DaVinci's Demons: The Complete First Season

Leonardo da Vinci was a genius. Often he has been considered the archetype of the Renaissance Man. He wasn't just a talented painter, or inventor, scuptor or musician, mathematician or botanist, he was talented in all of those things, and so much more. He was a huge influence on his time and on all that followed. Even today he still informs and inspires. But this show, Da Vinci's Demons, isn't a documentary, it's Historical Fiction.

David Goyer takes the history of da Vinci and weaves it into a tale of intrigue. Leonardo lives in Florence and his many talents put him often into the employ of Lorenzo de' Medici. The Medici's are bankers, and for a long time they were the richest family in all of Europe. They were even the bank for the Catholic Church. And here is where the story of this series falls. The Church and the Pope no longer desire to be held to the debts they owe to the Medici bank and begin plotting to eliminate Lorenzo and his brother Giovanni, to elevate the Pazzi family and retake control of Italy.

In my opinion, this show works best when it deals with Leonardo, his genius, and how his inventions impact the world he lives in, and as he seeks the answers to his own mysteries. It works less well when it dwells on the political intrigue between the Medici family & Florence versus Rome & the Church. I tried watching when it aired on Starz, but got bored with the politics and the week delays between episodes, and quit. However, the show plays much better on Blu-ray or DVD where I can binge watch all 8 hours in a day or two.

With pacing issues out of the way, the other complaint I have is that in 8 hours of television they managed to not satisfactorily resolve a single plot line. It was interesting enough to watch in a day, but when the screen went dark at the end of episode 8, I was irritated that it ended on such a cliffhanger and that so many questions were level unanswered, their number dwarfing the few answers we did get.

One thing I did like about the show, which may not be something you catch unless you read about it or watch the commentary, is that one of Leonardo's assistants and friends is Nico, better known to history as Niccolò Machiavelli. I liked that, even though it is fiction, as Machiavelli would have only been 7 or 8 years old at the time this show takes place, putting in this important future member of the Florentine Republic and showing the beginnings of where he might start formulating the experiences that would lead him to write The Price is a nice touch.

Da Vinci's Demons is a decent show, neither terrible or life changing. But still, a respectable effort by Starz. Hopefully their originals continue to improve as their studio develops.