La Révolution Review

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The Netflix series La Révolution premiered on October 16, 2020. It is a reimagined telling of the beginnings of the French Revolution that would forever change the world. However, the causes of this French Revolution aren’t necessarily political as a new sickness plagues the French nobility of 1787.

At only eight episodes, La Révolution has political intrigue, horror, medicinal facts of the time, conspiracies, and gore. Even though this tale is a reimagining of true events, so far there are only two people in this tale that existed in real life: King Louis XVI and the French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin. Guillotin was famous for trying to reform executions by making them more humane, but his name became eponymous with the infamous guillotine (the prototype invented by Tobias Schmidt under Louis XVI’s physician Antoine Louis).

The storytelling is rich with the history of the time as well as some fictional liberties due to the new sickness. However, this new sickness gives the term “blue blood” (noble blood) a whole new meaning as the people infected become flesh-feeding monsters. If a person is lucky, like the character Albert and the villain Donatien de Montargis, one can control their lust for blood and function as if the sickness isn’t present. The side effects are corrupt, however, as death is no longer an issue unless your head is chopped off.

I have a feeling that Netflix may start a second season of La Révolution due to the ending of this season: Louis XVI has plans for the sickness while the people start their march towards Versailles; the Revolution did not start until 1789.

If you’re a fan of history, zombies, and gore, this series is good enough to watch. I was amused when the story went from historical to zombical. It would be interesting to see how this tale reimagines the iconic Storming of the Bastille with zombies in July 1789.