Just in case my recent post on the nefarious Borgias has whet your appetite for a little lust, violence and treachery, Italian Renaissance-style, check out this trailer for Season Two of Showtime's The Borgias. It is premiering this April for those of you in the states. If you are in Italy, you'll have to hold out at least a few more decades (we are just now getting Cheers! after all) or, a much more practical solution, just buy the DVD set online (although I believe the entire season has to air before it will be available--the world of modern television is a mystery to me). In case you missed it, Season One was highly entertaining as well and is available at Amazon UK for those of you with European DVD players.
Now, for those of you die-hard Roman history buffs, don't write it off when you see the pan of the 17th century St. Peter's Square--built nearly two centuries after the drama takes place--in one of the trailers. Evidently the same level of attention to historical accuracy wasn't paid to the making of the trailer, but rest assured, no images of the kind are used in the actual series, at least not in the first season.
In my opinion, when watching historical dramas, be they series or films, it's important not to be too much of a stickler. It grates on my nerves when unavoidable mistakes and anachronisms are made, but I do understand that for the purposes of plot development, sometimes facts need to be stretched and the order of events needs to be shaken up a bit. It's not a documentary, after all, and its first aim is to be entertaining. All in all, I found The Borgias to be fascinating and engrossing, particularly due to the brilliant portrayal of Rodrigo Borgia by Jeremy Irons.
Here is another interesting video which expands on the subtitle of the series "The Original Crime Family" with historians discussing how the Borgia family inspired Mario Puzo's epic Godfather trilogy.