UnowPriceless hyped garbage

SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Brooklynn There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

mark.waltz Whether it be the use of real life people who were too young to be a part of the story here or other's histories altered simply for dramatic effect, you have to take this for what it is: a decently researched view of Renaissance history as told through an alleged notorious family. They are not a crime family a la the Corleone's of "The Godfather" or the DiMera's of "Days of Our Lives" fame, but an overly ambitious and ruthless family who took their desire for power a bit too far. They are all at times morally ambiguous, and are not afraid of murder or torture or banishment, and this becomes closer to an American International film where Vincent Price would play the secretly evil head of a family who utilizes all of those activities listed above to deal with his enemies. It's something that Edgar Allan Poe would have been proud to have thought up, but he dealt with fictional horror, not historical horror.To cast Jeremy Irons as the leading Borgia patriarch, make him Pope Alexander VI and give him scenes of lust, scenes of pity for the poor, love for his family and the desire to pretty much castrate all of his enemies was genius on the part of the producers. He's not as openly sinister as his Klaus Von Bulow was in "Reversal of Fortune", but to think that a pope, let alone his character as a cardinal, would openly have mistresses of varying ages and at least four illegitimate children, makes his character quite the cad. In studying the history of the papacy, he's just one of many seemingly sinister leaders of the Catholic Church, and his quest for power took him all over Europe for some battles which when seen here will have you stunned in horror. If one cannonball can be deadly, two chained together can lead to extreme gruesomeness, so be prepared for some eye dropping carnage.There's quite a bit of detail put in the characters of the sons played by François Arnaud and David Oakes, and the notorious sister, Lucrezia, goes from innocent young lady to the historically infamous (and some say unfairly) maligned epitome of female evil, played by the stunning Holliday Grainger. She's raped viciously while still a virgin by her disgusting first husband, sees a younger lover brutally murdered by one of her brothers, and this leads to development that makes you understand why history has looked at her as a notorious villainess, pretty much the Spanish version of Hungary's Elisabeth Bathory. Joanna Whalley is pretty much wasted as their mother, a courtesan who loved Irons but was cast aside when her youth left her. The incidents of history need to be researched to confirm their accuracy, and there is enough murder and mayhem and carnage to fulfill four seasons, which only made it to three. It wasn't a lack of interest or viewers, but someone's lazy claim of high budgets that prevented it from being all wrapped up, a let down and one of the few reasons this gets less than the full 10 stars I had hoped to give it after finishing the first season. Some of the characters evoke pity, whether it being the beautiful Arabic prince who is murdered for questioning Islam when introduced to Christianity or the beautiful and abused wife who falls in love with one of the brothers and ends up becoming a nun after finding out the extent of their cruelties, or the handsome lovable young lad who falls head over heels for Lucrezia and rescues her from that awful first marriage. Then there's the outsiders, those who do their best to bring down the Borgia's, most notably Colm Feore as a cardinal who will be as ruthless with his enemies as the Borgias are with theirs. I would have loved to have seen this completed, but after suffering through the horrible 1949 Lucrezia bio "Bride of Vengeance" (see it just for MacDonald Carey's hideous Buster Brown bob), I'll take what I can get. This shows perhaps every breaking of every commandment presented to Moses on Mt. Sinai, yet there's often a touch of tenderness within this complicated family that will make you think. When Irons walks through the slums of Rome and sees what the poor have to live through, you can see him breaking inside that there's more to being pope than killing your enemies, bedding the beauties and ruling the world. There's a lot of good that needs to be done, something every leader in the world should focus on rather than the glamour that ultimately destroys the souls of those who don't see their real purpose of being put in a position of power.

Ilvija Damskalne These are such interesting TV series!!! Can't wait for the 4th season... I hope that there will be 4th season for all of us who loves historical movies and TV series!!! Because without Game of Thrones and Vikings there are no other such entertaining TV series... Please, please, please, please, please, please - we want to see more!!! And I can tell you that Latvians have this wonderful saying - there is no need for quantity, there is need for quality and these series gives just that! And it's the same about what you ask from people - you have to write 10 lines so it is submitted! Well, who wants to write so much and then who wants to read it?! You tell that you love these TV series in 4 words and it will explain everything - but you asked and I did, sorry that it's not all about The Borgias :)

robertson111 I have just watched the pilot episode of this Drama and I was thoroughly happy. As the battle of cable continues, Showtime continues to produce beautiful TV Series (I still like HBO better, though). This show, adds to their list. The show grabbed me right away with their beautiful theme music and the pictures in the background. I was immediately immersed into that time period. Now, I will talk about individual categories of the program. First, the best thing about the pilot was the costuming. Especially in the Pope coronation scene. Pope Alexander's gown was superbly knitted with precise details. The costumes for all the Cardinals and even Lucrezia were beautiful. The Borgias' costumes, in my opinion, were even better than in the Tudors. The writing was probably their worst category. I felt the dialogue was good, but there were numerous of scenes that were unnecessary. The plot was also a little hard to follow right away, and I sometimes didn't understand what the characters were talking about. The Directing, was phenomenal. Through out the episode nothing felt awkward and nothing felt out of place. The acting was good. The script did not give any big opportunities for anyone. Although, Jeremy Irons got opportunities in the script and relished them. Once again, Jeremy Irons acted award worthy, managing different emotions superbly. Finally, the music composition was breath taking. I was sometimes day dreaming, thinking about the music. Overall, The Borgias looks promising. It looks slow moving and has the potential to be a hit show with it's high production value.

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.