The Seduction

The Seduction is a good looking series with fine performances and enough kinkiness to satisfy fans of boddice-ripping period dramas.

This is historical bodice-ripping done right, albeit with the occasional lost-in-translation moment (maybe Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” cover has yet to become a soundtrack cliché on the continent). Philosophy is as quintessentially French as romance, though.

So long as you're not expecting iron-clad faithfulness to the enduring, admittedly superior and nearly 250-year-old novel, The Seduction will easily ensnare you as a handsomely appointed, inspired creation all its own.

Director Jessica Palud loosens up the buttons on this whole affair and never lets things lag in creator Jean-Baptiste Delafon’s bad people behaving badly period piece with a take-command performance from Vartolomei.

The Seduction almost certainly won’t be for everyone. Its characters are largely selfish and unlikeable, its midsection gets a bit draggy at various points—the show is probably an episode too long—and its themes are certainly not what anyone would call subtle. But there’s something deeply appealing about its determination to plot its own path. And, like the heroine at its center, it mostly finds its way.

It’s gorgeous—at one point, Valmont is framed between curtains with such exquisite lighting, he’s like an Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun painting. The acting is engaging, embodying the characters with a pretentious capriciousness fitting the aristocrats of that time, and the writing moves along. I’m struggling to define why this show didn’t spark for me, except I was bored.

While the performances and filmmaking alone make for some powerful moments filled with lust and revenge, the overarching narrative just doesn't have the bite something based on Dangerous Liaisons should carry.