A Pope That'll Make You Sleep With The Fishes

So, The Borgias isn’t really a movie per se, but it’s on Showtime, so it sort of counts.  I watched the premier of the new series last night.  The show focuses on the Borgia family – the so-called original crime family.  In fact, Showtime mentions repeatedly that The Godfather was based on this family and their rise to power.

However, it struck me that at least the premier episode wasn’t really about the rise to power, but how they held on to that power.  Rodrigo Borgia was named the pope (or purchased the position, however you want to look at it) fairly quickly.  The rest of the episode focused on the threats to his papacy, and how his sons helped him to keep the position through various methods of murder and scandal. 

Borgia’s eldest son is not interested in being a member of the family business and would rather join the military, while the younger son, Juan, is appointed to that post.  This creates angst within the family, and I’m sure will provide ample plot lines in the future.

Previews of upcoming episodes point to how the daughter, Lucrezia, will be manipulated to aid the Borgia family.  Lucrezia was an odd character in the premier, and I’d be interested to see what they do with her.  She had a bizarre relationship with her brother that nearly crosses the lines of incest in my opinion – watching her brother have sex made me gag a little – and is often so sickeningly sweet that I wonder if there’s more to her than what appears.  Perhaps she will use these qualities to her advantage and take on the family business in the near future.

Now, I expect a lot from Showtime when it comes to their shows.  The first two seasons of The Tudors were amazing.  The Big C is quite possibly my favorite show ever, and I can’t WAIT for its return.  The Borgias fell flat for me though.

First of all, I felt like the premier was way too long.  Plus, to me, purchasing the papacy wasn’t all that bad of a crime.  I mean, considering everything else that was going on at that time with royal/religious scandals of the time.

It also strikes me as odd that it’s not uncommon for cardinals and church leaders of the period to have children, and those children were not shunned within the religious community.  I would’ve liked to know more about that.  Maybe that still happens and if I were closer to the Catholic community I would know more about it, but I can’t imagine someone who was known to have children being appointed a priest let alone pope.

Of course, Jeremy Irons is excellent in it, but my love for Scar wasn’t enough to carry it through.  I’m not sure if I’ll watch the next episode.  Depends if there’s something better on TV or if we have a movie to watch I suppose.