Movies and television shows in the spoof genre must be tackled wisely. Not everyone can magically put out good spoofs; the material must make sense, and the context has to be understood by the audience watching it. Hotshot, Meet the Spartans, This is Spinal Tap, and The Dictator are some examples of spoof films that have mostly worked for people who enjoy a good laugh and understand the cultural context and significance.
The DeCameron, the brand-new Netflix original, covers the genres of black comedy and spoof. This eight-part show is based on the book of the same name by an Italian writer, Giovanni Boccaccio, that covers the story of many noblemen and women, along with their servants, trying to avoid being infected by the plague that has ravaged the entire country. The show begins with only a handful of noblemen in the city of Firenze, or what we today know as Florence, surviving the bubonic plague that has spread across the country. The disease has not spared anyone, and the rich themselves want to get away from the pain and deaths in the family, as many of them are invited to Villa Santa owned by Viscount Leonardo.
Viscount Leonardo is betrothed to noblewoman Pampinea, who imagines her upcoming wedding is going to be perfect. To fuel her imaginative world is her maid, Misia. The Villa Santa is managed by steward Sirisco and the cook Stratilia, who are the only people who are aware of Leonardo’s death due to the plague, and the invite being sent for his upcoming nuptials nevertheless. A rich nobleman, Tindaro, and his doctor, Dioneo, are also headed to Villa Santa having been invited. Tindaro is also the last remaining member of his family, and he abhors women and believes them to be gold diggers. His handsome doctor Dioneo keeps his master’s health in check, or at least claims to do so. Lady Filomena and her servant Licisca face the same fate as others in the town. The former is also one of the invitees to the small intimate wedding. Lady Filomena wants an escape but an angry Licisca impersonates Filomena, and she begins to receive all kinds of attention and possibly a marriage proposal as well. She is under threat when the real Filomena shows up.
Lady Neifile, a devout Christian, is married to Lord Panfilo, and it is understood right from the start that they are not meant for each other. As Neifile and Panfilo are attracted to Doctor Dioneo, there is a lot to unearth about both as they discover themselves at Villa Santa. As the aristocracy descends on the villa in the wake of the ravaging disease, a lot of issues and concerns are raised, and soon everyone realizes they probably cannot get along with each other, but they will have to manage. There is anger, resentment, denial, concern, lust, and attraction. Their fate in the villa is what the show tries to explain, and it is tedious.
First things first, there is no plot as such to The DeCameron. The show is more like a series of comedic gags after gags, but this structure is unintentional, and there seems no end to it. The gags are good in the beginning, but as the series progresses, it only gets worse, and there is no context or meaning to add any depth to it. The story of survival becomes more like a tale of them getting rid of each other with no explanation of why a certain event or a death took place. The writing of the show is extremely tortuous. It does not make sense as it beats around the bush and the narrative becomes strenuous halfway. The writing is neither crisp nor tight and it feels like reading a bad novel or a comic. The screenplay is nonexistent, as after a point, it seems the actors were just asked to do anything with the written material given to them. There is yelling, screaming, kidnapping, and death, but none of it adds any value, and the humor does not add any intended effect.
The screenplay wanted to talk about the class divide between the aristocrats and the people who are hired as their servants, how the rich take advantage of them and expect them to clean up after them. This narrative is used and overused to the point it gets repetitive. The point is made right from the start, but throwing the same thing in the audience’s face repeatedly only ruins the viewing experience. The DeCameron has an interesting premise, but it only declines as the show progresses.
The DeCameron will strike you as being oddly similar to a reality television show as all the odd balls are now stuck inside a house and they will have to find a way to get along. There is love and lust, but sadly and very quickly, this whole interesting set-up is ruined by bad direction. The onus of bad direction falls on the flaky storytelling, as there is no core plot on which the entire show should rely on. For the Hindi-speaking audience, the movie will surely remind them of the Housefull films. The unnecessary gags and intimate scenes only add to the runtime, making the show especially tedious. However, the show has one redeeming quality, which is that it shows women standing up to other women at times of adversity. But this narrative sadly is overpowered by more unnecessary subplots, which did not have any role to play in the bigger scheme of things.
The comedy is the biggest villain of The DeCameron, as it is very easy to notice not an ounce of effort was taken to make the show hilarious. The humor only gets worse, and what remains is for you to finish watching the show that does not seem to end. The DeCameron ends randomly, and there is no understanding of what could have led to such a conclusion. There are too many writers and we believe the show is a victim of “too many cooks spoil the broth” syndrome. There is no soul, emotion, or sentiment in the writing. Laughter is an emotion, and the show hardly explores it given that it is black comedy.
The editing has to be the laziest aspect, but that could be again credited to bad writing and direction, as it seemed the makers wanted to keep everything in. Each episode has a runtime of close to one hour, which is not necessary since this is a comedy show. The show ideally should have each episode running for only thirty minutes, as this is the length where such writing shines. Even though the production and the costumes are on point, it is the only element that somewhat works, but it cannot save the colossal dumpster fire the series is. The music of The DeCameron is just like any other show in recent times, the makers have begun to use many songs from the 1980s to seem cool and edgy. There is no performance that stands out. It is loud and irritating, and all the good actors have been wasted. The most common faces in the show are Saoirse-Monica Jackson from Derry Girls and Tanya Reynolds of Sex Education. Their acting prowess is underutilized, and it is a shame. Zosia Mamet as Pampinea is good in the beginning of the show, but she is reduced to screaming and shouting, and her performance ends up borderline over the top.
The show had the potential to be a decent spoof, but sadly, it became a lost cause very soon. The DeCameron is an awful spoof show that could have worked better as a movie.
