The names still spark a chill. Valmont and Merteuil. Two icons born in 1782 in the letters of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, now recast for a new audience and new rules. The latest screen chapter landed on Starz on 6 November 2022 and chose a daring angle that places a young woman on the road to becoming the future Marquise de Merteuil, face to face with an ambitious Pascal Valmont.
Here is the context that matters. Across eight episodes, the series set in pre revolutionary Paris has traced the origin story of a ruthless duo and has shown how desire and reputation can be forged as weapons. It has also lived a short life. Starz announced its cancellation in December 2022 after an early renewal had been reported, a whiplash that says a lot about the pressure on new dramas today.
Valmont and Merteuil today: the premise that hooks
The modern take reframes the central duel. Not a salon game between two libertines already in power, but a survival story where class, money and gender are the first obstacles. Camille, not yet the Marquise de Merteuil, fights for a place in a world that has decided her fate. Pascal Valmont hustles for rank and access, chasing patrons and secrets with the same appetite.
This shift changes the stakes from the first scene. Seduction becomes strategy. Lies become currency. The social climb is not a backdrop, it is the engine. Viewers clicked for the promise of a familiar title and stayed for a portrait of ambition that feels uncomfortably current.
What the 2022 Starz series changes: names, dates, facts
The show has been created by Harriet Warner and produced by Playground Entertainment and Lionsgate Television. It premiered on 6 November 2022 in the United States and rolled out weekly until December. The season counts 8 episodes. In December 2022, Starz confirmed the cancellation.
Casting choices underline the rewrite. Alice Englert embodies Camille, the woman who will become Merteuil. Nicholas Denton plays Pascal Valmont, a charmer building his legend one risky liaison at a time. Carice van Houten appears as Jacqueline de Montrachet, a figure of status and faith that collides with their ascent.
The timeline matters when placed next to the long history of adaptations. Stephen Frears directed the 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons with Glenn Close and John Malkovich. Roger Kumble moved the story to modern New York in 1999 with Cruel Intentions and its teen aristocracy of Manhattan. The Starz series returns to Paris but keeps today’s pulse and vocabulary of power.
Modernizing Valmont and Merteuil: what works, what stalls
The choice to show origins brings clarity. Agency for Merteuil is not granted, it is earned scene by scene. The class system is not decor, it is the terrain of the war. This makes the iconic letters of the novel feel like traps and receipts, tools for those who write their way into a future.
Still, a few hurdles often trip modern retellings. Outrage eclipses nuance when shock replaces strategy. Romance smooths away the blade of manipulation. And the city loses texture if sets look too polished for the grime of the period.
Concrete facts anchor the conversation. The original novel appeared in 1782. The 1988 film collected multiple Academy Awards with wins for Adapted Screenplay, Costume Design and Art Direction. The 2022 series delivered 8 hours of television that focus on prequel storytelling rather than the later wager that defines the novel’s climax.
For context seekers, here are the key entry points by date and medium:
- 1782 novel Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
- 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons directed by Stephen Frears
- 1999 film Cruel Intentions directed by Roger Kumble
- 2022 series Dangerous Liaisons created by Harriet Warner
Why a modern Merteuil reframes the power game
Moving Merteuil to the center changes the reading of every scene. In the novel, she is a strategist who writes, plots and wins until the cost arrives. On television, seeing how she learns the rules explains the precision of her future gambits. It also exposes the price paid for each victory, in status and in scars.
Valmont, placed beside her as a striver rather than a fixed aristocrat, stops being a static seducer. He becomes a mirror. His charm, his cruelty and his need for recognition illuminate the system they both try to hack. The chemistry is not just lust. It is rivalry, mentorship, betrayal, sometimes in the same minute.
The missing piece that often decides whether a modern Valmont and a new Merteuil land with force is the letter. Not only the physical letter. The record. Who controls the narrative, who writes it, who circulates it. When that thread stays visible from the first episode to the eighth, the story clicks with the urgency of 2022 as cleanly as it did in 1782. And yes, that makes the old game feel definitly new.