Television series
The Serpent Queen
Samantha Morton's Catherine de Medici narrates her own survival story from within a fire, and that framing device tells you everything: this is history reworked as reality TV, all sharp asides and knowing looks to camera. It's gossipy, funny, occasionally vicious, and far more interested in how power actually gets held than in costume-drama reverence. Good for anyone who wants their history with teeth and a wink.
If you liked this
The Favourite2018
The same trick of turning court intrigue into black comedy, with women who out-manoeuvre every man in the room while everyone underestimates them completely. Ferocious performances, filthy wit.
But The fisheye lens and deliberate anachronism can feel like a stylistic dare rather than a choice.

The Great2020
Elle Fanning's Catherine the Great gets the exact same anachronistic, sweary, gleefully unfaithful treatment — an outsider bride learning that charm is a weapon and patience is a longer one.
But It's subtitled 'an occasionally true story' for a reason; if you want accuracy, look elsewhere.

Wolf Hall2015
Trade the French court for the English one and swap wit for whispers — this is court survival played dead serious, all silences and calculation, with Mark Rylance quietly owning every scene.
But Slow, hushed, and deliberately unglamorous. No fourth-wall winks here, just dread.

The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Succession2018
Both are studies in dynastic survival where marriage, blood and betrayal are just business — Succession just moved the throne room into a boardroom.
Swap sixteenth-century France for a Manhattan media empire and you've got the same engine: a family devouring itself over inheritance, loyalty as currency, and outsiders learning the rules fast or dying by them.
But No swords, no gowns — if you want the historical texture, this satisfies none of that craving.

More like this (7)
Versailles2015
Sumptuous, soapy, and unembarrassed about mixing real politics with a lot of candlelit scheming and bedroom alliances. If you liked the palace intrigue, here's more of it, dialled up.
But Leans harder into melodrama and nudity than insight; style often wins over substance.

Elizabeth1998
Cate Blanchett's young queen learns, like Catherine, that survival means becoming someone colder than she started — a masterclass in the transformation from prey to predator.
But Plays fast and loose with history and takes itself far more solemnly than Serpent Queen ever does.

Marie Antoinette2006
Sofia Coppola's take on another foreign-born teenager dropped into Versailles, isolated and judged, but shot as pop-art fever dream rather than tragedy.
But Mood and texture over plot — if you want political maneuvering, this mostly floats past it.

Mary Queen of Scots2018
Two queens, one throne, and the brutal arithmetic of what a woman must sacrifice to keep power. Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie make the rivalry feel genuinely tragic.
But Compresses decades of history into two hours, so nuance sometimes gets flattened.

The Tudors2007
Lush, horny, and unafraid to treat royal marriage as the blood sport it was — a good companion piece if you liked watching alliances made and broken in bedrooms.
But Historical fidelity takes a back seat to spectacle almost every episode.

Medici2016no page yet
Goes back to Catherine's own family's rise, showing the ruthless Florentine banking dynasty that shaped her worldview before she ever set foot in France.
But Slower and more earnest, without the sly narration that makes Serpent Queen so much fun.
The Rose of Versailles1979no page yet
Same palace intrigue and the same idea of a woman surviving by performing a role — just told in a wildly different medium and a much more sincere key.
A classic anime melodrama set at the French court decades later, following a woman raised as a man to guard the queen — huge feelings, sweeping tragedy, and surprisingly sharp politics under the sparkle.
But Animation style is very much of its era, and the emotional register runs far more earnest and operatic than ironic.
People
Cast
Writing
- Justin HaytheCreator
Production
- Elizabeth ChakkappanAssociate Producer
- Willa WhalenAssociate Producer
- Ariella BlejerCo-Executive Producer
- Ashley CardiffCo-Executive Producer
- Cameron MacConomyCo-Executive Producer
- Dawn KamocheCo-Executive Producer
- Jessica BrickmanCo-Executive Producer
- Brad RohrerCo-Producer
- Erwin StoffExecutive Producer
- Francis LawrenceExecutive Producer
- Justin HaytheExecutive Producer
- Stacie PassonExecutive Producer
- John BernardProducer
- Nick O'HaganProducer