Sex, scandal, and fantasy-history: it's exactly like The Tudors! Just more intelligent. Think castles, horses, velvet dresses, swordfights, politics, religion, and murder. You may draw parallels to modern society if you like, or care deeply about the character development of our morally conflicted heroes (personally, I'm thrilled that brave little Lucrezia ends up with a helluva good Friesian horse and doesn't seem to care that it's way too big for her, and she rides astride, too, sometimes, attagirl). I can't wait for season 2. Tragedy goes without saying; comedy is introduced late in the game with the absolutely delightful character of the King of France. Oh, and the battle scenes are wonderfully graphic, you might want to cover your eyes when the King of France unleashes his secret weapon against Juan and his team.

Boring. Not even Jeremy Irons could make this series work. We couldn't finish the 2nd episode.

No closed captioning.

Trying to capture the audience of The Tudors, this English/Canadian production about the notorious Borgia family will fill the void. Set at the start of the Reneissance, the Borgias are a product of their time. Every noble family at the time seeked advancement through any means warrented, either bribery or murder were the most common methods used. Cardinal Borgia (later Pope Alexander) was no different than his peers. While popular mythology has demonized them, and historians and scholars are much kinder in their assesments, this is a television program and meant to entertain. So this incarnation of the Borgias is neither good or evil. They just do what everyone else around them is doing. Some are better at it than other (Cesare seems to be written closer to "press" than he probably actually was). Lucrezia promises to be interesting as the series progresses and she develops more political saavy. And Jeremy Irons as the Pope Alexander is excellent. He plays the Borgia pope as a man who actually believes his lies, much like many politicians do today. Highly recommended.