If you’ve seen them, which do you like better? Personally, I’m up in the air about them, they both bring something to the table.


The Borgias (TB)– A Showtime TV series cancelled after 3 seasons so the storyline was never completed or so I heard since I haven’t finished all 3 seasons yet and can’t verify how close it was to ending the saga.

Borgia (B) – In the States, a Netflix “original” series, also being cancelled after 3 seasons except its 3^rd season isn’t available until the end of this year. I get the impression this one completes the family saga, again I don’t know because I haven’t finished watching what’s available.

Both are stories about Pope Alexander VI and (focusing on) 3 of his children. If you don’t know, you must Wiki it for the "cliff notes", it’s an interesting read. The mob family of the Papal.


The immediate difference are the actors playing the Pope, Jeremy Irons in TB, and John Doman (The Wire) in B, is the accent. Generally you have the British accent in everything, but hearing a straight up deadpan American accent definitely stands out and makes you long for that British accent, it was a little weird. Each approach the character in completely different ways. I liked TB from the beginning but not so much with B but after skipping the 1^st 4 episodes (per advice) I’ve really gotten into it despite the obvious difference in budget, acting styles, storylines and so on, so though at first I thought I liked Jeremy’s approach better, now I think Doman’s approach is gaining equal footing based on what little I’ve read on the historical family. And I did forget about the unusual accent eventually.

At first I thought it was about the Borg

Nah, but given that both groups attitudes are "Resistance is futile", it could be.