The Borgias 2.05
May. 14th, 2013 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakTrying not to get annoyed about some first world privilege problem I have right now, there is nothing better destracting than the show about lots of privileged people doublecrossing each other in the Renaissance.
I am delighted Machiavelli graced the screen again, because his snarky relationship with Cesare is the best. And it totally cracks me up that it now includes fashion advice, and that this show's Machiavelli thus is responsible for Cesare's post-Cardinal era fondness for black cloths. I think I must update Machiavelli's Agony Column for his contemporaries. :) (This time with Caterina Sforza asking for advice on how to keep herself from strangling the fools she has to use as allies.)
Caterina having to deal with machismo wasn't unexpected, of course, and she has the various nobles well in hand, but at the same time, she's making her first mistake, by assuming Rodrigo having sent Cesare to France is because he doesn't trust him and thus a weakness. As opposed to, you know, making deals for French arms in order to replenish the joke of a papal army. It also did not escape my notice she's remembering Cesare's "vigor" somewhat fondly. :)
Lucrezia having Micheletto with her when departing for Naples doesn't only make character sense (after the way her last marriage went, and given the Naples royalty track record, a wise precaution) but also means we get a new character combination and interaction, which is neat and refreshing. Not that I dislike Micheletto and Cesare scenes, far from it, but it's interesting to see him interact with Lucrezia for a change, and vice versa. The two of them bonding should also make for a very angsty pay off if mumble mumble historical occurance occurs later on. Incidentally, I'm not sure Lucrezia is right about the Pollio tale being from Seneca, I think it was Tacitus, but I'd have to google to be sure. At any rate, I love that the show keeps reminding us of her well-versedness in the classics. (And also the Renaissance princes' general fondness for them, since it's the unlamented King Ferdinand who brings up the tale and tries to restage it to begin with.)
The old woman whom Lucrezia meets who is utterly unimpressed by the nobles is another reminder of an aspect of The Borgias I love; for all that the main characters, Micheletto excepted, are all rich, nobility or both, the series doesn't present "the people" as a uniform background mass but keeps giving us peasants, beggars, servants and citizens who may be only in one or two eps but are individuals with their own take on what's going on. The whore who trailed after Paolo through Rome last season being a case in point (and also an example of how to use a prostitute in a narrative way that's not about showing off her naked body, unlike some other shows I could name), and the old herbalist whom Lucrezia meets here is another. (Also, love that it's a woman, instead of a "wise old man".)
Speaking of one shot characters, the Queen of France was unexpected, since I didn't expect (nor did Cesare) we'd meet her at all, and giving her a personality instead of just mentioning her in dialogue as the to be rid of wife who is the reason why the French King wants a deal with the Vatican was great. I also like what we've seen of Charlotte d'Albret so far, and appreciate that the show seems to go with the historical version - i.e. of course a marriage for advantage and power reasons as was standard in the Renaissance, but one that went very well and seems to have left Charlotte with good memories, given that when the Borgias fell after Rodrigo's death, she didn't distance herself from Cesare, which she could have, and after Cesare's own death, she kept his memory in respect. But leaving history aside - in the show universe, most arranged marriages we've seen were negative examples (Lucrezia & her first husband, Ursula and her husband especially), so it's a good decision to show something else for a change.
The matter of Bianca, aka the Duchess of Gonzaga, did so not go how I expected it to. (BTW, does that mean the Duke will next marry Isabelle d'Este, who'll later become Lucrezia's sister-in-law?) I frowned when they showed her evidentally mentally disturbed because she hadn't been last season, and I could see no reason other than have her harm litlte Giovanni and thus cause Lucrezia yet another horrible loss. But then it turned out that the show went into another direction altogether, both by providing an explanation for her change (her husband having forced a miscarriage), by letting the only person she harms be herself, and by Rodrigo's reaction throughout. It hadn't escaped my notice that we haven't seen Rodrigo perform any clerical duties (the botched/fake confession-plus-murder-attempt aside) since his almost death and ensueing spiritual crisis - which I thought was a good character touch, because unlike Cesare, he's corrupt but a true believer, and while struggling with his faith probably doesn't feel fit to read mass, and confessions after the last one turned to murder are out, too. But here this changes. When he asks the Doctor whether something can be done for Bianca, and the Doctor asks back "for her body or her mind?", Rodrigo's reply "For her soul" to me sounded sincere, though at that point I suppose a cynical explanation could also have been possible. Except then we got her death scene, when he tried to give her the last rites while holding her dying body. Even show only versant people should remember that suicides (and supposed suicides like poor Paolo) are traditionally supposed to go to hell because they did not have the chance to repent and be absolved from their sins before their deaths, so what Rodrigo is trying to do here for Bianca isn't "just" being there for her in her hour of death when he couldn't save her life but literally an attempt to save her soul from eternal damnation. It's things like these that make him such a complicated and interesting character for me.
