The Borgias on Netflix
I couldn't get into it at first. But recently I have been working on photos I took of Renaissance castles in France and they inspired me to start watching again, particularly as the visual presentation of the series is fantastic - outstanding sets and costumes. Everybody looks like they stepped out of an Italian historical painting and the locations look like many buildings I have visited.
Starting out season one the dialog seemed a bit silly and pretentious. But after a few episodes, the series really took off. I came to appreciate some of the actors a lot more.
Season Two - and wow, they really kicked it up a notch - actors and plots. The episodes are imaginative and riveting! Really great stuff.
They play fast and loose with plenty of the historical details in the interest of a good plot line - yet on the other hand, they really present a lot of important historical things of the times. The broader historical events are more or less correct.
This is a fascinating time period - the beginning of the Italian Wars (1494-1498) - started by an invasion by French King Charles VIII, really changed the history of the rest of Europe in significant ways. The French took back with them the Italian Renaissance art and artisans - what I saw in our visits to the French Chateaux. It was also the time of the discovery of the new world, and upon returning from their defeat of the Kingdom of Naples, the French brought back and spread an extremely virulent form of syphilis to the rest of Europe. The French called it the Neapolitan Disease, the rest of Europe called it the French Pox. Savoranola is preaching Fire and Brimstone in Florence, especially against the corrupt church, but Martin Luther has not yet posted his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenburg (1517). So Europe is just on the cusp of the reformation that will provoke major political changes and wars over the next several centuries.
