The Borgias 3.10 The Prince
Jun. 18th, 2013 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakAka the unplanned series finale. Which I have extremely mixed feelings about.
First of all, seeing as Neil Jordan said in an interview that a movie to wrap things up would have been about Rodrigo going to hell (not metaphorically, literally), I'm glad we didn't get that. I mean, I used that as a nightmare sequence in a story, but I would not have wanted to see it played out on screen!
Secondly, and on the other hand, while the s4 finale is a okay (or good, if you don't have my problem with the way Cesare/Lucrezia was handled throughout the season) season finale, I don't think it makes a very satisfying show finale. Not least because I think I know what Jordan was going for, and this wasn't it. To wit: back in the day when the show was still in a planning stage, he compared the Borgias to the Corleones, and the advertising slogan explicitly connects The Borgias to The Godfather as well. Now, the Godfather films are many things, but narratively speaking they are a classic tragedy. I and II culminate in subsequently famous sequences juxtaposing the gain of power with the loss of humanity. In the The Godfather, you have Michael Corleone, who started out the movie declaring "that's my family, Kay, that's not me" and wanting a non-criminal life, consolodating his power as the new Don via a carefully prepared and executed massacre. The baptism of his nephew, whose father is among the men he kills, is cross cut with Michael's baptism as a crime lord. The Godfather II not only cross cuts between two time lines - Michael's father, Vito, going from immigrant to Don, with Michael in the present - but also heightenes the stakes: at the end of that film, Michael has defeated the power of the state aiming to pull him down, but he has destroyed nearly all his human relationships, notably the one with his wife, and the death of his brother at his orders (cross cut with a last flashbacks in which Michael has just declared his intention to join the army, not the family business, and said brother, Fredo, is the only one who supports him) completes the tragedy.
Perhaps you can see where I'm going. I think Neil Jordan wanted to do something similar with on the one hand Cesare completing his season long transition to the war lord of legend, the defeat of Caterina Sforza meaning there are no military rivals among the lord of the Romagna left, and becoming Machiavelli's Prince of the episode title, but on the other losing in humanity by ordering his brother-in-law's death, which has a devastating effect on the person he loves best, his sister. The reason why I don't think it works out as intended are:
1.) Making the Cesare/Lucrezia relationship sexual means we get a lot of dialogue about their forbidden love in the finale. This is generic standard incest couple and boring which their relationship in previous seasons never was, but more to the point, it muddles the narrative clarity. You could subtract the entire incest subplot this season and Cesare would have still ordered Alfonso's death.
2.) Alfonso's characterisation through the season as spineless and in the last episode even textually reminding Lucrezia of Juan by his drinking. Never mind history and Husband II. being the one Lucrezia was arguably fondest of, to me it really looked like fear of making him sympathetic so that the audience does take against Cesare when the inevitable day comes. Now Fredo in the Godfather movies is also a weak and passive man (who didn't get his death sentence because Michael felt like it but because years earlier, he'd betrayed his brother first), but also gets a lot of sympathetic scenes, you can see why his family, including Michael, care, and so when Fredo dies, it really is a blow. In past seasons, the show hadn't been afraid of letting Lucrezia be in love with men not Cesare, but not this season, and not giving Lucrezia an emotional bond with Alfonso - or making him worthy of one - really, imo, was the bad kind of fanservice and a chickening out of the tragedy. Also Coppola isn't afraid of making Michael look back. Which brings me to:
3.) Dividing the Michael role between Cesare and Rodrigo instead of settling on one, and not really following through with either. I will admit Neil Jordan was in a bind there, because while Puzo and Coppola could take Vito Corleone out of the story as an active agent one third in and as a living presence after two thirds because he's a fictional character, the death of Rodrigo and Cesare's rapid fall from power (from most feared warlord in Italy to mercanary in Spain within two breaths, almost) meant that unless he left history completely behind, Jordan couldn't tell a story where Rodrigo wasn't a factor anymore and/or dead while Cesare was still rising. But as it is, we get two powerful scenes, Lucrezia with her father in the confessional where she asks him point blank whether he and Cesare want her husband dead, with her blistering statement that their family love is "only pretense, like everything else around here", and Alfonso's entire death sequence, with Lucrezia's "is that all I am now, brother? A Borgia?" and Cesare trying to wash her face clean while she knows and says it never can be as the last image of the episode And these scenes definitely go for the "loss of human relations juxtaposed to gain of power" interpretation. But on the other hand, neither Cesare nor Rodrigo are emotionally isolated. the way Michael is at the end of The Godfather II. They, and Lucrezia herself, have an unchanged strong relationship to Vannozza. They have just reconciled to each other. And if Rodrigo has lost Lucrezia, Cesare still has her.
