Without the corny over-emphasis on love - MORE POWERFUL THAN SPACE AND TIME - and had it ended after the tesseract sequence, amongst a few other niggling things, this film would have been much better. But I am going to forgive it for its sins because the acting, the overall tone, the visuals, the fucking spectacular soundtrack, all hit me like a tonne of bricks and I was emotionally exhausted by the end of it. It is, if nothing else, one hell of a ride. I would also like to give everyone involved major kudos for the accuracy of the known science used, such as the spherical wormhole, relativity etc. It was explained succinctly and well enough that a layperson such as myself could understand it, but I did see the film with a physicist and he didn't get nerd rage from it, so it must be alright.

This shot to the top of my list once I noticed it was from the guy who made Rejected. It has the same bizarre, experimental feel to its animation and humor, but attached to a deeply depressing story. It's divided up into three 20 minute "chapters" that were originally three separate shorts that all run together naturally. Basically, watch this if you liked Rejected and want to feel really sad while laughing.

There's nothing too special about this one as far as romance movies go (aside from the leads being telepathically linked), but I still liked it a lot even though I don't normally go for stuff like this. I found out afterward that it was written by Joss Whedon, which is surprising since it didn't have his usual snappy dialogue patterns. The two leads were enjoyable, and that's really all that matters with this sort of thing.

Now that I've finished both seasons I think the only weak episodes were the two season finales. Episode 3 was just... bad. Nobody in it was the least bit likeable and I could easily see it playing out exactly the same way without the technology involved. Episode 6 was okay with an interesting idea, but I just couldn't see the technology going nearly as far out of control as the ending suggested.

The rest of the episodes were great, especially episode 4. Some of them reminded me a lot of the 90's Outer Limits series whenever they did a technology-based episode. I haven't watched the Christmas special yet.

I don't think it's even possible for Kane to un-arch his left eyebrow. He's trapped forever in questioning mode, speaking to people by looking back over his shoulder as often as he can. That man is a hero.

Also, a bunch of kids get speared/hanged/shot/stabbed.

I'd noticed Borgia on Netflix many times and almost watched a few times and then dismissed it, and then one day being extremely bored I decided to give it a go.

Turns out I've enjoyed it more thoroughly than just about anything I've watched in recent memory. It can be a bit hard to get into at first for anyone used to bigger budget productions (like the American version apparently), and for the fact that the cast is very international, which makes it odd at first in terms of everyone having a different accent. The prime example of this and in my mind the worst offender is the actor who plays Rodrigo Borgia, who is just about the only person with a thick American accent and plays the main role in the setup of the story (aka season 1). His acting isn't all that bad, but man that accent is ridiculous in this setting. In the end, I guess what I drove into my head was that they aren't speaking Italian as they should anyway, and that helped it become a non-issue for me.

If you can get over these few gripes though, it is really worth a watch, especially if you are interested in period pieces. The Renaissance has no shortage of famous artists and statesmen, and the blend here is what allows you to get transported into the subject matter. For example, Leonardo Da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli, who had known and, in the case of Da Vinci, been in the employ of Cesare Borgia, have supporting roles in the story. Josquin des Prés, a well-known music composer, is portrayed teaching Lucrezia Borgia the harp, and one of his most famous pieces for choir (Mille Regrets) is given a rendition on the harp in the show.

On the other hand, the show is also quite liberal in it's use of sex and violence, but it's nothing that should really phase anyone who's watched Game of Thrones or any other similar show, and gratuitousness has become a rather common trait in television anyway. The executions in particular are quite imaginative, and whether these are historically accurate becomes irrelevant when you remember that in the end the point is that these were commonplace public events, and that the general mentality of the age accepted this as part of life.

All of this is makes the show enjoyable and fits the subject matter well. Everyone in the show is a self-serving a-hole, and anyone who tries to act in a virtuous or moral way ends up taking it in the ass for it, sometimes quite literally. Family is always number one, and anyone who betrays this usually ends up paying for it as well. The show's central characters (the Borgia family) evolve quite a bit over the three seasons of the show, but rarely does this cause a lack of consistency. But in the end it is the historically notorious Cesare who, in my opinion, really drives the narrative and makes the show great, especially starting towards the end of the first season.

My favorite moment from the show below for those who have watched it already: