WISE Score
Avg. Tomatometer
Catherine de Medici breaks the fourth wall to show you exactly how to survive a 16th-century death trap with style and a little bit of poison.
100%
100%View →The Serpent Queen is basically 'House of Cards' with better outfits and higher stakes. It’s mean, fast-paced, and incredibly fun if you have the stomach for it.
It treats history like a playground rather than a museum, which makes it one of the most engaging shows in the genre. Just keep the remote away from the kids—the 'bloodsport' of the French monarchy involves way too much nudity and neck-slicing for the under-16 set.
This is strictly for the 17+ crowd. It’s a brilliant, sharp-edged drama for adults who like 'Succession' or 'The Great,' but it’s far too graphic for a family movie night.
This isn't a show about kindness; it's about survival in a pit of vipers. Catherine de Medici stays alive through manipulation, cold calculation, and occasionally literal poison. It's 'darkly satirical' and vicious by design.
It ditches the stuffy period drama tropes for a punk-rock energy. The fourth-wall breaking and anachronistic soundtrack make a 500-year-old story feel immediate and clever.
It's on Starz, which should be your first clue. Expect graphic nudity, explicit sex scenes, and the kind of brutal 16th-century violence that makes you wince. Absolutely not for kids or younger teens.
Samantha Morton’s performance is a masterclass. While it plays fast and loose with historical facts, it offers a fascinating look at power dynamics, misogyny, and the psychological cost of political maneuvering.
If you’re tired of period dramas that feel like a slow walk through a dusty museum, this is your antidote. It belongs to that specific, modern breed of "revisionist history" where the costumes are gorgeous but the attitudes are jagged. Think of it as a political thriller that just happens to take place in the 1500s.
Most shows about queens focus on the burden of the crown or the romance of the court. This show is about the math of survival. Catherine de Medici starts with nothing—no money, no looks (by the court's shallow standards), and no allies. Watching her turn those deficits into weapons is the main event. She breaks the fourth wall to explain her moves to us, which gives the whole thing a conspiratorial, dark-comedy energy.
Samantha Morton is the reason this works. She plays the older Catherine with a stillness that is genuinely unsettling. When she’s on screen, the show stops being a fun romp and starts feeling like a chess match where the loser gets executed. Critics aren't exaggerating with that 100% Rotten Tomatoes score; it’s rare to see a performance this controlled in a genre that usually rewards scenery-chewing.
While big-budget fantasy epics were sucking up all the oxygen over the last few years, this show quietly delivered more tension and better writing than most of them. It’s been compared to The Great, but it’s less whimsical and more vicious. If you liked the family infighting and power-grabbing in Succession, you’ll recognize the DNA here. The French court is basically a corporate boardroom where HR doesn't exist and everyone carries a dagger.
The "anachronistic" vibe—using modern language and a contemporary soundtrack—might annoy history purists, but it serves a purpose. It strips away the "thee" and "thou" distance and reminds you that these were actual people making life-or-death gambles.
This isn't a show you can just "put on" while the kids are playing nearby. Starz has a reputation for being the "adults-only" corner of the streaming world, and this series leans into that. Between the sudden bursts of period-accurate brutality and the very explicit bedroom politics, you’ll want to make sure your digital fences are up.
If you’re sharing your account with older teens who are drawn to the "royal" aesthetic, it’s worth checking out our Starz Streaming: A Parent’s Guide to PINs, Profiles, and 'Power' to make sure you’ve got the right guardrails in place. This isn't a show you want a twelve-year-old stumbling into because they liked a clip of the outfits on social media.
We see a lot of "strong female lead" stories that feel forced or sanitized. Catherine de Medici is neither. She is often unlikeable, frequently cruel, and entirely pragmatic. That’s what makes it compelling. It asks how much of your soul you’d be willing to shred to stay alive in a place that wants you dead. For parents looking for a sharp, cynical, and highly intelligent binge after the house is finally quiet, this is a top-tier pick.
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