TV Rewind: Showtime’s The Borgias Brought Incestuous Romance to TV Long Before House of the Dragon

By Lacy Baugher Milas  |  September 19, 2025 | 11:00am
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TV Rewind: Showtime’s The Borgias Brought Incestuous Romance to TV Long Before House of the Dragon

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our TV Rewind column! The Paste writers are diving into the streaming catalogue to discuss some of our favorite classic series as well as great shows we’re watching for the first time. Come relive your TV past with us, or discover what should be your next binge watch below:

Once upon a time in the entertainment industry, the entire idea of depicting incest was pretty taboo, for fairly obvious reasons. But in a TV landscape with increasingly fewer boundaries to break and lines to cross, such stories have become an increasingly easy way to capture both viewers’ attention and zeitgeist buzz in recent years.  

It’s not like incest is a new thing in the world of pop culture. Anyone who’s ever watched a soap opera (or Star Wars) has seen a character come thisclose to dating someone they turned out to be secretly related to. Adopted or step-siblings flirted with relationships in properties ranging from Clueless to Gossip Girl. And V.C. Andrews books like Flowers in the Attic were appealing in large part because of their boundary-pushing, frequently incestuous central storylines (which were often heavily flavored with themes of abuse and horror). 

Nowadays, however, many of the taboos that once surrounded such stories appear to be gone. It’s easy to point to the success of HBO’s fantasy hit Game of Thrones for this shift. This franchise not only introduced the world to Cersei (Lena Headey) and Jaime Lannister’s (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) twisted sibling connection but to the generational incestual practices of the entire Targaryen bloodline. Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon features multiple incestuous marriages (complete with children!), and its central relationship is between Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) and his niece Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy). Though their union is frequently depicted as a violent power struggle, it is also deeply romantic and serves as the emotional linchpin around which much of the show’s first two seasons turn. 

Even contemporary dramas have started to dip their toes into this formerly forbidden water.  A hook-up between two brothers was at the center of the most talked-about plot of The White Lotus Season 3, and Ryan Murphy’s drama Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story managed to make the possibility of incest the most disturbing thing about a very violent real-life murder. Even Prime Video’s latest thriller, The Girlfriend, almost certainly wants viewers to speculate about whether the frequently inappropriate mother-son relationship at its center is (physically) closer than it appears. But while it’s true that things that were once considered verboten on television have rapidly become less so in recent years, most viewers likely missed one of the first—and, honestly, the best—examples of the incestuous romance trend: Showtime’s The Borgias. 

True, this over-the-top, slightly trashy historical series wasn’t exactly anyone’s idea of prestige TV in terms of its subject matter or its storylines. Released in 2011 in an attempt to continue the success the cable network had found with its salacious period series The Tudors, The Borgias also follows the story of a powerful political dynasty that’s better known for sex and scandals than any real political or military accomplishments. Swapping Tudor England for Renaissance Italy, The Borgias focuses on the infamous noble family who largely rose to power through controlling the Catholic Church. Known for their ruthless behavior, political ambition, open corruption, and frequent criming, the Borgias were so scandalous and memorable they’re said to have inspired the Corleone family in Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. 

The series centers on Rodrigo Borgia (Jeremy Irons), also known as Pope Alexander VI, and his quartet of illegitimate children: Cesare (François Arnaud), Giovanni (David Oakes), Gioffre (Aiden Alexander), and Lucrezia (Holliday Granger). The story begins with Rodrigo’s election to the papacy and follows his struggles to maintain his hold on power. This involves everything from military warfare and arranged marriages to manipulation, bribery, and assassination. Pope Alexander doesn’t spare his kids, either, using all of them as pawns to secure his own position whenever it’s convenient. Cesare is forced into the clergy, Lucrezia into unhappy marriages, and Giovanni (who primarily goes by Juan in the show) into the army. But while the series is full of all manner of salacious behavior, bloody battles, and outright murder, it is perhaps most memorable for finally going there with history’s most scandalous siblings: Cesare and Lucrezia. 

Rumors that Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia’s relationship was an incestuous one have swirled for hundreds of years. Historically speaking, there’s no proof that the pair were ever lovers—in fact, most historians now seem to agree they probably weren’t—but we do know that the real Borgia siblings were remarkably close. Neil Jordan’s series takes that idea and runs with it, building much of The Borgias’ emotional heart around this twosome and their bond. And the pair yearn, flirt, pine, and blatantly long for each other well before their connection ever takes a turn for the physical. 

Perhaps that’s what makes this particular relationship so compelling to watch. The bond between Lucrezia and Cesare is established from the series’ opening episode as its most important, long before anything inappropriate happens between them. Their connection is depicted as an emotional lifeline in a world that, for both characters, is frequently full of betrayal, disappointment, and heartbreak. It’s immediately evident that the pair are the most important people in each other’s lives, and consistent sources of comfort and affection in a world that offers them precious little of either elsewhere.

Unable to trust virtually anyone but one another, their relationship is presented not just as warm and affectionate but essential. That no other relationship can ever hope to compete with the one the siblings share is not only evident but a major plot point on multiple occasions throughout the series. Cesare and Lucrezia, the show seems to imply, are inevitable. (It certainly doesn’t hurt that François Arnaud and Holliday Granger have positively crackling chemistry with one another, either.) 

More importantly, perhaps, is the fact that even as it crosses an illicit and shocking boundary, The Borgias takes care to depict Cesare and Lucrezia’s relationship as something layered and genuine. Even when it turns sexual, their romance (because that’s what the show seems to say this ultimately is) isn’t played for shock value or presented as something horrifying or depraved. Instead, The Borgias consistently frames their love as something tender and intimate, an affirmation of an already existing emotional connection that has nothing to do with sex.

While The Borgias does acknowledge the innately problematic nature of Cesare and Lucrezia’s relationship, it simultaneously manages to position the pair as one of the least shocking elements of life in Rodrigo’s Vatican. Theirs is one of the few relationships on the series’ canvas that is consistently presented as both honest and without guile. What’s more, giving into their passion doesn’t diminish the siblings or their connection to one another, but rather seems to make both of them more fully and firmly themselves.

Somehow, in the outrageous world of The Borgias, the incestuous relationship between Cesare and Lucrezia isn’t a twist meant to shock or titillate its audience, but a deliberate narrative choice that says something about who these two characters are and what they mean to one another. All the shows that tried something similar in the years that followed really should have taken some notes.

The Borgias is now streaming on Paramount+. 

Lacy Baugher Milas writes about TV and Books at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter and Bluesky at @LacyMB

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