La Révolution is a 2020 Netflix Original Series. It is an alternative universe tale about the period leading up to The French Revolution, beginning in 1787.
Joseph Guillotin is a doctor who questions a prisoner's guilt in the death of a young girl. His brother Albert was killed by the Count de Montargis, because he was the lover of his daughter Élise. Élise does not agree with the way the poor are treated. Her main priority is protecting her sister Madeleine, though.As the Brotherhood resists the will of the nobility and young women keep disappearing, both Élise and Joseph get sucked into the conflict.
This show provides examples of:
- Bring It: Élise makes it clear to her uncle that she is no longer afraid of him.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: De Pérouse in particular uses this to meet his goals.
- Driven to Suicide: Some of the sailors on the ship that Joseph and Katell read about.
- Enemy Mine: Élise and the Brotherhood
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: Madeleine is Élise daughter, not her sister.
- Foregone Conclusion: There will be a revolution.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Averted, as Madeleine is the most important person to Élise, also because Madeleine is Élise daughter.
- Gorgeous Period Dress: Downplayed. Élise wears beautiful gowns at times, but they are less elaborate than the types of dresses that era was known for, particularly in France.
- Historical Domain Character: Joseph Guillotin. King Louis is seen at the end.
- I Have No Son!: Charles de Montargis, a cowardly schemer, loathes his showy psychopath of a son.
- In the Back: Ophélie shoots Élise in the back.
- Literal Metaphor: Two for one with the Blue Bloods—they're (mostly) actual bloodsucking aristocrats, and their blood is literally blue (this being slang for nobility).
- Meaningful Name: The leader of the rebels is named "Marianne", which is traditionally the name of the anthropomorphic personification of France. Appropriately enough, she leads the Brotherhood to Paris in the last episode, tricolor flag held aloft, leading her people in a cry of "liberté, egalité, fraternité!"
- My God, What Have I Done?: the Count de Montargis, as becomes clear from his letters
- Our Vampires Are Different: Blue Bloods are undead who retain their intelligence and gain super senses, immortality frozen at the age of death and near-invulnerability, and an ever-stronger compulsion to murder—preferably by biting deep into the jugular and letting the victim bleed out. Any Blue Blood can sire another by infecting them with blood. Beheading is one of the few ways to kill them permanently. Although they can go into daylight, that's about the only difference they have with traditional vampires.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Donatien de Montargis craves his distant father's approval, but doesn't get it because he's disabled and a psychopath.
