I have loved the Borgias in all their gloriousness - both the fictional versions and the historical family - for many years now. If I were to go back to university for my Masters I'd study Italian Renaissance history just because the Borgias and the Medici are soooo interesting. While I have seen the primarily Cdn series (The Borgias) I have not watched any of the French-German version, Borgia...I have been limited to clips from that series on Tumblr. I loved the CBC series. Truthfully my greatest hope was that after Rome ended on HBO that HBO would make a series about the Borgia family. It would have filled the void left on HBO from both Rome and The Sopranos. I am fine with the Showcase production though. Jeremy Irons is a fabulous actor. He would not have been someone I would have thought could play Rodrigo but he has turned out to be completely believable in the part. The Borgias does a great job capturing how the family was caught up in the tide of the world they lived in - that their actions were shaped by the circumstances around them. For the first season Chez and Crezia are pretty much still learning their place in society and I am assuming in the second season, as they become more 'tainted' by the society and the people around them, they will start growing and grasping for more power regardless of how they achieve it(aka the ends justifies the means). I love the cameos by other great historical faces - Machiavelli, Savonarola, Il Moro (Ludovico Sforza)...I'm hoping next year for Leonardo da Vinci to show up.
There are plenty of historical fiction books on the Borgia family if you are interested. I guess the basic one is The Family by Mario Puzo (yes that Mario Puzo, the one who wrote The Godfather. But there are plenty of other novels - some sympathetic to the Borgias, others not so friendly. I love the books by Jeanne Kalogridis - she keeps me hooked on the Italian Renaissance and has a couple of books with the Borgias as main characters. There are also plenty of genuine biographies about the Borgias with one the better ones being written by Sarah Bradford. Enjoy :)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2011-11-29 09:57 pm (UTC)There are plenty of historical fiction books on the Borgia family if you are interested. I guess the basic one is The Family by Mario Puzo (yes that Mario Puzo, the one who wrote The Godfather. But there are plenty of other novels - some sympathetic to the Borgias, others not so friendly. I love the books by Jeanne Kalogridis - she keeps me hooked on the Italian Renaissance and has a couple of books with the Borgias as main characters. There are also plenty of genuine biographies about the Borgias with one the better ones being written by Sarah Bradford. Enjoy :)