This series is much better scripted and overall has a better cast than The Borgias. Marta Gastini was brilliant as Giulia Farnese, and Mark Ryder is much more believable as Cesare than François Arnaud.
Supporting actors such as Christian McKay and Iain Glen were wisely chosen. Girolamo Savonarola was just age 46 when he was burned, but The Borgias series has him played by a man well into his 70s, Iain Glen at about age 52 is a much better fit for the role.
The only real casting mistake in Borgia is the choice of John Doman as Rodrigo Borgia - not that he's a bad actor, but he just doesn't fit the role very well, especially with his strong American accent. However, after a few episodes I became used to him.
Although there is a lot of sex and violence in Borgia, and some shocking scenes, it's never as sickening as the incest in the third season of The Borgias. And the story is completed by the end of the third season in Borgia, it doesn't try to create new history just to keep the series going, as we saw in The Borgias - for example, the real historical Micheletto was not known to be gay and otherwise, other than being very loyal to Cesare, was quite different from the way he was portrayed.
Borgia isn't perfectly historically accurate - no historical TV series ever is. But at least, unlike The Borgias, they followed the interesting historical framework without straying too far from what actually happened.
Supporting actors such as Christian McKay and Iain Glen were wisely chosen. Girolamo Savonarola was just age 46 when he was burned, but The Borgias series has him played by a man well into his 70s, Iain Glen at about age 52 is a much better fit for the role.
The only real casting mistake in Borgia is the choice of John Doman as Rodrigo Borgia - not that he's a bad actor, but he just doesn't fit the role very well, especially with his strong American accent. However, after a few episodes I became used to him.
Although there is a lot of sex and violence in Borgia, and some shocking scenes, it's never as sickening as the incest in the third season of The Borgias. And the story is completed by the end of the third season in Borgia, it doesn't try to create new history just to keep the series going, as we saw in The Borgias - for example, the real historical Micheletto was not known to be gay and otherwise, other than being very loyal to Cesare, was quite different from the way he was portrayed.
Borgia isn't perfectly historically accurate - no historical TV series ever is. But at least, unlike The Borgias, they followed the interesting historical framework without straying too far from what actually happened.