- Network: Netflix
- Series Premiere Date: Jul 25, 2024
Critic Reviews
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Netflix’s Decameron stays with 10 core characters—give or take a few peasants and mercenaries—throughout its eight-episode run. This ends up becoming a liability, as the series assumes that if we spend enough time with these rotten people, we’ll grow to love them. The assumption is incorrect. .... Some redemption arcs are more unearned than others, but only Mamet’s Pampinea has the guts to remain reprehensible until the end. Mamet and Hale also stand out for their ability to embody ridiculous characters without turning them into cartoons.
-
We’re giving The Decameron a lukewarm recommendation because there are characters that we do want to follow in this dark comedy, and we have confidence that the storytelling will help deepen the characters we don’t love. But the comedic elements don’t hit most of the time, and we wonder how much effort it will take viewers to really buy into the goings on at this Tuscan villa.
-
The Decameron isn't a bad show. It's just… fine. And with so much else now on offer, that's simply no longer good enough.
-
The Decameron‘s true darkness, when it arrives, is persuasive enough to make you wish the series had been striking that balance better the entire time. Instead, it makes the same mistake its heroes and villains do. It allows itself to pretend nothing matters, until it’s almost too late.
-
The Decameron falls between too many stools to be a triumph. But it is full of nice performances and lovely gowns (jewel-toned medieval drapery always beats 18th-century pastel puffery for me) and is good enough to mark out a place for itself even in the middle of the current glut of similar offerings.
-
There are spurts of entertainment to be found, and the game cast tries their damnedest to marry the scene-to-scene mood swings. (Reynolds would be my MVP, with Hale and Jackson as co-runners-up.) Time, however, is not on their side. The 60-minute episodes feel like two (or more) half-hour scripts cobbled together.
-
The weirdness is welcome, the concept has merit, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.