The Borgias 1.08
May. 16th, 2011 07:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which Lucrezia Borgia pwns the world.
Is it a contrivance to let Lucrezia and Giulia run into the French army? Sure, but I don't care. This show has been fantasic about giving Lucrezia an arc of growth this season, the strongest of the ensemble, and I eat it up with a spoon. Especially the way she extricates herself from situations which lesser shows would create only to have the male leads rescue her from. With the stakes rising. And thus when Lucrezia, the same girl who at the start of the show was a playful teenager wishing for seahorses, reacts to her and Giulia's capture not with panic but with the realisation that this puts her in a position to negotiate directly with the French king and possibly save everyone's butts, it is entirely believable. And Holiday Grainger delivers such a fantastic performance; she's charming with Charles, but she's not superhuman; when she sees what French weapons can do, it scares the hell out of her. The greatness of Lucrezia in this episode isn't that she's not scared - she is - but that she uses her wits and her courage despite the fear, and comes up with something that for now saves her brother, his ill-equipped army and the city from sacking. It was awesome to behold. Also btw the first time we saw Lucrezia and Juan interact, which was interesting. You can tell she's fond of him but also without illusions what he can and cannot do, and that Juan, despite being, well, Juan, is fond of her as well. Not to mention that he had a rare moment of reality check on the field, and knew quite well he was facing his death if he didn't listen to her.
Of course I continue to love the Lucrezia and Giulia friendship (and teaming up); the scene with Cardinal della Rovere was unexpected but a pleasant surprise (also intriguing because Lucrezia will be the only Borgia to make it into della Rovere's Papacy), and the show again comes through with the layers and not going for the obvious, as Giuliano della Rovere is neither being a pious sadist or a hypocritical lecher towards the ladies. Well, you could argue that since the pilot stated his "appreciation of the male torso" he's not tempted, but I think the fact he behaves politely towards Lucrezia and Giulia is about more than that, it's part of the characterisation, the way he sees himself (and possibly also the way the sights at Lucca have affected him). Points to Lucrezia and Giulia for making him face the hypocrisy of the claim of not having blood on his hands when he invited the army there, of course, and to the script for the entire tone of the discourse; it's elegant verbal sparring, which is so fitting.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Irons gets to do his big powerhouse scenes as Rodrigo deals with absconding Cardinals, Spanish ambassadors and his hour of trial. I love that he's both sincere and putting on a show, because the Renaissance is nothing but in love with the big gesture, and the Church is so much ritual, so Rodrigo using the Judas kiss gesture and in the end deciding to put on humble monk's cloth for the big showdown with the French king is simultanously an expression of feeling and faith and a pointed staging, using the only weapons he has left. (Much Lucrezia uses her charm and her wit.) In between, we get more father-son relationships as he's sending Juan to bring Vannozza to safety (simultanously an acknowledgment Juan just won't cut it as gonfalionere, and Juan knows it) and bonds with Cesare some more. It's always a matter of interpretation in history but in this show the way it comes across isn't that Rodrigo was unable to see Cesare being the competent one but that he saw it too well and that was why he wanted Cesare in the church, to just to support him but to eventually succeed him, the way a worldly prince makes his son his successor. Wilfully ignoring that Cesare is smart and competent and loyal, not to mention ruthless, but one of the key differences between father and son is that Rodrigo for all his corruption really does love being a priest, not just being a prince (of the church) but being a priest. And Cesare just doesn't, at the best of times, and hates it at the worst.
Juan really is the relative every family has to make you facepalm and think "whatever will he do next?" while not being truly surprised by anything he does, but I like they don't characterize him as dim-witted; his idea about facing the French army isn't stupid, it's just hopelessly naive and out of date with the reality of then modern warfare.
Micheletto, Sir Not Appearing In These Episodes during the last two, is back and this time without killing a single person (or sending someone else to) - a first? Staying in Rome with Cesare when it appears his employers are about to lose the power and the money to pay him can only be explained by true love, I suppose. :)
Meanwhile, poor Paolo. (Who as opposed to Michelotto does not get off on getting whipped for the sake of a Borgia, but handles it very bravely nonetheless.) I do wonder whether this was the last we've seen of him, but I suspect not. My very nasty suspicion is that he'll survive being whipped by Giovanni Sforza (because if that was supposed to be his death scene, I think they'd have shown us his corpse) only to be killed by either Cesare or Micheletto in the season finale. (Because again, the reason given for the annulment of the Sforza marriage was impotence and non-consumation, and thus Lucrezia had to be declared a virgin again, which meant all knowledge to the contrary had to be kept secret. Goes both for pregnancies and lovers.) Thus ending the first season on the irony that Cesare doesn't kill, as he vowed, the man who harmed his sister but the man who helped and loved her. I might be wrong, but that's my current theory, based on the mixture of dramatic irony and certain historical facts (such as Giovanni surviving, and Perotto, aka the original Paolo, dying under suspicious circumstances - though of course they still can let these be the whipping by Sforza).
In conclusion: Lucrezia Borgia is The Princess, and all shall love her and despair. Only not so much the last part, because Lucrezia likes most people, other than violent husbands, and can even handle cardinals who hate her father's guts.