I am delighted Machiavelli graced the screen again, because his snarky relationship with Cesare is the best. And it totally cracks me up that it now includes fashion advice, and that this show's Machiavelli thus is responsible for Cesare's post-Cardinal era fondness for black cloths. I think I must update Machiavelli's Agony Column for his contemporaries. :) (This time with Caterina Sforza asking for advice on how to keep herself from strangling the fools she has to use as allies.)
Caterina having to deal with machismo wasn't unexpected, of course, and she has the various nobles well in hand, but at the same time, she's making her first mistake, by assuming Rodrigo having sent Cesare to France is because he doesn't trust him and thus a weakness. As opposed to, you know, making deals for French arms in order to replenish the joke of a papal army. It also did not escape my notice she's remembering Cesare's "vigor" somewhat fondly. :)
Lucrezia having Micheletto with her when departing for Naples doesn't only make character sense (after the way her last marriage went, and given the Naples royalty track record, a wise precaution) but also means we get a new character combination and interaction, which is neat and refreshing. Not that I dislike Micheletto and Cesare scenes, far from it, but it's interesting to see him interact with Lucrezia for a change, and vice versa. The two of them bonding should also make for a very angsty pay off if mumble mumble historical occurance occurs later on. Incidentally, I'm not sure Lucrezia is right about the Pollio tale being from Seneca, I think it was Tacitus, but I'd have to google to be sure. At any rate, I love that the show keeps reminding us of her well-versedness in the classics. (And also the Renaissance princes' general fondness for them, since it's the unlamented King Ferdinand who brings up the tale and tries to restage it to begin with.)
The old woman whom Lucrezia meets who is utterly unimpressed by the nobles is another reminder of an aspect of The Borgias I love; for all that the main characters, Micheletto excepted, are all rich, nobility or both, the series doesn't present "the people" as a uniform background mass but keeps giving us peasants, beggars, servants and citizens who may be only in one or two eps but are individuals with their own take on what's going on. The whore who trailed after Paolo through Rome last season being a case in point (and also an example of how to use a prostitute in a narrative way that's not about showing off her naked body, unlike some other shows I could name), and the old herbalist whom Lucrezia meets here is another. (Also, love that it's a woman, instead of a "wise old man".)
Speaking of one shot characters, the Queen of France was unexpected, since I didn't expect (nor did Cesare) we'd meet her at all, and giving her a personality instead of just mentioning her in dialogue as the to be rid of wife who is the reason why the French King wants a deal with the Vatican was great. I also like what we've seen of Charlotte d'Albret so far, and appreciate that the show seems to go with the historical version - i.e. of course a marriage for advantage and power reasons as was standard in the Renaissance, but one that went very well and seems to have left Charlotte with good memories, given that when the Borgias fell after Rodrigo's death, she didn't distance herself from Cesare, which she could have, and after Cesare's own death, she kept his memory in respect. But leaving history aside - in the show universe, most arranged marriages we've seen were negative examples (Lucrezia & her first husband, Ursula and her husband especially), so it's a good decision to show something else for a change.
The matter of Bianca, aka the Duchess of Gonzaga, did so not go how I expected it to. (BTW, does that mean the Duke will next marry Isabelle d'Este, who'll later become Lucrezia's sister-in-law?) I frowned when they showed her evidentally mentally disturbed because she hadn't been last season, and I could see no reason other than have her harm litlte Giovanni and thus cause Lucrezia yet another horrible loss. But then it turned out that the show went into another direction altogether, both by providing an explanation for her change (her husband having forced a miscarriage), by letting the only person she harms be herself, and by Rodrigo's reaction throughout. It hadn't escaped my notice that we haven't seen Rodrigo perform any clerical duties (the botched/fake confession-plus-murder-attempt aside) since his almost death and ensueing spiritual crisis - which I thought was a good character touch, because unlike Cesare, he's corrupt but a true believer, and while struggling with his faith probably doesn't feel fit to read mass, and confessions after the last one turned to murder are out, too. But here this changes. When he asks the Doctor whether something can be done for Bianca, and the Doctor asks back "for her body or her mind?", Rodrigo's reply "For her soul" to me sounded sincere, though at that point I suppose a cynical explanation could also have been possible. Except then we got her death scene, when he tried to give her the last rites while holding her dying body. Even show only versant people should remember that suicides (and supposed suicides like poor Paolo) are traditionally supposed to go to hell because they did not have the chance to repent and be absolved from their sins before their deaths, so what Rodrigo is trying to do here for Bianca isn't "just" being there for her in her hour of death when he couldn't save her life but literally an attempt to save her soul from eternal damnation. It's things like these that make him such a complicated and interesting character for me.
