I think I’ve found my favorite new show about the Italian mafia and thankfully it has nothing to do with the Sopranos.
Maybe it’s because I’ve spent too much time playing Assassins Creed 2 recently, but medieval Italian holds just as much intrigue for me as England these days
So when I found out that Bravo was doing a show on The Borgias, I was overjoyed to say the least.
History 101: The Borgias became prominent in religious and political affairs in the 1400s and 1500s, reaching their peak when for a time, one of their own became Pope. They were in many ways, the Corleones of their time, which makes them prime candidates for their own tv series.
If you like the Tudors, you’ll love this. Jeremy Irons channels his lizard-eyed turn as Max Von Sydow into his role as Rodrigo Borgia, the man who did become pope. He’s slimy, really slimy. There’s Gene Simmons slimy on one end of the spectrum and then this takes it up a notch, it’s great.
This is a Canadian co-pro so you’re not likely to recognise the majority of the supporting cast outside of Derek Jacobi and maybe Colm Feore, but that doesn’t really matter. They do the task proud of taking 15th century sex and violence and making it as ridiculously powerful as anything on a Hollywood screen today.