Don't get me wrong: I wouldn't have wanted a Godfather ending, emotionally, because I'm dammably fond of all these characters, and watching The Godfather II is emotionally wrenching like no one's business. But otoh, it would have made for an ending, and not something incredibly in between, which is what this felt like to me, and also, I wouldn't have this sense of Jordan aiming for tragedy and with some exceptions only hitting melodrama in the last season. (Which is still better than Rodrigo going to hell, I hasten to add.)
On to the good stuff, as is my want. All my just voiced complaints not withstanding, the way the show took some historical facts - Alfonso survives a first bungled assassionation attempt, Lucrezia (and Sancia in reality, poor dropped from the show Sancia who was Alfonso's sister) ask the Pope for his life, Alfonso dies anyway only this time Cesare (and Micheletto in reality) shows up in person to see it through - and reordered and rearranged them, so that in the show Lucrezia talking to her father comes first, then the bungled attempt, and said attempt is bungled because Alfonso makes Cesare fight him instead of letting a pro do it, thus winning a Phyrric victory over Cesare, and then Lucrezia leaves the room not so save her husband but because he lands a final blow by asking her to kill him instead because "you're a Borgia" really, by itself, was incredibly effective and well played by all actors concerned. Similarly, I'm totally okay with Micheletto prematurely (in historical terms) exiting the Borgia tale because not only does he return, as I expected, for some last second crucial help, but the fact he leaves again afterwards means a) in show universe, he survives, and actually has a finished narrative arc. Show!Micheletto having had to kill someone he loves as the one thing too many that makes him quit, and yet, because he loves Cesare as well, showing up to help Cesare gain his long awaited victory before vanishing completely, is just the kind of wrap-up I can get behind. It also made for a moving scene, with the silent hands on chests between the two of them. Arguably Micheletto is the only person show!Cesare loved outside the family, if you discount his obsession with Ursula as just that, obsession that did not really care or know the person itself, and their relationship was a key part for the show, so like I said: I'm glad we got a moving goodbye between them.
Caterina Sforza got her historical fate (i.e. captivity; as far as I recall, she got her freedom again after the end of Borgias, but never again her power base) , minus possible rape by Cesare which I'm glad about (there's too much rape on tv anyway), and I like that they kept her in the "worthy foe and equal" department for the finale. (Though I still wish we'd have gotten more battle skirmishes between her and the Borgias and less foiled assassination attempts.) Gina McKee was really a great plus of the show, and I'm glad she got one last prominent role in the finale.
Noted by their screen absence: Guilano della Rovere (understandable; he had no part in this season's storyline after the season opener, and it's better than letting him keep trying and failing since he's unkillable, though that fate did not protect Caterina's son, or Giovanni Sforza, or Lodovico il Moro, all of whom historically survived Cesare Borgia. Also not present is Giulia Farnese, but that's okay, since we got a graceful exit into a happy ending for her earlier. Ascanio Sforza only got a short cameo (and in a scene where Rodrigo trolls the ambassadors and cardinals again, which I admit amused me), and I could have done with more of him in the second half of the season and less of "why do I yearn for your touch?" talk between Cesare and Lucrezia, but that's just me. (Note I'm not cmplaining about Rodrigo having only a minor role in the finale: I got my emotional Rodrigo wrap up for the season and as it turns out for the show in the previous episode, in which he was central.)
In conclusion: I think this season suffered from fanservice syndrome, but it still also brought enough to make me an avid viewer till the end. I'll probably rewatch it less than the first two, yet rewatch some episodes I will. Because I really loved the show. And yet, it probably ended at the right time.
