Anyone watch The Borgias?

[denorios]

Rodrigo Borgia was mentioned a fair bit in the biography of Isabella of Castile I just read, since he was Spanish and therefore a subject of hers, and cardinal and later Pope during her reign. I don't know very much at all about the Borgias, other than all the scandal, incest and murder and illegitimacy and so on, so I've now picked up a book about

Comments

[therck]

I haven't seen the series, but I remembered reading this article talking about the show. As I recall, the author had some articles on their personal website, Ex Urbe, about the historical Borgias, but I'm having trouble finding them. If I recall correctly, they focused on Cesare Borgia with a lot about the influence he had on Machiavelli's views on how power works.

Ah, here's a link to the Borgia tag on Ex Urbe.

[rachel2205]

The show was very silly but entertaining. I thought it was much better than The Tudors, which just annoyed me!

[denorios]

Oh, I couldn't watch The Tudors either! This is a major problem when you're a history geek and know too much about the period in question - it drives you potty with the misrepresentations and blatant inaccuracies!

I would imagine it's even worse for you being an actual professional historian, as opposed to an enthusiastic amateur like me!

[tsarina]

There were actually *two* Borgia series filmed about the same time! I watched both of them and found them pretty entertaining. I think I watched the one without Jeremy Irons first, and was then surprised to discover Irons.

[denorios]

There were? I only remember the one with Jeremy Irons. Was the other not in English or a smaller production or something?

[tsarina]

I want to say it was Canal+ who did it. It was called Borgia, as well. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1736341/

[rogueslayer452]

I loved The Borgias! Jeremy Irons was fantastic in it, but everyone else was just as amazing as well, especially the actors who play Lucrezia and Cesare because they have insane chemistry, and yes, the show does a lot of exploring of their relationship. I definitely recommend it.

There was another show around the same time called Borgia, but I haven't heard much about that one, unfortunately.

[bearshorty]

I watched the first season of the one with Jeremy Irons and loved it. I never had the chance to watch other seasons but your post reminds me that I should. It was a lot of fun. Reminded me of 'Rome' a bit (although Rome was a stronger show). But I would definitely recommend it.