１５６０年フランス。新国王の即位を控えた王太后カトリーヌ・ド・メディシスは自らの半生を語り始める。不遇の少女時代を経てフランス王家に嫁いだ彼女は、孤立無援の中、愛する夫との関係に悩み、異国で生き残りをかけ権力闘争へとのめり込んでいく。状況を見抜く力に長け、夫の参謀としての地位を確立しながらも、自分は王位を継承できない彼女だが、幼い新国王の摂政の座をつかめば実質的な権力者になれる。カトリック勢力、プロテスタント勢力との三つどもえの争いに、常に軽んじられてきた「黒い王妃」カトリーヌの容赦ない策略が動き出す。
In spite of superficially, being a tale about 16th century Italian noblewoman Catherine de' Medici, who eventually became a French Queen, looking at this production you might be forgiven for thinking you were at watching a polished historical larper's party, in 21st century woke England. There's nothing terribly Italian about this series. Its vibe is very Brit down to its boots and sadly, this tends to undermine the presentation of what is supposed to be an Italian historical drama. Its cause is further weakened by the predictable and tiresome revisionist perspective, it adopts, laden down with historically inaccurate woke twaddle. Making Catherine out to be an "empowered woman" in the modern feminist idiom, facing down the patriarchy, fails to acknowledge who she was and that, essentially, was a ruthless noblewoman and ruler. Anyone wanting to shed woke crocodile tears for poor oppressed Catherine, need only read some of her rather terrifying and chilling letters. All of this is a shame and rather wasteful, in my view, given the quality casting and high production values. In summary, blindly revisionist nonsense, any half decent historian would write off for the historical fiction, it truly represents.
