Save "The Borgias"!

It’s one of the best shows in television – and they’re cancelling it! The season finale of The Borgias this Sunday is now the series finale, thanks to the powers that be over at Showtime. The show pulls a “steady but unspectacular” audience each week, and I guess that the production costs are proving too high for the network to justify continuing the story.

So why did they start it in the first place???? Historical pieces are notoriously expensive, and credit must be given to this one because it’s as glorious to look at as the plot is to follow. The production team put their hearts into making it as lush as a Renaissance painting; alas, as with most worthwhile endeavours, too few have seen it. What I don’t understand is why a premium cable network can’t afford to keep it rolling, as they don’t depend on commercial advertisers to provide funding. The Tudors ran for four seasons and it wasn’t nearly as good as The Borgias. And don’t get me started on Vikings being renewed for a second season. I’d happily sacrifice Ragnar Lothbrok for another year of Cesare Borgia.

Cesare, however, is not the only character who plumbs the depth of human complexity in this show. I can’t think of anyone to whom I am indifferent. Each character is so well written and so expertly acted that I can only say I have a number of favourites. There is no scene where I am not completely engaged. And I have said at the end of more than one episode that I wish I had written it. It’s gorgeous, gut-wrenching stuff, set out in such detail that 16^th century Italy is brought very much to brutal, beautiful life.

Petitions to save the series have popped up online. I’ve signed one (and you can sign it here—please!), but I doubt that minds will be changed. The almighty dollar rules so despotically that the Borgia Pope himself would probably can the project. Who cares about the ardent few over the apathetic many? It’s the viewers they don’t have that has killed this series and I for one am royally pissed about it.

Rats.

The best I can do is salute the extraordinary work produced by the cast and crew over the past three years. The Borgias was one of the few television series worthy of my time and attention. It was brilliant and inspiring. If you missed seeing it, you missed a treasure.