Borgias Bingeing & Look At Moi

As I am gazing at the tail end of my holidays, I am pondering how I have spent said holidays. The past week or so has been a Borgias Binge. That sounds a bit weird, so let me explain. I was looking through Stan to see what I might view, and there it was. So I started to watch The Borgias (2011 series starting Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo Borgia aka Pope Alexandre VI). I'm hooked. I'm loving it, although deviating from historical facts ( for example, Lucrezia's first husband died from natural causes and not at the hand of Cesare Borgia, as is depicted in the series) does annoy me somewhat.

But as mentioned, I'm loving it and it's filled my spare holiday time nicely, when I've been too hot in the 40+ degree heat to do anything else. However, it might not be the sweltering heat that has me in a flustered mess on the couch. The guy playing Cesare Borgia is delicious! Watching him displaying his swordsmanship in duels, and his - ahem! - other 'swordsmanship' in the boudoir, is proving very pleasurable viewing indeed.

In the first series, Juan Borgia looks like he has some kind of a mullet 'do, which makes me think he should have been in early episodes of Home & Away. The character is portrayed as a snivelling little poltroon who has a great time shagging the wife of his younger brother Gioffre. Gioffre is a doppelganger for a young Tony De Franco, and when looking at him I kind of expect to see him start belting out Heartbeat, It's A Lovebeat.

As for Jeremy Irons as the patriarchal Pope, it goes without saying he gives a mesmerising performance. He is a man who could read  the recipe for scones, and have the audience spellbound.

I am also really enjoying the strong women in the series: daughter Lucrezia, the Pope's mistress, the Pope's wife, and the Pope's enemy Caterina.

As far as families go, these Borgias seem to be a bit of a worrisome lot who could rival the Manson family in terms of cold-bloodedness and carnality, and I'm off to indulge in some more of this gorgeous and gruesome family.

Before I go, can media outlets please stop using phrase 'sparked outrage'? It is trite and overused, and usually heralds an inane article about something pointless. I'm referring to some story I read about Miley Cyrus - *grinds teeth as she prepares to type the phrase* - 'sparking outrage' over photographs of her and her beau Cody Simpson in her Instagram feed - some of them have her in lingerie. Here's a hint: scroll past. Personally, I think there's something very 'look at moi, look at moi, look at moi' about a need to post an intimate photograph of yourself with your beloved for all the world to see. What is it these people are trying to prove?

Anyway, The Borgias awaits.