Movies News Talk
Although The Decameron is mostly a dark comedy, Netflix's version features a moving and sad moment required following the devastation of COVID-19.
In the most agonizing sequence, The Decameron's characters at last confront the unsaid anguish hovering over the whole show. They enumerate the persons they have lost, and everyone knows at least one Black Plague victim. Given 75 million to 200 million deaths during the Black Death (via Vaccines Work), the great number of deaths fits the actual account of the Black Plague. The occasion also felt all too relevant following the horrific occurrences during the height of the COVID-19 epidemic.
While numerous TV shows used COVID-19 in 2020, few have explored the worldwide epidemic afterward. When shows tackle it, the epidemic is usually hinted at subtly by characters donning masks or a casual comment. But the part in The Decameron where the characters recall the plague fatalities offers viewers a much-needed chance for delayed group grieving following COVID-19. Set against the backdrop of the more general dark comedy, the similarities to the contemporary epidemic give an already strong moment more poignancy.
Though the world might not have lost nearly as many people to the COVID-19 epidemic as Europe did during the Black Plague, the weight of the death is nonetheless great. This sequence in The Decameron deftly honors the terror, suffering, and loss the world's people went through. It gives viewers a time to stop and consider how fundamentally the COVID-19 epidemic changed our idea of normal. As COVID-19 progressively moves from a pandemic to an endemic, The Decameron also provides a catharsis.
Source: Vaccines Actually Work