The Borgias 2.01
Apr. 9th, 2012 04:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakMy favourite Renaissance show is back.
Let's start with the least important, which is that Cesare and Juan acquired a perm in the hiatus. I'm not sure about either the Watsonian or Doylist reasons, but I'm somewhere between befuddled and amused. Apparently this is part of this being the season of fraternal rivalry. *shrugs*
Also bemusing in a "where do you go with this, show?" way: Alfonso ending up in his late father's torture chambers courtesy of King Charles. This is a problem in terms of him needing to be around later on to become Lucrezia's second husband. Of course, the show could do that tried and true in historical fiction thing, conflate characters, kill him off and make Alfonso d'Este, in reality husband No.3, Lucrezia's second husband, but then we have the problem that the two Alfonsos had very different and irreconcilable fates. (As in, one of them died quite spectacularly, the other one lived into a ripe old age and became a widower.) Ah well. I suppose we'll find out.
Speaking of characters supposedly protected by history from getting killed off, starting with Guilano "Still not Pope" Rovere getting the nasty version of the s1 season finale "why don't you work with us instead of against us?" offer from Cesare made me wonder whether this will be how the show gets around its inability to kill off della Rovere without letting him repeat his admittedly very entertaining tour through the Italian city states from s1 in order to rally up anti-Borgia support: by letting him agree and plot in secret instead. Also, in a parallel to the pilot (or second episode if you go by dvd order), here we get Michelotto perform an assassination to remind us he's not just a ruthless bodyguard but a cold-blooded murderer. Back then, it wasShaz the chatty maid, this time it was a hapless ministrant. I think that's an honest storytelling choice; if Micheletto were to kill only boo-hiss worthy characters the audience is rooting against or doesn't care about anyway, it would be too easy.
Rodrigo, thankfully unlike his sons perm-free, continues to be a great mixture of slapworthy and magnificent bastard within the same episode. I loved his scene with Lucrezia and the baby; also for Lucrezia's now illusion-free fondness. She knows exactly he'll marry her off again when it's convienent to him politically; which is him just like the love he has for her and his new grandson is. See also: Rodrigo trolling the French ambassador. He's using the baby as a prop, but he isn't playing anything he is not, he is a doting grandfather.
The whole subplot about Rodrigo taking a new mistress in addition to Giulia I was first in two minds about - as far as I recall, he had no known mistress in addition to or after Giulia Farnese, so I wondered why Neil Jordan added this. But as it turns out, the point, or one of the points, was one of my favourite aspects of this show, to wit, the way the female characters are written and interact with each other. Giulia asking Vannozza for advice made for a splendid and elegant scene and reminded me of something that endeared me to this version of Giulia early on, in the pilot (or, again, ep 2 on the dvds): her reply when Lucrezia asks her about she's not her (L's) mother's enemy. Giulia stated then that making women compete against each other was how men secured their rulership, and her refusal to play this game, and she was consistent about this during the first season. So her conversation with Vannozza directly tied into this. Moreover, of course, the fictional Vittoria offers a chance to include that Renaissance trope, gender androgyny and girl-dressed-as-boy. Not to mention artist-patron relationships in more than one sense. (Sidenote: I wondered whether she's not entirely fictional but supposed to be a young Vittoria Colonna. The dates don't quite fit, but then this is the show which aged up Machiavelli so he could be Piero de' Medici's consigliere instead of being somewhat younger than Cesare and relating to him on that level years later.) The tie-in of the rediscovery of the ancient world that gave the Renaissance its name was also neat, and I liked that we got the political aspects of it, too: Rodrigo when talking to Cesare and Juan explicitly stating to bring back the time of the Caesars in the sense of bringing back Rome as a central political power over a unified Italy, with the principaltities brought to heel. (This being what Cesare will later set out to do and what got him his reputation.) Lastly: as more than one cardinal points out, this whole bringing-back-ancient-Rome business is horrendously expensive. I remember once reading a brief (benevolent) history of the popes and being very curious which headline would be found for the Renaissance ones (Rodrigo aka Alexander being only the most notorious due to being Spanish, but by no means the exception with his mistresses, nepotism, simony and political power grabbing- there were ample reasons why this age brought forth the Reformation), and what the book came up with was "Patrons of the Arts". Well, yes. (And we still get to enjoy the results in many a museum and outside it.) So the episode bringing this in - the delight in the arts and the corruption that finances it all - pleased me.
Moreover: the masques at the party - Giulia as Minerva/Athena, the goddess of wisdom, Vannozza as Juno/Hera, and Rodrigo not choosing to cast himself as Jupiter/Zeus, but as Janus, the literal two faced Roman deity for which there is no Greek equivalent - were great.
