The Serpent Queen is the most recent outdated historical drama to utilise the past to explain modern gender dynamics. The nonfiction book Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda served as the inspiration for the Lionsgate Play series. The Serpent Queen, an adaptation by Justin Haythe and a film by Stacie Passon and Ingrid Jungermann, is a gritty pop history lesson in the vein of Marie Antoinette, The Favourite, and The Duel.
Catherine (Liv Hill), who married into the French royal family at the age of 14, struggles to get over the scandal surrounding her Medici ancestry. She must start working right once to produce the heirs that will guarantee her position in the court. Aside from when it isn’t with legal partners, having sex is a chore and marriage is a requirement.
Henri, Catherine’s husband (Alex Heath), is more intrigued by Diane, her cousin (Ludivine Sagnier). Catherine receives an early survival tip from the more knowledgeable Diane. One of the many examples of foreshadowing throughout the five episodes of the show is when Diane informs Catherine that being a widow is the best thing a woman can expect to be and the closest thing you have to freedom.
Samantha Morton plays an elder version of the queen who tells the idealistic maid Rahima about Catherine’s mishaps (Sennia Nanua). While Roman Catholics and Protestants battle it out for the King’s ear, Catherine makes frantic attempts to conceive a child. By the time she meets Rahima, Catherine seems to have beaten her enemies, but a new foe enters the picture: her honourable and cunning daughter-in-law Mary Stuart.