What do you think about the new Showtime series The Borgias?

   I personally, enjoy it and find the plot completely immersible with great performances by Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo Borgia and Francois Arnaud as Cesare. The other Borgias are good as well, specifically Holliday Grainger as Lucrezia and David Oakes as Juan; however, the youngest Borgia, Gioffre, played by Aiden Alexander comes off as merely an afterthought and a pawn, which is appropriate for the time period in which marriages were political moves as we see expressly in the series as Rodrigo Borgias marries off his children in hopes of building strong military and political alliances.

  But the most interesting plot line that I find in this series is that of Cardinal Guiliano della Rovere and his attempts to try and oust Rodrigo Borgia from the papacy. The lengths to which he is prepared to do so are indeed intriguing especially as they go against his very calling as a man of God! Another interesting plot line is that of the assassin Michelotto who in the first episode of the series is introduced to us in a plot to kill both Cesare and Rodrigo, but ends up working for Cesare by the episodes end. I won't spoil how that comes about, but suffice to say, the dialogue in that episode had me chuckling a lot.

  Overall, I find the series really good and haven't enjoyed a drama this much since HBO's Rome. The dialogue is superb and the score by Trevor Morris to be amazing. If there is only one complaint it is that as the season is nearing it's end, apparently the first season is to be only 9 episodes, I find that it cannot keep every plot line it has interesting. For example, if they focus on Rodrigo and Cesare, they tend to neglect Lucrezia and Juan. Or if they focus on Rodrigo's wife, they tend to neglect Cesare and Michelotto. In fact, in the last episode I don't recall seeing Michelotto at all! Still, with great performances all around and a central plot that is still strong I give the Borgias a 4/5.