The Borgias

Name: The Borgias
Genre: Drama, Crime
Rating: 7.9
Cast: Jeremy Irons, David Oakes, François Arnaud, Holliday Grainger, Joanne Whalley

Flesh and Blood

The Borgias (2011-2013)

Seasons: 3, episodes: 29

Episode runtime: 50 min

Average rating: 7.9/10 92 686

—
no scores

7.6/10
531

7.9/10
56000

Rate the series:

Everything about the series

Video 0

Photo 48

Actors and characters

Photo 48

Premiere

2011-04-03

Last episode

2013-06-16

Status

Canceled

Country

Canada, United States, Hungary, Ireland

Network

Showtime

Production

ImageMovers, Myriad Pictures, Showtime Networks, Amblin Television, Take 5 Productions, Octagon Films, BellMedia

Genre

Drama, Crime

Website

http://www.sho.com/borgias

Creators

Neil Jordan

Actors

Jeremy Irons, David Oakes, François Arnaud, Holliday Grainger, Joanne Whalley, Colm Feore, Peter Sullivan, Sean Harris, Thure Lindhardt, Sebastian de Souza
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Neil Jordan, Guy Burt

Producer

Karen Richards, Bill Goddard, John Weber, James Flynn, Sheila Hockin, Neil Jordan, Jack Rapke, David Leland, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank

Camera operator

Composer

Editing

Lisa Grootenboer, Wendy Hallam Martin, Tony Lawson
Whole Team (116)

Short description

Set in 15th century Italy at the height of the Renaissance, The Borgias chronicles the corrupt rise of patriarch Rodrigo Borgia to the papacy, where he proceeds to commit every sin in the book to amass and retain power, influence and enormous wealth for himself and his family.

Seasons

Season	Episodes	Release date	Rating
Season 1 Pope Innocent VIII dies. Rodrigo Borgia wins election as Pope Alexander VI by bribing enough of the cardinals to vote for him in conclave. Alexander "packs" the College of Cardinals with 13 new members, including his son Cesare. He then tries to contract an alliance with the powerful family of Ca…	9	2011-04-03	6.7
Season 2 Having survived the French invasion with his Papacy intact (just barely), Alexander VI containues to advance his agenda. But the Sforza family continues to thwart him, leading him to make physical war upon them. Nor has Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere given up trying to rid the Vatican of Alexande…	10	2012-04-08	7.1
Season 3 Alexander VI survives Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere's assassination attempt, because his daughter Lucrezia knows how to treat catarella poisoning. Alexander's war with the Sforza family continues and escalates. Alexander now plots to turn the Papacy into an explicitly hereditary office.	10	2013-04-14	6.7

What's left behind the scenes

It was originally intended that the series would have four seasons, but when it came down to it, it turned out that the screenwriter and director, Neil Jordan, simply lacked the strength for a fourth season; moreover, he didn't even have a storyline for the planned 10 episodes. Jordan then simply suggested filming a two-hour television movie and even wrote the script for it, but this idea found no support, and it was decided to end the series with the third season, slightly altering its script. Jordan subsequently published the script as an e-book titled 'The Borgias' Apocalypse'.
The first season was intended to have 10 episodes, but there were only enough funds to film nine.
During the filming of the second season, François Arnaud tripped on set and fell, breaking his left arm. The actor had to wear a cast for several weeks. In the second half of the season, Cesare's left arm is hardly visible on screen. In the moments where it does appear, it can be noticed that his left arm looks slightly thicker than the right under the sleeve due to the cast.