I’d say 90 percent of people I meet have never even heard of Showtime’s The Borgias (a.k.a. The Tudors with a Pope instead of King Henry). Those people probably won’t be interested to hear about it now that Showtime has cancelled the series and refused to give it the two-hour TV movie they had been talking about to wrap up the show’s plot lines.
I think the series never reached its full potential———-unleash Jeremy Irons already!——-but I also hate it when a network doesn’t let a show I watch finish properly. Also, the show is actually much better than The Tudors, despite most people never giving it a real chance because, let’s face it, they just don’t think Jeremy Irons is as sexy as Jonathan Rhys Meyers despite the fact that he can act circles around him. The intrigue was thicker, the power struggles less repetitive, the history less well known, and the feuding Italian families make the British look like Mormons.
From the very beginning though, they never let Rodrigo Borgias (the crafty and entertainingly resourceful Pope) own the show the way they should have. They had meandering, going nowhere subplots involving bland villains that should have only lasted one season (Colm Feore’s hateful cardinal…who more than overstayed his usefulness) and too much screen time for Rodrigo’s less-than-fascinating kids. I liked Holliday Granger’s lusty and smarter-than-you-think daughter, but the ridiculously-haired older son never materialized into the heir the show set him up to be, unless having a killer perm makes someone interesting.
Perhaps it’s only fitting that the show has its series finale on Father’s Day, as the last half of this season has revolved around the father/son dynamic, with the two at odds until this episode, when Rodrigo finally decides that Chesarae should take his place as a power player, leader, and Pope of Rome.
The finale episode [spoilers] isn’t explosive but there are some terrific scenes (how Chesarae brings down the fortress of a chief rival is particularly entertaining) and an appropriately incestuous final scene between brother and sister right next to the dead body of a quasi-problem/spouse seems like the perfect symbol of a brood with some very twisted family values. The Borgias may be murderous and soul-sick, but no one around them is much better. The finale seems to suggest that despite all their power-grabs they will have each other’s backs…except for the younger brother Chesarae killed in the season 2 finale. On second thought, maybe family isn’t everything…
Grade for the series: B…Grade for this season: B+…Grade for this finale: B+