Is it a contrivance to let Lucrezia and Giulia run into the French army? Sure, but I don't care. This show has been fantasic about giving Lucrezia an arc of growth this season, the strongest of the ensemble, and I eat it up with a spoon. Especially the way she extricates herself from situations which lesser shows would create only to have the male leads rescue her from. With the stakes rising. And thus when Lucrezia, the same girl who at the start of the show was a playful teenager wishing for seahorses, reacts to her and Giulia's capture not with panic but with the realisation that this puts her in a position to negotiate directly with the French king and possibly save everyone's butts, it is entirely believable. And Holiday Grainger delivers such a fantastic performance; she's charming with Charles, but she's not superhuman; when she sees what French weapons can do, it scares the hell out of her. The greatness of Lucrezia in this episode isn't that she's not scared - she is - but that she uses her wits and her courage despite the fear, and comes up with something that for now saves her brother, his ill-equipped army and the city from sacking. It was awesome to behold. Also btw the first time we saw Lucrezia and Juan interact, which was interesting. You can tell she's fond of him but also without illusions what he can and cannot do, and that Juan, despite being, well, Juan, is fond of her as well. Not to mention that he had a rare moment of reality check on the field, and knew quite well he was facing his death if he didn't listen to her.
Of course I continue to love the Lucrezia and Giulia friendship (and teaming up); the scene with Cardinal della Rovere was unexpected but a pleasant surprise (also intriguing because Lucrezia will be the only Borgia to make it into della Rovere's Papacy), and the show again comes through with the layers and not going for the obvious, as Giuliano della Rovere is neither being a pious sadist or a hypocritical lecher towards the ladies. Well, you could argue that since the pilot stated his "appreciation of the male torso" he's not tempted, but I think the fact he behaves politely towards Lucrezia and Giulia is about more than that, it's part of the characterisation, the way he sees himself (and possibly also the way the sights at Lucca have affected him). Points to Lucrezia and Giulia for making him face the hypocrisy of the claim of not having blood on his hands when he invited the army there, of course, and to the script for the entire tone of the discourse; it's elegant verbal sparring, which is so fitting.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Irons gets to do his big powerhouse scenes as Rodrigo deals with absconding Cardinals, Spanish ambassadors and his hour of trial. I love that he's both sincere and putting on a show, because the Renaissance is nothing but in love with the big gesture, and the Church is so much ritual, so Rodrigo using the Judas kiss gesture and in the end deciding to put on humble monk's cloth for the big showdown with the French king is simultanously an expression of feeling and faith and a pointed staging, using the only weapons he has left. (Much Lucrezia uses her charm and her wit.) In between, we get more father-son relationships as he's sending Juan to bring Vannozza to safety (simultanously an acknowledgment Juan just won't cut it as gonfalionere, and Juan knows it) and bonds with Cesare some more. It's always a matter of interpretation in history but in this show the way it comes across isn't that Rodrigo was unable to see Cesare being the competent one but that he saw it too well and that was why he wanted Cesare in the church, to just to support him but to eventually succeed him, the way a worldly prince makes his son his successor. Wilfully ignoring that Cesare is smart and competent and loyal, not to mention ruthless, but one of the key differences between father and son is that Rodrigo for all his corruption really does love being a priest, not just being a prince (of the church) but being a priest. And Cesare just doesn't, at the best of times, and hates it at the worst.
Juan really is the relative every family has to make you facepalm and think "whatever will he do next?" while not being truly surprised by anything he does, but I like they don't characterize him as dim-witted; his idea about facing the French army isn't stupid, it's just hopelessly naive and out of date with the reality of then modern warfare.
Micheletto, Sir Not Appearing In These Episodes during the last two, is back and this time without killing a single person (or sending someone else to) - a first? Staying in Rome with Cesare when it appears his employers are about to lose the power and the money to pay him can only be explained by true love, I suppose. :)
Meanwhile, poor Paolo. (Who as opposed to Michelotto does not get off on getting whipped for the sake of a Borgia, but handles it very bravely nonetheless.) I do wonder whether this was the last we've seen of him, but I suspect not. My very nasty suspicion is that he'll survive being whipped by Giovanni Sforza (because if that was supposed to be his death scene, I think they'd have shown us his corpse) only to be killed by either Cesare or Micheletto in the season finale. (Because again, the reason given for the annulment of the Sforza marriage was impotence and non-consumation, and thus Lucrezia had to be declared a virgin again, which meant all knowledge to the contrary had to be kept secret. Goes both for pregnancies and lovers.) Thus ending the first season on the irony that Cesare doesn't kill, as he vowed, the man who harmed his sister but the man who helped and loved her. I might be wrong, but that's my current theory, based on the mixture of dramatic irony and certain historical facts (such as Giovanni surviving, and Perotto, aka the original Paolo, dying under suspicious circumstances - though of course they still can let these be the whipping by Sforza).
In conclusion: Lucrezia Borgia is The Princess, and all shall love her and despair. Only not so much the last part, because Lucrezia likes most people, other than violent husbands, and can even handle cardinals who hate her father's guts.