First of all, seeing as Neil Jordan said in an interview that a movie to wrap things up would have been about Rodrigo going to hell (not metaphorically, literally), I'm glad we didn't get that. I mean, I used that as a nightmare sequence in a story, but I would not have wanted to see it played out on screen!
Secondly, and on the other hand, while the s4 finale is a okay (or good, if you don't have my problem with the way Cesare/Lucrezia was handled throughout the season) season finale, I don't think it makes a very satisfying show finale. Not least because I think I know what Jordan was going for, and this wasn't it. To wit: back in the day when the show was still in a planning stage, he compared the Borgias to the Corleones, and the advertising slogan explicitly connects The Borgias to The Godfather as well. Now, the Godfather films are many things, but narratively speaking they are a classic tragedy. I and II culminate in subsequently famous sequences juxtaposing the gain of power with the loss of humanity. In the The Godfather, you have Michael Corleone, who started out the movie declaring "that's my family, Kay, that's not me" and wanting a non-criminal life, consolodating his power as the new Don via a carefully prepared and executed massacre. The baptism of his nephew, whose father is among the men he kills, is cross cut with Michael's baptism as a crime lord. The Godfather II not only cross cuts between two time lines - Michael's father, Vito, going from immigrant to Don, with Michael in the present - but also heightenes the stakes: at the end of that film, Michael has defeated the power of the state aiming to pull him down, but he has destroyed nearly all his human relationships, notably the one with his wife, and the death of his brother at his orders (cross cut with a last flashbacks in which Michael has just declared his intention to join the army, not the family business, and said brother, Fredo, is the only one who supports him) completes the tragedy.
Perhaps you can see where I'm going. I think Neil Jordan wanted to do something similar with on the one hand Cesare completing his season long transition to the war lord of legend, the defeat of Caterina Sforza meaning there are no military rivals among the lord of the Romagna left, and becoming Machiavelli's Prince of the episode title, but on the other losing in humanity by ordering his brother-in-law's death, which has a devastating effect on the person he loves best, his sister. The reason why I don't think it works out as intended are:
1.) Making the Cesare/Lucrezia relationship sexual means we get a lot of dialogue about their forbidden love in the finale. This is generic standard incest couple and boring which their relationship in previous seasons never was, but more to the point, it muddles the narrative clarity. You could subtract the entire incest subplot this season and Cesare would have still ordered Alfonso's death.
2.) Alfonso's characterisation through the season as spineless and in the last episode even textually reminding Lucrezia of Juan by his drinking. Never mind history and Husband II. being the one Lucrezia was arguably fondest of, to me it really looked like fear of making him sympathetic so that the audience does take against Cesare when the inevitable day comes. Now Fredo in the Godfather movies is also a weak and passive man (who didn't get his death sentence because Michael felt like it but because years earlier, he'd betrayed his brother first), but also gets a lot of sympathetic scenes, you can see why his family, including Michael, care, and so when Fredo dies, it really is a blow. In past seasons, the show hadn't been afraid of letting Lucrezia be in love with men not Cesare, but not this season, and not giving Lucrezia an emotional bond with Alfonso - or making him worthy of one - really, imo, was the bad kind of fanservice and a chickening out of the tragedy. Also Coppola isn't afraid of making Michael look back. Which brings me to:
3.) Dividing the Michael role between Cesare and Rodrigo instead of settling on one, and not really following through with either. I will admit Neil Jordan was in a bind there, because while Puzo and Coppola could take Vito Corleone out of the story as an active agent one third in and as a living presence after two thirds because he's a fictional character, the death of Rodrigo and Cesare's rapid fall from power (from most feared warlord in Italy to mercanary in Spain within two breaths, almost) meant that unless he left history completely behind, Jordan couldn't tell a story where Rodrigo wasn't a factor anymore and/or dead while Cesare was still rising. But as it is, we get two powerful scenes, Lucrezia with her father in the confessional where she asks him point blank whether he and Cesare want her husband dead, with her blistering statement that their family love is "only pretense, like everything else around here", and Alfonso's entire death sequence, with Lucrezia's "is that all I am now, brother? A Borgia?" and Cesare trying to wash her face clean while she knows and says it never can be as the last image of the episode And these scenes definitely go for the "loss of human relations juxtaposed to gain of power" interpretation. But on the other hand, neither Cesare nor Rodrigo are emotionally isolated. the way Michael is at the end of The Godfather II. They, and Lucrezia herself, have an unchanged strong relationship to Vannozza. They have just reconciled to each other. And if Rodrigo has lost Lucrezia, Cesare still has her.
