It took forever for me to decide on the right picture for this one. So many Jaye expressions of horror and annoyance, but it's the "Noooooo…" look in her sideways glance that sealed the deal.

I too was hoping for more Pace, but given that he was a later addition I can't get too worked up. (According to the commentary tracks the scene with him is actually a mash-up of the original footage with Adam Scott and the scenes he shot after Scott dropped out.)

This is my first time through the series, though I have a vague understanding of some of the plots. And I'm never too bothered by spoilers in general - my philosophy is that I'm okay with knowing plots, I just want to be surprised by the moments of individual awesomeness.

Thank you for finding that! I'll amend the stray observations now.

That's a great observation on the FPS parallel - I'll bring that up in next week's review. (And it was the revolving cylinder that threw me, as the profile looked a lot more like a grenade launcher than a gauss weapon, which is usually more streamlined in the games I've seen them in.)

It was indeed the revolving ammunition cylinder that threw me, plus the fact that every projectile seemed to blow anything it hit half to pieces.

Nanomachine zombies. I keep saying it, and I can't be dissuaded from the idea it's going to happen.

As Alexander would say, we greet this news as welcome. Plus, I've been keeping an eye on the ratings and they're up from last season at this time - it's always a crap shoot to see what bar for success cable has, but this is Showtime after all. I do agree in hindsight I gave that Deadline piece more credibility than it…

According to recent news (http://www.spoilertv.com/20… season two production is moving to Texas.

The "next week on" also was pretty spoiler-tastic IMHO.

Every single person has walked across the country and back it seems by this point.

Flames! On the side of my face!

I'm predicting it's going to tank and tank hard on Wednesdays at 8. But given the crummy ratings that the comedies did there this year, it may do just well enough for NBC to support it a while longer.

I said this last week, but what I want to see is a fourth season showing the fall of Alexander's papacy, and a two-hour movie tying off Cesare's attempt to hold power against an ascendant della Rovere.

I didn't actually realize that until after my review was written, but it did make for a very nice coincidence. Although I try largely not to compare The Borgias with Game of Thrones, as I already feel the latter unfairly eclipses the former.

Oh man, I missed that - I watch the episodes on my iPad screeners, and the quality isn't what it could be. I'm going to have to go back and catch that.

Season two also had the friction between the Borgia children, which I think formed a stronger narrative thread than the Sforza conspiracy on its own has.

At some point in the season Cesare did promise him a generalship, and he rejected it as he belongs in the darkness.

His contempt is an utter delight. It remains a little strained that he'd choose the side of the Borgias over his family as he did in the pilot, but I think he does consider it the lesser of two evils and he's got no desire to be pope himself.

The difference is also that Smash was an actively bad show, and for all my problems with Revolution I've never thought it was a bad show, only aggressively mediocre.