Midway through HBO Max’s lavish new French series, The Seduction, a judge poses a pointed question to Isabelle de Merteuil (Anamaria Vartolomei) about her understanding of what a libertine is. The Marquise de Merteuil, aware of the allegations against her involving bigamy, adultery, and various other scandalous acts, playfully responds, “I suppose it has to do with freedom?” With this clever retort, she skillfully sidesteps the term’s more salacious connotations while encapsulating one of the drama’s core themes.

The Seduction offers a bold reinterpretation of the classic 18th-century French novel Dangerous Liaisons, reinventing the tale of the cunning Marquise de Merteuil and her partner-in-crime, the Vicomte de Valmont (Vincent Lacoste), as an opulent and tragic love story. Throughout history, the narrative has been reimagined numerous times, from the acclaimed 1988 film featuring Glenn Close and John Malkovich as the dueling aristocrats to the 1999 teen drama Cruel Intentions. However, The Seduction stands out as the first adaptation to transform the pair’s manipulative and hedonistic exploits into a narrative of far greater depth and complexity.

In the original story of Dangerous Liaisons, Merteuil is depicted as a malevolent and self-serving figure, using her beauty and status to manipulate her peers. She takes pleasure in the downfall of other women and challenges her former lover, the infamous Valmont, to seduce the virtuous Madame de Tourvel, promising him intimacy if he succeeds. Valmont ends up genuinely falling for the devout woman, setting off a chain of events that lead to his demise and Merteuil’s public disgrace. The Seduction reimagines this narrative, beginning with a fresh portrayal of Merteuil. Here, she is not the antagonist but a woman yearning for a liberation that remains out of reach.

Isabelle Dassonville, before becoming the Marquise de Merteuil, was an orphan enamored with a charming gardener named Lucien Beaucaillou. He wooed her with affectionate letters, proposing marriage and assuring her that his aunt would witness their union. But after a night of passion, Isabelle’s dreams unraveled. Lucien was a façade for the cunning Vicomte de Valmont, who deceived her into a false marriage to claim her virginity, with his aunt, Madame de Rosemonde (Diane Kruger), complicit in the ruse.

Despite her innocence, Isabelle’s reputation is tarnished in the eyes of the convent that raised her. They plan to send her to the foreboding “Black Cross convent” to atone for her perceived sins. Isabelle, however, defiantly rejects this fate and finds herself lost, even contemplating despair. Yet, a new resolve emerges as she boldly confronts Rosemonde for her betrayal, impressing her and sparking a new plan.

Rosemonde takes Isabelle under her wing, plotting to use her fresh beauty to win back her own powerful ex, the Comte de Gercourt (Lucas Bravo). The women travel to Paris, the heart of debauched high society, and Isabelle soon discovers a world where sex is used for power, pleasure, and so much more.

“There are quite a few sex scenes, but they’re all meaningful and they all represent different types of sex,” The Seduction‘s director Jessica Palud said to DECIDER. “There’s the sex of the first time, sex for sex, sex that comes out of love, the sex that really is an assault, the sex that damages, sex scenes with several people. All those scenes were filmed differently.”

Series star Anamaria Vartolomei told DECIDER that depicting this spectrum of sex was a “quest” for Palud: “To show sex, but the complexity of it.”

Over the course of The Seduction‘s six episodes, Isabelle resists sexual assault, but endures the incessant demands of her old and rich husband, the Marquis de Merteuil. She later indulges in nights of wanton passion, taking multiple men to bed. She teaches young lovers Cécile de Volanges (Fantine Harduin) and Chevalier Danceny (Samuel Kircher) how to achieve shared climax, but also fakes her own desire for clout.

Vartolomei explained that Merteuil’s role within the world of the libertines gave her the opportunity to explore the idea of “forced desire.”

“Fooling yourself that you want to be there,” Vartolomei said. “For example, there’s this scene where Rosemonde tells Isabelle, ‘I want you to prove to me that you are a good libertine.’”

The Marquise participates in this night of debauchery, but it’s clear she’s not free at all in the moment. “She will do it, but only to prove to the others that she deserves her title, in a way,” Vartolomei said.

Jessica Palud worked with two intimacy coordinators — including one who had previously collaborated with Palud and Vartolomei on Being Maria, a film about actress Maria Schneider‘s hellacious experiences shooting Last Tango in Paris — to capture all of these tonally different sex scenes.

“It’s true that when you work with those coordinators sometimes, as a director, you can be quite frightened that they are going to interfere with your mise-en-scéne, but in fact, this is not their work,” Palud said. “I mean, they’re just here to make sure that the scenes are not going to go beyond what the actors have consented to.”

“I think it’s quite good for a director because it forces you to actually think about why do you want to do that and that and how,” she said, recalling the many, many meetings with various craft teams to get the sex scenes right. “So I would say in a way, that filming a sex scene is something that you rehearse and it’s not any different from filming a stunt scene or a fencing scene. It’s just the same. It’s work.”

And the work is exquisite. Visually, The Seduction is an intoxicating show to watch. It’s a sea of period costumes embroidered with elegant beading and sets dressed in gilt and candlelight. The aforementioned sex scenes are inventive, emotive, and uniquely distinct. The actors are not only incredibly talented, but dazzlingly beautiful. (I mean, the woman that Hollywood cast as Helen of Troy is in this.)

Thrumming throughout The Seduction — giving this story a spirit beyond just the sensual — is the question of whether or not Isabelle and Valmont are secretly really in love with each other. Isabelle was so destroyed by her heartache that she rebuilds herself as the impenetrable Merteuil, while Valmont claims early on, to his chagrin, that he might actually love Isabelle.

“You know, what is the worst [thing] for the biggest libertine of all time, like a Casanova? What is the worst for him is to fall in love with a single woman,” Vincent Lacoste said.

“What is interesting is that through the whole show, he tries to seduce her back and you don’t really know if he was completely sincere or not,” he continued. “There will always be a little doubt in his feeling because he’s in love, but it’s good for him to seduce her. It’s the biggest challenge that he ever has to do. It’s complex and it’s nuanced and that’s why I love that.”

Vartolomei said that although Merteuil seeks the freedom she spoke about with the judge in Episode 4, she doesn’t think there’s a single moment where Isabelle fully gets to feel free, despite her “libertine” lifestyle.

“She doesn’t allow herself to show any sign of failure, any sign of vulnerability or fragility,” Vartolomei said. “So I think she’s kind of trapped in the role that she started to create and to play.”

“Her only tool is continuing to play this bold woman, that nothing can disturb her. But inside of her, she’s completely lost and and fragile.”

It’s those contradictions, and this complex take on the Marquise de Merteuil and all of the other characters in her orbit, that make The Seduction so easy to fall for.

How To Watch The Seduction

The first episode of The Seduction is now streaming on HBO Max. New episodes premiere on Fridays.

If you’re new to HBO Max, you can sign up for as low as $10.99/month with ads, but an ad-free subscription will cost $18.49/month.

If you want to stream even more and save a few bucks a month while you’re at it, we recommend subscribing to one of the discounted Disney+ Bundles with Hulu and HBO Max. With ads, the bundle costs $19.99/month and without ads, $32.99/month.