A Dangerous Friendship (2024-) presents a richly dramatized vision of life at the French royal court, using the personal bond between two powerful women as its emotional core. Set during the reign of Louis XIII, the first episode starts in right away in 1615, on the night of the marriage of Louis to Anne of Austria, and homes in on the marital duties the young king and queen are expected to dispatch under the watchful eyes of pretty much every courtier in France. It’s awkward AF and nobody has a good time, but that’s hardly the point.
The first episode succeeds in evoking the atmosphere of intrigue, constraint, and constant surveillance that defined aristocratic life in early modern France. Lavish costumes and carefully staged court rituals help ground the story in its historical setting, giving viewers a convincing sense of how status, reputation, and proximity to power shaped every relationship. As a character-driven drama, the film is engaging and accessible, even for audiences without deep prior knowledge of the period. That said, it’s also based on a French romance novel series by author Juliette Benzoni, so it is best to keep in mind that this is a selective interpretation rather than a strict reconstruction.
The central friendship between Anne and Marie de Rohan, duchesse de Chevreuse, is rooted in real historical figures and genuine political tensions, particularly the precarious position of the queen and the factional struggles surrounding the monarchy. However, the narrative simplifies complex political alliances and compresses events to fit within four 1-hour episodes. Motivations are often clarified or intensified to fit a coherent dramatic arc, which can give the impression that personal loyalties alone drove decisions that, in reality, were influenced by broader dynastic, religious, and international pressures. Such as it always goes, where emotional vibes are prioritized over factual precision.
That said … the costumes, while not perfect, are well done, and there seems to have been a decent budget allocated to the costume department, so on those merits alone, I think we have enough meat to sink our teeth into over the course of the next four posts.
And that’s where I’m going to leave it until next episode.
Overall, A Dangerous Friendship balances history and drama with moderate success. While it takes liberties in chronology and characterization, these choices serve to illuminate larger truths about gender, power, and vulnerability at court rather than to mislead outright. The film may not satisfy viewers seeking meticulous historical detail, but it offers a plausible and evocative portrait of its era. As such, it works well as a starting point for interest in the period, provided it is viewed with the understanding that emotional truth is often prioritized over factual precision.
There is a nice assortment of costumes from the first episode posted to Instagram:
Have you watched A Dangerous Friendship (2024-)? Let’s talk about it in the comments!
Find this frock flick at:
Hairstyles are looking somehow cheap compared with the French court of that period. Gents without swords and daggers are just so odd! And you don’t have to be an expert of the period to notice that!
“MFW I wake up every morning and check the news and see what new fuckery my country’s leader is up to.” Some things never change. Still, this looks like a fun watch, and we need those right now.
Hey, love the blog but did you use AI to partially write this?
I got that feeling as well.
I clocked this as well. The descriptions of the plot felt very AI. Makes me sad.
Are you a bot? I get that feeling as well.
We don’t use AI on Frock Flicks. That’s a really weird thing to suggest. We’ve been writing almost every weekday since 2015, & this is 100% our own work. If you have a problem with it, fine, argue the points, but don’t make specious accusations.
Hi! How nice of you to enquire. So, as my esteemed colleague and intrepid leader, Trystan, just said below, no — this blog is 100% human written and edited (yes, even those em-dashes are written by me and last I checked, I’m not a robot — just someone who writes for a living both here on the blog and in my day job).
That said, perhaps you picked up on a tonal shift from my usual barely-coherent ramblings and that’s because I wrote this post sober. Yes, stone cold sober! I’ll let you in on a little secret… I’ve been locked in a pretty bad drinking spiral for several years now and I’m trying this new thing called “Not drinking all the time.” It’s kind of hard right now what with the state of the world outside these four walls, but I’m giving it my best shot. It’s kind of gratifying to know that my writing style has improved to the point where I have to actually defend it from accusations of being written by AI!
Going forward, I will submit everything I write to an AI “humanizer” in order to maintain the same tipsy incoherence that my posts have become known for, just to be on the safe side.
Hope you have a happy Snark Week!
Hello Trystan and Sarah, sorry if I offended! I’ve been reading for quite a while and I did notice a shift in style, particularly in the summaries at the beginning and end of the article. I was a bit paranoid because so much of what I love is being ruined by AI these days. Very glad to hear it was all human written and I’m happy for you Sarah! :)
Correction, I wanted to say “sorry I offended.”
Everything I know about this period I learned from reading Alexandre Dumas 😁