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The King’s Favorite, originally called Diane de Poitiers in France, is a 2022 French two-part miniseries starring Isabelle Adjani as the famous royal mistress of King Henry II. It still hasn’t been released in the U.S., but I was able to watch it nonetheless through the magic of VPN (and you can too! just, no English subtitles) and people, it’s WACKY. Medieval Times Sex Dungeon is waaaaay too accurate as the costume theme here.
The costumes were officially designed by French designer Cyril Fontaine, who’s only done a few obscure-to-me period productions (Through the Mill, White Saigon, Rasputin with Gérard Depardieu), while Adjani’s were by Dominique Borg (Camille Claudel, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Artemisia) and Stéphane Couvé-Bonnaire; but a news report says they were designed by Maxime Rebière and made by Borg/Couvé-Bonnaire, so I’m confused. It appears the design directive was Goth Renaissance for Adjani/Poitiers, with chain mail and head necklaces galore; following the real Diane‘s penchant for only wearing black and white, everyone gets color coded.
I can’t recap every single plot point, but I also can’t help but share the many, many “highlights,” so here’s my wander through The King’s Favorite. Today, the final third of episode two (here’s the first episode and the first and second parts of episode 2):
Diane has the idea for Mary Queen of Scots to come live in France and be engaged to the dauphin. She’s back in her black and silver.
She and Henry spend more tender moments while discussing the MQoS situation.
Diane wanders Chambord in head necklaces and crinkle cotton:
Catherine has been churning out babies, including the important sons. She’s pregnant again and wearing an unflattering poly baroque satin pleated bit attached to one of her earlier dresses.
Henry wears a three-piece suit, which won’t be invented until about a century from now.
Diane wanders some chateau’s grounds, which are beautiful. Henry has a surprise for her: Mary Queen of Scots has arrived. Diane’s in her silver and black with god knows what on her head.
Mary and the dauphin look reasonable:
But Mary’s attendants are in some kind of modern Scottish dance outfits that I know are going to make Trystan scream:
There’s a bunch of stuff with Diane and a serving boy. He tells her Nostradamus won’t help with the gold anymore and encourages her to stop because she’ll get in trouble for witchcraft or whatever. Diane tells him off, while in her crinkle cotton.
Diane goes to see Nostradamus. She’s worried about the king. Nostradamus tells her everyone’s fate is set and reminds her of a prediction he made about the king’s death. Diane’s embracing a very 1910s Poiret-type cape look.
Diane finds that serving boy dead, floating in a pond. She doesn’t really react.
Diane does a LOT of wandering on the moors balconies in her dramatic gathered and hooded cape.
At a joust, Henry gets stuck in the eye with a lance.
Catherine wears full gold Christmas wrapping paper:
Diane wears some kind of beaded overlay that would be great if it were a partlet and/or sewn to her gown, but looks like a summer camp crafting number as-is. A suddenly grown-up Mary Queen of Scots is in cream with a high collar.
Henry is dying. I squint to try to decide if his “blackwork” is beaded, but it looks like clunky thread.
Catherine waits.
Diane Brontës (which I have now made a verb).
Henry’s funeral happens. Catherine goes into full black for the occasion, Diane sticks with her billowy cape.
Diane has a sad. She’s out hunting but clearly all is bleak without the king.
Diane lays dying. She talks with the doctor and gives him her last wishes while draped in a lovely silk tulle veil.
I didn’t mention it before, but this whole series is begun and now ended by a bunch of tourists visiting Diane’s memorial and hearing about her life … from a robot??
From the crowd of tourists appear actors Isabelle Adjani in a baseball cap and sunglasses and Hugo Becker in a turtleneck. Adjani says something about Diane’s life being proof that there isn’t a price to pay for beauty.
We hope you enjoyed our recap of The King’s Favorite aka Diane de Poitiers!
THE ROBOT!!!!! I AM DED!!!!
^^^THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think you’re all courageous to have the conviction to see watch this abomination. Because I’m pretty sure this qualifies as a legitimate defence for murder.
Judge: LadySlippers why did you kill another flower in cold water?
LadySlippers: I was driven mad because I watched this movie.
Judge: Ahhhh yes, you are pardoned as it’s a justifiable crime.
Yeah… I couldn’t do it. So thanks for taking one….. million… for Team FF.
Diane is the robot! It knew it had to fake a death of its identity as Diane, but it cannot die! It has been taking on the guise of beautiful women throughout the ages in order to manipulate the history of France. 50 years ago, it got lonely and created a companion and gave it the face of one of its favorite characters, thus Isabelle Adjani began her artificially intelligent acting career.
Vive Diane de Robotiers!
PS Mary Stuart, Queen of Brigadoon.
Well, this one is a skipper!
the ENDING??!?!? What???
There’s certainly been a lot of weird and terrible costume dramas coming out of France lately. And the ending with the robot?? WHY????
I will join Trystan in screaming about the tartan!
The chief lessons I’ve learned from this cringefest are: steer clear of bad costume dramas and excessive facial fillers.
Wait, what the literal frock with the ending!! I feel like this alone wins Snark Week.
You know what? When I die I hope someone lovingly drapes a silk tulle veil over my head for The Look™. If I end up a spectre I want something dramatic to flip around in my ghostly wake.
Gee they should have put THE SUPREME EQUERRY aka Lieut. Col. Johnny Thompson in for the Highland dancer. The man sure looks fine in a kilt. I was hoping when Henri went off and joined the choir celestial, suddenly Diane would look totally ancient chrome. And I preferred Crowley and Azaraphael Tudor togs. And Diane’s pseudo black and white Brocade, let ive seen the fabric somewhere else.
I’m grateful that you sat through this eye-wateringly awful show for us!
On the plus side, I’m sure I’m not the only Frocker (Flicker?) who’s been inspired by your recap to search out some actual facts about Diane de Poitiers? Surprise surprise, she was a much more interesting person who led a much more fascinating life than in the series. A show that dug into her complex relationship with a man she first met when he was 7 or 8 and she was 28 (!!!), the confidence Henry as king had in her as an adviser so she even signed documents on his behalf, her own construction projects, how she raised one of Henry’s illegitimate children – gee, what a fascinating TV series that would be. Sigh.
PS I got even more annoyed at the WTF ending of the show having seen the evocative François Clouet drawings of Diane on her Wikipedia page which show her as attractive but never beautiful – but everyone knows a woman can never succeed on the basis of her intelligence and personality, only on her looks, right?