Speculation: given how often Paolo was referenced, my guess is that the character will turn out to have survived being flogged by Giovanni Sforza after all but won't survive showing up in Rome.
Let's start with the least important, which is that Cesare and Juan acquired a perm in the hiatus. I'm not sure about either the Watsonian or Doylist reasons, but I'm somewhere between befuddled and amused. Apparently this is part of this being the season of fraternal rivalry. *shrugs*
Also bemusing in a "where do you go with this, show?" way: Alfonso ending up in his late father's torture chambers courtesy of King Charles. This is a problem in terms of him needing to be around later on to become Lucrezia's second husband. Of course, the show could do that tried and true in historical fiction thing, conflate characters, kill him off and make Alfonso d'Este, in reality husband No.3, Lucrezia's second husband, but then we have the problem that the two Alfonsos had very different and irreconcilable fates. (As in, one of them died quite spectacularly, the other one lived into a ripe old age and became a widower.) Ah well. I suppose we'll find out.
Speaking of characters supposedly protected by history from getting killed off, starting with Guilano "Still not Pope" Rovere getting the nasty version of the s1 season finale "why don't you work with us instead of against us?" offer from Cesare made me wonder whether this will be how the show gets around its inability to kill off della Rovere without letting him repeat his admittedly very entertaining tour through the Italian city states from s1 in order to rally up anti-Borgia support: by letting him agree and plot in secret instead. Also, in a parallel to the pilot (or second episode if you go by dvd order), here we get Michelotto perform an assassination to remind us he's not just a ruthless bodyguard but a cold-blooded murderer. Back then, it was
Rodrigo, thankfully unlike his sons perm-free, continues to be a great mixture of slapworthy and magnificent bastard within the same episode. I loved his scene with Lucrezia and the baby; also for Lucrezia's now illusion-free fondness. She knows exactly he'll marry her off again when it's convienent to him politically; which is him just like the love he has for her and his new grandson is. See also: Rodrigo trolling the French ambassador. He's using the baby as a prop, but he isn't playing anything he is not, he is a doting grandfather.
The whole subplot about Rodrigo taking a new mistress in addition to Giulia I was first in two minds about - as far as I recall, he had no known mistress in addition to or after Giulia Farnese, so I wondered why Neil Jordan added this. But as it turns out, the point, or one of the points, was one of my favourite aspects of this show, to wit, the way the female characters are written and interact with each other. Giulia asking Vannozza for advice made for a splendid and elegant scene and reminded me of something that endeared me to this version of Giulia early on, in the pilot (or, again, ep 2 on the dvds): her reply when Lucrezia asks her about she's not her (L's) mother's enemy. Giulia stated then that making women compete against each other was how men secured their rulership, and her refusal to play this game, and she was consistent about this during the first season. So her conversation with Vannozza directly tied into this. Moreover, of course, the fictional Vittoria offers a chance to include that Renaissance trope, gender androgyny and girl-dressed-as-boy. Not to mention artist-patron relationships in more than one sense. (Sidenote: I wondered whether she's not entirely fictional but supposed to be a young Vittoria Colonna. The dates don't quite fit, but then this is the show which aged up Machiavelli so he could be Piero de' Medici's consigliere instead of being somewhat younger than Cesare and relating to him on that level years later.) The tie-in of the rediscovery of the ancient world that gave the Renaissance its name was also neat, and I liked that we got the political aspects of it, too: Rodrigo when talking to Cesare and Juan explicitly stating to bring back the time of the Caesars in the sense of bringing back Rome as a central political power over a unified Italy, with the principaltities brought to heel. (This being what Cesare will later set out to do and what got him his reputation.) Lastly: as more than one cardinal points out, this whole bringing-back-ancient-Rome business is horrendously expensive. I remember once reading a brief (benevolent) history of the popes and being very curious which headline would be found for the Renaissance ones (Rodrigo aka Alexander being only the most notorious due to being Spanish, but by no means the exception with his mistresses, nepotism, simony and political power grabbing- there were ample reasons why this age brought forth the Reformation), and what the book came up with was "Patrons of the Arts". Well, yes. (And we still get to enjoy the results in many a museum and outside it.) So the episode bringing this in - the delight in the arts and the corruption that finances it all - pleased me.
Moreover: the masques at the party - Giulia as Minerva/Athena, the goddess of wisdom, Vannozza as Juno/Hera, and Rodrigo not choosing to cast himself as Jupiter/Zeus, but as Janus, the literal two faced Roman deity for which there is no Greek equivalent - were great.
Speculation: given how often Paolo was referenced, my guess is that the character will turn out to have survived being flogged by Giovanni Sforza after all but won't survive showing up in Rome.
no subject
Date: 2016-09-17 01:30 am (UTC)