Put aside Choderlos de Laclos’ novel. Forget the magisterial 1988 film version starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich. The new eight-part Starz adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons (Prime Video) is billed as the origin story of the marquise de Merteuil and vicomte de Valmont we know and love-hate. You’re better off thinking of it as Bridgerton in France. Gossip Girl in powdered wigs. Game of Thrones in silks, slaying only reputations. Which is to say: park your brain at the door and enjoy the ride.
We are in Paris, 1793. Les peasants are revolteeng, but Camille (Alice Englert) and Pascal (Nicholas Denton) are young and in love and care nothing for the scent of revolution in the air, nor the terrible script they have been tasked with delivering. Nor for any kind of French accent. Englert in fact seems to be aggressively Englishing hers instead, which does make it hard to understand on occasion. “Take me somewhaa I’m not paaaaawh!” she says breathlessly to Pascal. When he spins a dreamy yarn about how that might be accomplished, she slightly unfairly asks, “Have you forgotten my dat?” This, it transpires, means “debt”. Camille (the marquise de Merteuil-to-be) is a courtesan in hock to her madam. Pascal (the vicomte de Valmont come the day) is a mapmaker with a side hustle in seducing rich, titled ladies in the hope of being rewarded with riches and a title.
