I understand it's not the historical drama the mainstream audience wants to see, especially when it deals with the darkest page of France's religious conflict. Of course people have reasons to expect a realistic historical drama with grim and blood, but in my opinion it is after all a family drama in its core.
How do you deal with ideological difference in your family? That's a question of everyday politics in our polarizing 2020s, and this series shows us it was not so different in the history. Here we have a 1550s French noble family mixed with traditional and progressive values: the wife is from an old noble family, while the husband is a soldier earning his title by military achievements; the wife is a catholic from her birth, while the husband follows the protest route based on his learning and practice. How can such a family survive the conflicts both outside and inside?
Every episode shows a different political/religious climate, and there were good times and bad times. The tricky thing is the more outside threats are approaching them, the more they can tolerate inside difference and unite. When someday they finally find peace in the outside world, they become self-righteousness and intolerant even to the most loved ones. Is it not happening in many 2020s families?
One may expect duets, battles, schemes and betrayals in such a historical drama, but it is just not what this series emphasizes. The show tells modern audience a family story in a historic background: the world is polarizing, the family has differences, but can't we see through the differences and live peacefully together? After all it's love instead of ideology that bounds a family, and no one can be so confident that his/her world view is superior than others'.
