The story of the Rodrigo family in their struggles to control Renaissance -era Italy and their eventual rise in the pinnacle of the Roman Catholic church.
Unlike many historical accounts, The Borgias weaves a picture of a complex man whose skills at diplomacy and whose patronage of the arts helped shape a new emerging church and continent.
It's another dose of middlebrow history with a soupcon of smuttiness, but the difference here is that 'The Borgias' has a much better cast than 'The Tudors' ever did.
A black comedy version of this story, about an incredibly selfish and cruel man somehow ascending to the holiest job on the planet, would be a lot of fun, but those moments are few and far between.