix ’s dark comedy The Decameron as the Tuscan city is being ravaged by the Black Death, a pestilence which would become known as one of the most fatal pandemics in human history, and from which perhaps 50 per cent of Europe’s 14th century population would perish.
But, for the rich and glamorous nobles of the city, none of that really matters, since they can sack off city life for the Italian countryside, running away from the hacking coughs and unsightly buboes of the infected to a lavish villa with their servants. READ MORE - Saoirse-Monica Jackson looks unrecognisable in 'wine-soaked sex romp' period drama READ MORE - Saoirse Monica Jackson set to star alongside Sean Bean in gritty gangland drama Locked away to wait out the plague, however, social rules soon begin to wear thin, and the self-isolation transcends into a wine-soaked sex romp. But it’s not all raunchy fun and games when the luxurious retreat becomes a scramble for survival, showing how during times of crisis the rift between the haves and have-nots grows wider.
While The Decameron – loosely inspired by the 14th century story collect.
