Dangerous Liaisons
Most people aren't familiar with the actual text of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, instead they are familiar with the Christopher Hampton adaptation, who interestingly is an executive producer on this show. That adaptation for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1985 has formed the basis of all the adaptations since, from John Malkovich and Glenn Close to Colin Firth and Annette Bening to Ryan Phillippe and Sarah Michelle Gellar, they were all inspired by that interpretation of the text. In fact the 2015 National Theatre staging of Hampton's play with Janet McTeer and Dominic West might be one of my favorite productions ever. And yet, even in perfection there are a lot of issues I have with the source material, issues that are resolved in this adaptation by almost completely ignoring the book, the play, and any other form of the original story, to tell their own tale where revenge is justified and at some point every cast member of Game of Thrones shows up. You think I'm joking? Melisandre is married to Jaqen H'ghar in the most terrifying fanfic mashup of all time. But then again Valmont looks like the lovechild of Eddie Redmayne and Christian Slater while Camille is a pre-revolutionary French doppelganger for Portia from The White Lotus. And of course Lesley Manville shows up because she is now contractually obligated to be in everything. The only way that she had time to stop in as Valmont's opponent, Madame de Merteuil, is that they do the unthinkable and kill her off in the first episode. What is Valmont without Merteuil? Well, that is one of the things this series plays with. It takes things that are familiar in the book and all it's adaptations and it plays with it. It bats it around like a playful kitten until you get something entirely new yet familiar. The book is an epistolary novel and it is with letters that we begin, letters as weapons. Weapons that can be used for real revenge not just petty jealousies. It's not Merteuil pouting that her lover lost interest, it's Camille systematically destroying the society that ground her down and didn't believe her when she cried rape. This is Dangerous Liaisons for the MeToo era. Yes, there might still be rape, but it's not Madame de Merteuil telling Valmont to rape a rival, it's the seed for revenge. In fact Merteuil's taking Camille under her wing is so that this young, wronged woman will be able to exact the revenge that Merteuil herself could never enact against her own husband, who in an interesting sideline is involved in a high end brothel which ties into some murders. This story is propulsive and no longer insular due to Camille's background. While we are still cocooned to some extent within the higher echelons of society we see truth, we see reality, we see historical figures and the unrest on the streets that will soon lead to revolution. And while we see flashes of the original story from time to time the story is cyclical with Camille becoming the new Madame de Merteuil and the end of this series really being the beginning. Ah, if only Starz hadn't toyed with us we'd actually be getting that second season which I think would have brought everything full circle.
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