Don't get me wrong: I wouldn't have wanted a Godfather ending, emotionally, because I'm dammably fond of all these characters, and watching The Godfather II is emotionally wrenching like no one's business. But otoh, it would have made for an ending, and not something incredibly in between, which is what this felt like to me, and also, I wouldn't have this sense of Jordan aiming for tragedy and with some exceptions only hitting melodrama in the last season. (Which is still better than Rodrigo going to hell, I hasten to add.)
On to the good stuff, as is my want. All my just voiced complaints not withstanding, the way the show took some historical facts - Alfonso survives a first bungled assassionation attempt, Lucrezia (and Sancia in reality, poor dropped from the show Sancia who was Alfonso's sister) ask the Pope for his life, Alfonso dies anyway only this time Cesare (and Micheletto in reality) shows up in person to see it through - and reordered and rearranged them, so that in the show Lucrezia talking to her father comes first, then the bungled attempt, and said attempt is bungled because Alfonso makes Cesare fight him instead of letting a pro do it, thus winning a Phyrric victory over Cesare, and then Lucrezia leaves the room not so save her husband but because he lands a final blow by asking her to kill him instead because "you're a Borgia" really, by itself, was incredibly effective and well played by all actors concerned. Similarly, I'm totally okay with Micheletto prematurely (in historical terms) exiting the Borgia tale because not only does he return, as I expected, for some last second crucial help, but the fact he leaves again afterwards means a) in show universe, he survives, and actually has a finished narrative arc. Show!Micheletto having had to kill someone he loves as the one thing too many that makes him quit, and yet, because he loves Cesare as well, showing up to help Cesare gain his long awaited victory before vanishing completely, is just the kind of wrap-up I can get behind. It also made for a moving scene, with the silent hands on chests between the two of them. Arguably Micheletto is the only person show!Cesare loved outside the family, if you discount his obsession with Ursula as just that, obsession that did not really care or know the person itself, and their relationship was a key part for the show, so like I said: I'm glad we got a moving goodbye between them.
Caterina Sforza got her historical fate (i.e. captivity; as far as I recall, she got her freedom again after the end of Borgias, but never again her power base) , minus possible rape by Cesare which I'm glad about (there's too much rape on tv anyway), and I like that they kept her in the "worthy foe and equal" department for the finale. (Though I still wish we'd have gotten more battle skirmishes between her and the Borgias and less foiled assassination attempts.) Gina McKee was really a great plus of the show, and I'm glad she got one last prominent role in the finale.
Noted by their screen absence: Guilano della Rovere (understandable; he had no part in this season's storyline after the season opener, and it's better than letting him keep trying and failing since he's unkillable, though that fate did not protect Caterina's son, or Giovanni Sforza, or Lodovico il Moro, all of whom historically survived Cesare Borgia. Also not present is Giulia Farnese, but that's okay, since we got a graceful exit into a happy ending for her earlier. Ascanio Sforza only got a short cameo (and in a scene where Rodrigo trolls the ambassadors and cardinals again, which I admit amused me), and I could have done with more of him in the second half of the season and less of "why do I yearn for your touch?" talk between Cesare and Lucrezia, but that's just me. (Note I'm not cmplaining about Rodrigo having only a minor role in the finale: I got my emotional Rodrigo wrap up for the season and as it turns out for the show in the previous episode, in which he was central.)
In conclusion: I think this season suffered from fanservice syndrome, but it still also brought enough to make me an avid viewer till the end. I'll probably rewatch it less than the first two, yet rewatch some episodes I will. Because I really loved the show. And yet, it probably ended at the right time.
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