#roderigo borgia

[steve-two-phones-mackabee]

The Borgias (Showtime/Bravo)

I’m at the end of season two, with one season left to go. This is Renaissance-Era Arrested Development. Look at the kids. You can’t unsee it now, can you? I lay awake at night just praying that Juan is supposed to be the oldest and not Cesare, because that just makes it funnier.

Edit: I checked good ol’ Wikipedia and Juan WAS the older brother, so it works, it totally WORKS!!

Edit: Season 3 Episode 3? Uh yeah.. the comparisons continue (no spoilers!)

Favorite Characters:

Pope Alexander/Roderigo Borgia: This is a guy who is mostly in it for the bitches and money and yet, he’s like, really good at his job. He’s a Good Pope. The School of Cardinals main complaints about him amount to ‘He’s rich, he’s horny, and he’s.. Spanish?’ So what?

Lucrezia Borgia: Gives no fucks. I mean, you can read the chandelier scene as a vengeance or having lost her mind a bit, but I read it as ‘You want to fuck with me? Big mistake.’  Speak softly, big stick and all that.

Cesare’s BFF/Hired Assassin:  That guy is ready to throw down at a moment’s notice and I think it’s hilarious. He is the living embodiment of this John Mulaney bit:

Least Favorite Characters:

Juan Borgia: He sucks. He sucks. He’s classist and he’s a murderer and rapist. And he talks to his dick. That’s weird, opium or not.

Cesare Borgia: I love Francois Arnaud. I also don’t mind Cesare most of the time, but occasionally the ‘Daddy, I want to be a knight, Daddy!’ gets old.

OTP:

Lucrezia + Paolo. (Poor Paolo)

BROTP:

Cesare + Mr. Murderface (Michelletto is his name, apparently)

NOTP (SPOILERS):

Lucrezia + Cesare. Not big on incest, thanks.

Random Observations:

I’m kind of loving this whole blended-family things they have going on by the time of Baby Juan’s baptism. Rodrigo just chilling out with his kids, his former mistress/baby mama (number 2 of 4 if I am reading my history right) and his current mistress. The kids’ mother’s husband comes to hang out from time to time. You know, with the exception of Juan, everyone is just kind of chill about the whole family unit. But Juan is a jerk, so...

Faces I recognized:

Francois Arnaud (X Company; Midnight, Texas); Joanne Whalley (Willow, The White Princess); Colm Feore (The Wrong Guy; Revolution; The Trotsky); Lotte Verbeek (Outlander; Agent Carter); THE ONE AND ONLY KING ALFRED THE GREAT, DAVID FREAKING DAWSON (The Last Kingdom - I squealed with joy); Thure Lindhardt (The Last Kingdom); Pilou Asbæk (Game of Thrones - Truth be told, I totally missed him).

Historical Drama Watch Project.

[eironeiakaielenkhos]

A Trump vs Bernie contest would seem to map rather well onto the clash between Pope Alexander VI (notorious for his corrupt election, libertinism, and nepotism) and Fra Girolamo Savonarola (Florence's revolutionary, sanctimonious, and sermonising moral dictator).

[amatalefay]

Me: *is writing a character development scene*

Mysterious new character: *approaches known character*

Me: *narrows eyes*

Mysterious new character: *flirting with character*

Me: *storms over, rips mask off mysterious new character*

Mysterious new character: *is secretly the villain of another of my stories trying to worm his way into this one*

Me: *screeches* OH MY GOD! GET OUT!

Villain: Too bad. Your brain has already started shipping it.

Me: NOOOOOOOO!

[viivanova-blog]

TV Review: The Borgias by Neil Jordan

This is a really interesting treat from an experienced filmmaker, sponsored by the U.S. Showtime network. A ten-part series (only 9 in the first installment), it starts off slowly and works itself into a masterful climax via some intense build up. All episodes are written, and some are also directed, by Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan, who is the series creator.

Series 1

A good point for Jordan is the fact that he went for subtlety and great dialogue, instead of shock value, which you can usually expect when Renaissance plots are depicted. Actually, this film looks nearly tame in sexuality compared to other Renaissance plots! He explores the incest theme only in spirit, but the ongoing emotions are already so complex that you don't need the added layer. He looks into the family as a family, peeling off the cover of notoriety that they hold and portraying their daily interactions and the interplay that goes on behind closed doors.

The historical facts are very carefully bent to serve this particular storytelling. In reality, majority of the things the Borgias are infamous for could be based on rumor, so all the one-on-one conversations are fair game to create in order to serve the character as you see him or her. Have to admit that my knowledge of the Borgia family was skewed by reading Alexandre Dumas Pere's novel on the topic. In younger age, I used to get all of my history lessons from his books! However, new historical facts, uncovered in the latter part of the 19th century, refute most of what he wrote, and also help to place the ages of the Borgia children correctly (Cesare is the older brother, not Juan/ Giovanni). 

Don't be surprised to find the infamous Cesare Borgia nearly likeable! Jordan gives Cesare multiple levels of complexity and the viewer fails to categorize him as good/ evil/ misguided or any other category. I absolutely cannot wait to see what is done with him in Series 2, since he is supposed to be safely on the way to further depravities. He is played by a brilliant young actor, who is not intimidated by Jeremy Irons in the least - I think they got the father/son relationship down to the notch. The other actors were also quite well chosen for their respective parts.

Some extensive 'Behind the Scenes' clips from Series 1 are available on Showtime's video page in this playlist: YouTube starting with the official trailer. Series 2 followed in 2012 and a third part will be filmed and screen in 2013.