Underplayed Gems

The Seduction (2025)

The Seduction poster
Original title
Merteuil
Directed by
Jessica Palud
Genre
historical drama
Country
France
Length
1 season, 6 episodes
Rated
R21
Rating
6.6 of 10 from 19 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A noblewoman in 18th century France seeks revenge on a former lover who betrayed her. The story follows her calculated manipulations within high society.

revengefulseductivetensemelancholicslow-burnhistoricalbitterscheming

What happens

The Seduction (known as Merteuil in France) is a French television series created by Jean-Baptiste Delafon, based on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses. It stars Anamaria Vartolomei, Diane Kruger, Vincent Lacoste, and Lucas Bravo. The series is both a prequel and a loose adaptation of the plot of the novel, and follows Isabelle de Merteuil (Vartolomei) as she is trying to get revenge on Vicomte de Valmont (Lacoste) after he betrayed her. The series production was announced by HBO Max in September 2024 with Nabi Productions and Felicita Films serving as producers. Filming took place mainly in Val-d'Oise between September and December 2024. Originally announced as a Max Original, it was rebranded as an HBO Original in October 2025. The Seduction premiered in France and internationally on 14 November 2025 on HBO Max's HBO hub. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 69 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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