The Boob Tube Review: The Borgias, Season 2, Ep. 2

In the Boob Tube Review, we discuss the television we've been watching. There are usually plenty of spoilers, but no so much this time:

Holy fucking god is the internet ever awesome. A few days ago I didn't even know there was a show about a 16th century papacy starring Jeremy Irons and Colm Feore along with a whole lot of sex, poison and violence. Now, a couple of tweets from people with good taste and many hours of online streaming later, I've seen all ten of the episodes that have aired so far and I'm beginning to wonder just how exactly I'm going to make it all the way through a whole week without another fix. So, um, yeah, in case it isn't clear, I'm recommending you get into this The Borgias shit, because it is awesome.

Irons plays Pope Alexander VI, a Spanish pontiff who used every available means to cling to power in the Vatican at a time when the Pope had some serious fucking power. And some serious fucking enemies too, like Colm Feore's self-righteously pissed off Cardinal Guiliano della Rovere. It's kind of like The Sopranos meets Game of Thrones, if The Sopranos happened five hundred years ago and Tony had armies at his disposal, or if the shit on Game Of Thrones was based on real historical events.

Plus, there are some neat supporting roles played by people like Derek Jacobi, the chick who played Sloan on Entourage, and the dude who played Freddie on Skins. And while the first season focused mostly on the Pope's struggle to retain power, this week's episode kind of suddenly got into some pretty interesting 99% vs. 1% territory. And I'm dying to talk to someone about it, so just would you please just watch it already?

- Adam Bunch

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