The Borgias ends its run
The curtain of history comes down on The Borgias this weekend with The Prince, a series finale written and directed by Neil Jordan that’s at once sumptuous, suspenseful and rived with conflict. As with past Borgias finales, it lays the ground for what’s to come: Pope Alexander VI (Jeremy Irons) and his headstrong scion Cesare Borgia (François Arnaud), finally reconciled after recent differences of allegiance, have strengthened the papal armies and are ready to deal with all who would do them harm, once and for all.
The season finale was originally designed to be just that, a season finale. Showtime, The Borgias’ parent network, had always intended that Borgias’ story be spread over four seasons, and ratings for the third season matched those of its sophomore campaign. An episode two weeks ago, Tears of Blood, was the most-watched episode in The Borgias’ three-year history, according to The Hollywood Reporter, well above its weekly average of 2.5 million viewers.
The problem, then, was not ratings. Jordan, the filmmaker and novelist who has written or supervised every episode since The Borgias’ debut in April 2011, had grown increasingly restless in recent months, and recently hinted that he would rather end Borgias with a film rather than a full season.
Just days ago, though, with The Borgias’ traditional production date looming in Budapest, Hungary, Showtime announced it was cancelling the series altogether. And so this weekend’s finale, sadly for Borgias followers and anyone who found themselves drawn in by its epic tale of family, deceit, betrayal and the corruption of power, marks the end for a series that, at its height, won a brace of Emmys, including one for its London, Ont.-born composer Trevor Morris, as well as an inaugural Canadian Screen Award for outstanding international drama.
Jordan leaves The Borgias behind with no bitterness or regret, and asks fans to do the same. “I never thought I would make a cable series and have enjoyed every minute of it,” Jordan said in a statement, through Showtime. “The Prince (the finale), when I wrote it and shot it, did seem like the end of a journey for the family. Whatever bonded them as a family dies in this episode, and the centre of the drama for me was always the family.”
“Fathers and sons, it is always thus,” one particular Machiavellian character said in last weekend’s penultimate episode, also written and directed by Jordan. That episode, The Gunpowder Plot, with its squabbling siblings in tights was a reminder that TV will be a less interesting place without The Borgias.
“Whatever our failings,” Pope Alexander said at another point, “we do not trade in fakery.” The same could be said of this absorbing, compelling drama. The Borgias will be missed. (Bravo — 8 p.m.)