Filipe Neto This series was produced by a Canadian TV channel and had three seasons. It focuses on the figure of Pope Alexander VI and his bastard children and their political games. But the series has several problems that I have to point out. First of all, it doesn't have a closed conclusion. At the end of third season you understand that it should have continued, but audience concerns probably spoke louder and dictated an early end, so you get an unfinished story that would need, at least, a few more episodes to properly shut down. Another problem is the exaggeration of the sex scenes and the way the series faces some potentially shocking elements in the plot. I will explain: when you study the Renaissance and their popes, you understand that they were anything but holy. They were noblemen who used the Church to gain power, for themselves and their dynasties, not hesitating to run over anyone who opposed them. Therefore, for a pope or cardinal of this historical period, having lovers and children, or even having someone killed, was quite normal, it wasn't shocking, but the series shows this as something horrible because we, in the 21st century, think it's horrible. This difference of mentalities is essential to understand this pope but never appears in the series. In contrast, the series has made an effort to realistically show the Renaissance environment, and this paid off: the CGI-loaded scenarios are excellent, although sometimes we can see obviously the use of digital resources, in a way it spoils the effect. The costumes were also excellently done, movie quality, and faithful to the period. Jeremy Irons leads the cast, giving life to the Pope in a great performance, at his best level. Alongside him are François Arnaud (in the role of Cesare Borgia) and Holliday Grainger (Lucrezia Borgia), two actors who stand out throughout the series, giving life to two historical characters who, even today, are controversial. I also liked the work of Gina McKee (in the role of Caterina Sforza), Lotte Verbeek, Peter Sullivan, Sean Harris and David Oakes. On the other side, I hated the way that Colm Feore (a good actor, with great talent) played the role of Cardinal della Rovere, one of the pope's opponents. But it's not Feore's fault. The problem is the way his character was developed in the series. Its very few 15th century and a lot of 21th century. In the real life, Rodrigo Borgia and Giuliano della Rovere aren't so different. They think in the same way but they're in opposite sides of the board. Just that. But the series have transformed Della Rovere in a champion of 21th century morality and this simply doesn't make sense. It's anachronic. I will finish with a recommendation: this series has lots of sex scenes, discrete or more obvious, and some violence also, so keep it away from children and teen's eyes.

eva-therese-701-10299 Compared to those two, it's not the equal of Rome, but is definitely on the level of Tudors. If you want to know what Pope Francis is trying to deal with, this isn't a bad place to start. Irons is hamming it up, but it actually works most of the time. Good supporting cast. Costume porn! Murder and lust and betrayal and other kinds of entertainment. More costume porn! Suffers from the same disappearing character syndrome as Tudors, where characters show up, gets introduced and established and then just drop off the face of the Earth and are never seen or heard from again. It gets bogged down with melodrama at times. And since it only got three seasons, it ends rather abruptly, just when things were getting interesting. Didn't love it, but definitely liked it.

HoldenSpark This huge melodramatic interpretation of the famous Borgia family of the 15th and 16th centuries is so smooth and fabulous to watch.I just discovered it two days ago, 9/26/2014, on Netflix and after the first episode it was like binge eating potato chips, you can't have just one, you can't stop till you've eaten the whole bag. I just came off a 19 hour Borgia binge and had to make myself stop to sleep.There is just so much worry in every episode cause it appears that the Borgia clan was just about to topple and be destroyed every single day, and so much loud dramatic music that just makes every single murder that much more worrysome, and every murder just seems even more necessary and that much more dramatic.There is also wayyyy too much constant hetero sex. Way too much. We've seen every characters butt and ass many many times. So much so I've had to fast forward through the endless scenes of one character on top of another going up and down, up and down, up and down till finally, finally they got back to the daily murders and shakedowns of the Christian faithful.But, what grabbed my attention was the loyal hit-man that the family relied on so much to do the everyday housekeeping murders and attending to the daily torturing schedules that made every double-cross just that much easier for the Borgias to quickly loot that person's lands and fortunes and add them to the hungry hungry coffers of the Catholic Church.At first its not apparent what Micheletto's primary sexual orientation is, since he keeps it his most deeply buried secret (which says a lot considering the extensive body count he was responsible for adding to almost daily in perfect secrecy) but once we discover Micheletto's sexual preference we also get to discover a new part of him. Frankly, even before we were shown Micheletto completely naked, front and back, (played by actor Sean Harris) I had already become more and more focused on him because every time Micheletto was on-screen everything about the story become so much more magnetically intoxicatingly interesting. But, once they added his sexuality to the story, I couldn't take my eyes off him.So, thats it. You've got to fall in love with this on-screen mass-murderer, this Torturer with a capital "T", this angel of death, this Micheletto! Cause, for some reason he's just captivating. And the rest of "The Borgias" is just luscious, luscious wicked fun.

SnoopyStyle It's 1492 Italy, the Borgias family rises to the Papacy through deceit and intrigue. They have much more in common with the Mob. There's almost nothing they wouldn't do. Rodrigo Borgia (Jeremy Irons) is the patriarch and becomes Pope Alexander VI.Who knew sex and violence in the Vatican could be so much fun? I guess Neil Jordan did, as he's the one who created this delicious show. To have such a great actor like Jeremy Irons to play the Pope is a major coup. And to have Colm Feore as the foil is just icing on the cake. It lasted 3 seasons, but I really wished that they could have 4 seasons as Neil Jordan had planned.