NEW Season 1 (DVD)

As you must already know, there's two shows about the Borgia family currently running. One from Showtime, and this one here done by Canal +, an European TV channel. Ironically, both were filmed in the same country at the same time, but are completely independent productions.

People inevitably compare them both, and many often mistakenly claim the Canal + one is historically more accurate than the Showtime one, something that isn't true.

As a history aficionado focusing on the Renaissance era and the Borgias in particular, I can assure you that when it comes to historical accuracy the Canal + show is just as bad as the Showtime one.
Furthermore, the characterization isn't always credible in the Canal + version (and occasionally seems to change randomly and suddenly), while the Showtime version lacks in background details and in the people who should be surrounding the Borgias. So they each have their flaws.

Both of them have excellent points and are very entertaining as well though, even if every so often they both butcher the historical accuracy to quite amazing levels.

The Showtime version has a tendency to do shortcuts and to focus on character development (thus it succeeds in making you interested in the main characters), while the Canal + version tries to show more of the people surrounding them but fails to establish as good of a connection for the watchers, and also frequently veers off into bizarre tangents that are as bad or worse than the ones done by the Showtime version.
(A little list of some of the odd things in the Canal + version [SPOILER WARNING]: Cesare involved with witchcraft?? The whole sub-arc with Cesare trying to kill his baby?? The whole arc about Cesare getting raped and then having various post-traumatic reactions every time someone humiliates him by bringing that back up?? [end of spoilers.]
All of those are invented for the Canal + show and have no relation whatsoever with history, but the show also passes on rumors contemporary to the Borgias, that are known to be untrue and that the Showtime version did not pass on, thankfully. So claiming one is more historically accurate than the other is a moot point, imho. Both are flawed, and yet still very interesting and enjoyable.)

I personally prefer when historical series try to stay closer to actual history, but I realize that more often than not history is sacrificed for the sake of entertaining TV (it was so even with "Rome"), so I don't really blame either of the two shows for those inevitable peccadilloes.

In my opinion, both deserve a solid 4 stars. (I would give 5 for more historical accuracy, but the entertaining value of both is good enough to make it a 4 or even more despite the historical issues.)
Especially considering how we've gotten so much garbage fiction about the Borgias over the years; those two shows are surprisingly good compared so many of the past productions about them.

In conclusion, both are still extremely entertaining despite the issues with historical accuracy they both have. I strongly recommend watching them both if you're very interested in the period or in the Borgias.

I love Jeremy Irons. I would listen to him read the phone book. But this version of the Borgias story is quite compelling. It's written by the creative team behind The Wire" (Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana), and is a pan-European effort. It's available now on Netflix streaming.

This means that the costumes are stunning, the sets accurate, but the dialects a bit jarring, It's in english, but some actors have a German accent (Lucrezia), most are British, some are Italian (Giulia Farnese) and so on. The most jarring accent is from the American, John Dorman, who plays Pope Alexander VI. I took me several episodes to get over the fact that the nasty Police Colonel in "The Wire" was Rodrigo Borgia. But once you get over the accent thing, you realize that Rodrigo was a very virile, late-in-life man, and Dorman is actually a very good choice. Like "The Wire" the evil or criminal acts and personalities are presented "as-is" - there is no moralizing here - these are men of their own times.

I'd like to say this version is also more accurate, but what we know is from sources hostile to the Borgias, and accuracy is a nebulous goal. However, the degeneration of Rome at the time is well depicted, and the dresses are gorgeous! The actor who plays the king of France looks as though he stepped from a late medieval painting.

For lovers of period pieces such as myself, this is well worth the time. A real delight, and I'm grateful I didn't have to buy a region 2 DVD version of this!

I enjoyed the Showtime series "the Borgias" enough to buy a copy of the season one DVD of that series, and I suppose I will watch season two of that show with interest.

However, I'm very glad to have stumbled across "Borgia: Faith and Fear." The storyline was much better and to say it was jam-packed with compelling and shocking moments (in contrast with the Showtime series) is an understatement:

1. John Doman as Alexander VI surpasses Jeremy Irons who comes across as too languid and "English" and laid back in comparison. Doman's Pope strikes me as a more authentic version of what Alexander VI might have been like...a complex mix of corruption, passion, political genius, moral blindness, and sometimes even piety.

2. The series spends much more time than the Showtime series on the conclave that put Rodrigo Borgia into the Papacy. Watching this political intrigue whirling at a dizzying pace is fascinating and compelling to watch.

3. The production values are great and are not outshone by the Showtime series. Battle scenes look real and the faux-Vatican created for the series looks real.

4. I have the impression that "Borgia: Faith and Fear" takes fewer liberties with the historical record than the Showtime series (although I did not a few such things).

I would recommend against letting young children watch the show. It is at times extremely violent (brutal torture, public executions) and it has explicit sex scenes (more so than the Showtime series) but with that said, it was not "gratuitous" (the story is set in a bloodsoaked time in a place swirling with vendetta, violence, lust, and all the other dark passions that move people).

I agree that sometimes the vast cast of characters does get confusing (telling who belongs to what factions. I'm looking for a good book about the Borgia clan, so I can better appreciate both series.