‘The Decameron’ is the best apocalyptic ensemble comedy since ‘Clue’

Kathleen Jordan’s piquant take on the 14th-century masterpiece by Giovanni Boccaccio is joyfully unfaithful to its source material.

From left, Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Misia, Jessica Plummer as Filomena and Tony Hale as Sirisco in Netflix's “The Decameron.” That was my takeaway after bingeing Kathleen Jordan’s piquant take on the 14th-century masterpiece by Giovanni Boccaccio, which drops on Netflix on Thursday.

the plague. These include two of the villa’s surviving employees: Tony Hale plays Sirisco, a harried, semi-competent steward covering as best he can for his dead boss Leonardo’s absence as the guests he invited start to arrive. Sirisco’s co-worker Stratilia , the estate’s secretive, no-nonsense cook, participates in his ruse out of desperation; the roads are dangerous, and they have nowhere else to go.

It’s tempting to single out specific actors for praise: Mamet for her indelible portrayal of a repellent, love-obsessed narcissist. Or Gala for her sympathetic take on a character so absurdly religious it would be easy to make her a simpleton . Or Reynolds for the feral gusto with which — dressed as a noblewoman and

There are more recent precursors, of course. Christopher Guest’s films and “Arrested Development” come to mind. So do “Orange Is the New Black” and “Glow.” “The Decameron” shares the blithe irreverence with which “Blackadder” and Monty Python approached history and abounds in contemporary touches we know from “Bridgerton” or “Dickinson.” The soundtrack does exactly what you’d expect from a series that scores a medieval text with contemporary songs.

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