Borgia: Season Two: Rules of Love, Rules of War

For me, it is impossible to try to compare Borgia and The Borgias. Both are excellent and aside from the subject matter, very different. I first watched The Borgias and absolutely loved it. I stumbled upon this presentation and thanks to some informative reviews, I had to leap - and so glad I did.In some other reviews, much has been made about the "accent issue," most specifically John Doman's American accent. Because his accent is so different from that of the other actors, I did notice it initially, but soon, it didn't matter at all. In fact, I thought John Dorman did an excellent job portraying Rodrigo Borgia and looked so much more like him as well.As in The Borgias, great detail was taken in costuming and set detail. And, in some of the retelling of stories based in murky facts, some liberties were also taken. Borgia requires much more viewer participation, I think, because there are more characters to keep up with. One thing that struck me about Borgia is how the film-makers portrayed the people, cast and extras. There were men and women of all sizes and physical descriptions. There was tremendous realism in Borgia, all the way through.After watching The Borgias, it took me a minute to "accept" the actors in Borgia, as I am so fond of the ones in the former. What allowed me to enjoy Borgia equally is that these two series are SO completely different. Each one stands by itself and should be appreciated that way. These characters are so interesting and both gave me a completely different understanding and appreciation for the Borgias and their times.Season 2 marks the transition of Cesare's taking more of the center stage. Mark Ryder does an amazing job of conveying a calculated,driven man - continually trying to prove his worth to his father - a central theme in both this telling and Showtime's The Borgias. Again, in this season, viewer enjoyment is dependent upon viewer attention. Unlike in The Borgias, there is a larger context of ever-changing events. One quick trip to the kitchen or bathroom can result in immediate bewilderment upon return.Although Season 3 has not yet been released in the US(except via Netflix) on dvd, I can tell you that it is available via Amazon/Francais. My high school French helped a little in discerning the language options and I gambled that so many of the actors were English-speaking, so I bought it. Glad I did. One switch of the audio button on the dvd player and everyone was speaking in English, rather than dubbed-in French. It is important to note that a region-free dvd player is needed for Season 3. If one is needed, Amazon US offers a variety of them. They are inexpensive and invaluable for watching films/tv that haven't made it to US shores. I will attest that Season 3 is pretty great. The ending is quite surprising and extremely creative.If you are intrigued by the Borgia family, I recommend BOTH versions of their story. Each paints a different view of the same story and makes a highly entertaining experience in the bargain.

Very good

Season 2 of this series was wonderful but I have one important complaint to enter. The digital copy that I purchased has no close captioning. The full DVD set, not yet available for region one, does indeed offer close captioning. Also on Amazon Instant Video, close captioning is an available complement. I do not know why Amazon chose to manufacture a digital copy of this great historical series without close captioning. Personally I am not hearing impaired or deaf. Programs and movies that are spoken in English with heavy Italian, Irish, German and the like accents in my opinion are benefited greatly with the addition of close captioning / subtitles. I am a viewer that wants to understand every word that is spoken during a movie or program. I feel badly for people that are deaf or hearing impaired that unknowingly purchased the digital copy available from Amazon and literally would not be able to enjoy its content. I even placed a call to customer service before ordering the digital copy and the person on the phone could not tell me whether or not close captioning was on it or not. Customer service should have this data available to them when Amazon customers call with their questions. Thank you.

Great seasons but getting them to release is like pulling teeth! I have been asking for this forever but neither Amazon or Canal made it easy to find. What is wrong with these people who are selling this? Season 3 comes to Netflix this winter but will it be another three years before I can own it. Help those of us that like the series and send it to dvd/Blu ray... stop holding on to it for so long.This series puts the Showtime series to shame, the wonderful way Doman plays the pope is nothing less than awesome. His sons are priceless and his daughter is cast to the perfect woman. Its a terrible story on many levels but this is the best!

When I purchased this DVD set, I either failed to notice, or failed to understand, the notation which states "DVD-R Note: This product is manufactured on demand when ordered from Amazon.com." In the event, what I received was not the usual, normal-looking, silver DVDs but purple-colored DVDs. When I played these on my Oppo Blu-Ray player, the sound was fine but, for some disks, the picture would pulsate between a high pixel count and a low pixel count i.e. low resolution blocks of color.I paid $17.98 for the set, so I didn't waste a lot of money, but it has been a learning experience for me. The price of education. In future, I will be on the look out for, and avoid, any DVD sets that are advertised as "manufactured on demand". I guess its like those new "Print-on-Demand" books - they are rubbish too!I quite like the series (although I think the Jeremy Irons version is better) so I purchased a PAL set on Blu-Ray disks from Amazon Italia. Needless to say the picture and sound are about a million times better!

If you watched the Showtime series, give this one a try. I actually like this presentation better than Showtime's. Once you get past the wide-ranging number of different accents in this version, the tale is terrific and (most) of the acting is excellent. It may not be as highly-mounted as the showtime version, and may even be a bit more speculative in its handling of the story of the Borgia family, but I enjoyed very much being able to see the same story told in two different ways. This version piqued my interest enough to get me to buy...and read...a couple of histories on the Borgia dynasty.

Excellent, though not totally historically accurate. When will you have the third season available on dvd? I do not plan to buy a blue ray player to get the the 3 seasons in one purchase which Amazon now offers online,

A sleeper season IMO, but an awesome series on the whole.