The Borgias
Royalty & aristocracyCourts, crowns and dynasties.This show: 9/10Political intriguePower struggles inside governments and institutions.This show: 9/10Period pieceSet meaningfully in a past era.This show: 9/10Faith & religionBelief, doubt and religious institutions.This show: 8/10Elites & privilegeThe rich and powerful, glamorous or rotten.This show: 8/10Family sagaBonds and fractures across generations of one family.This show: 8/10Real historyReal historical events and figures woven into the story.This show: 8/10Morally grayNo clean heroes or villains anywhere in sight.This show: 7/10
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Starring
Jeremy IronsFrançois ArnaudHolliday GraingerPeter SullivanSean HarrisJoanne Whalley
Written by
Neil Jordan
Starring
Jeremy IronsFrançois ArnaudHolliday GraingerPeter SullivanSean HarrisJoanne Whalley
Written by
Neil Jordan
Ratings per Episode
Votes per Episode
The Borgias Episode Ratings Heatmap
| Avg | E1 | E2 | E3 | E4 | E5 | E6 | E7 | E8 | E9 | E10 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | 7.8 | 7.7 | 7.7 | 7.8 | 7.7 | 7.6 | 7.6 | 7.9 | 8.0 | 8.0 | ||
| S2 | 8.1 | 7.8 | 7.8 | 8.4 | 7.9 | 8.0 | 7.8 | 8.0 | 7.8 | 8.4 | 8.7 | |
| S3 | 7.9 | 8.2 | 7.9 | 7.9 | 7.8 | 7.8 | 7.7 | 7.7 | 7.9 | 7.9 | 8.1 |
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About
"Papal power as pure, gleeful blood sport"
Jeremy Irons plays Rodrigo Borgia, who buys his way into the papacy in 1492 and then spends three seasons using poison, marriage, war, and outright murder to keep his family in power. It's lush, unapologetically theatrical Renaissance soap opera dressed up as prestige history: gorgeous costumes, Vatican intrigue, and a family that treats sin as a management strategy. Irons anchors it with icy magnetism, while the plotting leans more pulpy melodrama than rigorous history. It moves briskly, rarely bores, and clearly enjoys its own decadence more than it worries about accuracy.
Watch it for
Jeremy Irons' magnetic, morally rotten performance as a pope who treats sin like statecraft.
Maybe skip if
you want historical accuracy over soapy melodrama, or a satisfying, complete ending.
Written by our AI editor to help you decide, spoiler-free by design.
All Seasons
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Season 12011
7.87K97h 48m
Pope Innocent VIII dies. Rodrigo Borgia wins election as Pope Alexander VI by bribing enough of the cardinals to vote for him in conclave. Alexander "packs" the College of Cardinals with 13 new members, including his son Cesare. He then tries to contract an alliance with the powerful family of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, one of his two original rivals for the Papacy. That alliance, ever fragile, breaks after Alexander's other rival, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (the future Pope Julius II), contracts his own alliance with the King of France for an invasion of Italy.
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Season 22012
8.16K108h 33m
Having survived the French invasion with his Papacy intact (just barely), Alexander VI containues to advance his agenda. But the Sforza family continues to thwart him, leading him to make physical war upon them. Nor has Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere given up trying to rid the Vatican of Alexander. Having failed to depose the Pope legally, Cardinal della Rovere plots to assassinate him.
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Season 32013
7.95K108h 21m
Alexander VI survives Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere's assassination attempt, because his daughter Lucrezia knows how to treat catarella poisoning. Alexander's war with the Sforza family continues and escalates. Alexander now plots to turn the Papacy into an explicitly hereditary office.
Full Cast & Crew
Cast
Jeremy Irons Rodrigo Borgia
François Arnaud Cesare Borgia
Holliday Grainger Lucrezia Borgia
Peter Sullivan Cardinal Ascanio Sforza
Sean Harris Micheletto
Joanne Whalley Vanozza Cattaneo
Lotte Verbeek Giulia Farnese
Colm Feore Giuliano Della Rovere
Vernon Dobtcheff Cardinal Versucci
David Oakes Juan Borgia
Crew
Neil Jordan
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