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The Decameron review: 14th-century romp is a veiled satire of today

Netflix's adaptation of The Decameron adds style and literary tropes to a licentious Renaissance classic. But it keeps the original's attacks on class and power, while also providing food for thought about today's elite tech preppers, says Bethan Ackerley

By Bethan Ackerley

7 August 2024

THE DECAMERON. (L to R) Tony Hale as Sirisco, Karan Gill as Panfilo, Lou Gala as Neifile, Douggie McMeekin as Tindaro, Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Misia, Zosia Mamet as Pampinea, Tanya Reynolds as Licisca, and Amar Chadha-Patel as Dioneo in Episode 103 of The Decameron. Cr. Giulia Parmigiani/Netflix ?? 2023

What to do when plague calls? Retreat to a country mansion and party

Giulia Parmigiani/Netflix

The Decameron
Kathleen Jordan
Netflix

The influential thinker and writer Douglas Rushkoff was once summoned to an audience with five Silicon Valley billionaires. As he recounts in Survival of the Richest, their concern was impending apocalypse – not how they might prevent it, but how to outrun it. The preppers quizzed Rushkoff on threats to humanity and where to build their bunkers. But most crucial was how they could stop their hired security, required to deal with angry mobs storming the proverbial gates, from…

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