Medici (TV series)


Medici is a historical drama created by Frank Spotnitz and Nicholas Meyer. The series was produced by Italian Lux Vide and Rai Fiction in collaboration with Frank Spotnitz's Big Light Productions.
The series premiered in Italy on Rai 1 on 18 October 2016. The series follows the Medici family, bankers of the Pope, during Renaissance Florence. Each season follows the events of a particular moment of the family history exploring the political and artistic landscape of Renaissance Italy.
The first season, titled Medici: Masters of Florence, takes place in 1429, the year Giovanni de' Medici, head of the family, died. His son Cosimo de Medici succeeds him as head of the family bank, the richest bank of Europe at that time, and fights to preserve his power in Florence. The second season, titled Medici: The Magnificent, takes place 20 years later and tells the story of Cosimo's grandson Lorenzo de Medici. A third and final season, which completes the story of Lorenzo, premiered on Rai 1 in Italy on 2 December 2019.
The series reached between four and eight million viewers on original airings. According to Italian ratings compiler Auditel, the broadcast of the first episode attracted a record 8.04 million viewers.
The series is broadcast in 190 countries worldwide, including on Netflix in the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland and India, and on SBS in Australia.

Plot

Season 1

Florence, 1429. Giovanni de' Medici is a rich banker who also represents one of the most important political forces of Florence's Signoria. He has a plan to increase his family power by making an agreement with the Church of Rome. The election of a new Pope is about to take place and Giovanni sends his sons Cosimo and Lorenzo to Rome in order to encourage the election of a Pope close to his family. In Rome, Cosimo, fascinated by the beauty of ancient architectures and art, meets Donatello and one of his models Bianca. Cosimo falls in love with her but is then forced to leave her and marry Contessina de Bardi, a political marriage arranged by Giovanni and Contessina's father. The Medici's candidate gets elected, which ensures to the bank of the Medici an unparalleled economic power. Twenty years later, Giovanni is mysteriously murdered and Cosimo and Lorenzo try to secretly investigate his death. Meanwhile the political situation in the city is troubled by plots against the Medici family's power, and their vision for the future of Florence - which will then lead to the Renaissance - is in danger. Cosimo's dream is to complete the Duomo of Florence, but no architect seems to have a feasible solution due to the shape of the base created for the dome. Finally, Filippo Brunelleschi introduces himself to Cosimo and shows him plans for the dome. Cosimo decides to trust Brunelleschi and the construction of the dome starts, bringing jobs and people to Florence. Meanwhile, the mystery surrounding the death of Giovanni thickens and Rinaldo Albizzi, Cosimo's main opponent in the Signoria, tries to block the construction and to incite the people to rise up against the Medicis.

Season 2

Twenty years have passed since the events of the first season. Piero, Cosimo's son, and his wife Lucrezia are now at the head of the family. The power of the Medici has consolidated over time, but an assassination attempt on Piero brings to light his mismanagement of the family bank. The Sforza family have the greatest debt towards the bank and manage to make an agreement with Piero to erase their debts. The solution proposed by Sforza would also bring about the invasion of Florence. Lorenzo, Piero's son, in order to avoid the fall of Florence, takes over the role of his father both in the government of the Signoria and as head of the family, avoiding the invasion. Although he has a relationship with a married woman, Lucrezia Donati, Lorenzo eventually accepts marriage with a rich Roman noblewoman, Clarice Orsini. His brother Giuliano and his dear friend Sandro Botticelli, both meet and fall in love with Simonetta, although in different ways. Botticelli's interest is an artistic one and leads to the painting of Venus and Mars in which Simonetta is represented alongside Giuliano.
The Pazzi family, led by Jacopo Pazzi and his nephew Francesco, join forces with the Pope in order to increase the Church's control of nearby territories and mines, in opposition to the Medici's policy. This argument will eventually lead to a conspiracy against Lorenzo in an attempt to put an end to his power and his dream of a peaceful and culturally alive Florence.

Season 3

This season starts immediately after the previous one. Lorenzo has grown into a cruel determined man after his brothers death and vows revenge. He soon has three children with Clarice, and they raise Giulio after his father’s death. Following the breakdown of the Pazzi conspiracy, Lorenzo must still face a military coalition from the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples, led by the ambitious Girolamo Riario. He undertakes a diplomatic journey to Naples and succeeds in negotiating a separate peace.

Episodes

Cast

Season 1: ''Masters of Florence''

Production

directed all eight episodes in the first season. The show’s world premiere took place in Florence at Palazzo Vecchio on the 14 October 2016, ahead of its premiere airing on RAI 1 on October 18.
Filming for the second season started in Rome on 24 August 2017.
On 28 August 2018 filming for the third season started in Formello, outside Rome.

Historical accuracy

During an interview at the Roma Fest panel in 2015, Spotnitz stated, "the season will be more thriller than historical saga... we begin the show with a 'what if' because we don't know how Giovanni de' Medici died. One of the questions that haunts Cosimo, is whether his father was murdered".

Locations

Several noticeable locations are used throughout the series, in addition to sets and sound stages:
The creators took significant liberties with sets, often showing interior decorations, works of art, and exterior landscapes that were created many years after the events described in the series which occur in the mid-1430s. For example, the Medici Palazzo was built in 1440s–1480s and the Benozzo Gozzoli frescoes of Magi Chapel shown in the Cosimo study were executed in 1459–61. The Lorenzo rooms are decorated with the Giulio Romano fresco "Mars and Venus" which was painted in the 1520s in Palazzo Te in Mantova. During the episode exile in Venice, the church of Santa Maria della Salute built in the 1630s is repeatedly shown as part of the Venice city landscape. Villa Medici contains "Fortitude and Temperance with Six Antique Heroes" by Perugino, painted in 1497.
Medici: Masters of Florence was originated in 4k video and broadcast in this format on the free Italian satellite service Tivu whilst on the Italian Digital Terrestrial service DVB-T2 it was broadcast in Full-HD 1920×1080.
Two audio tracks were broadcast: Rai TV gave satellite and terrestrial viewers the option to watch the series in Italian or English.

International transmission

carries out the show in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland and India since December 2016.
The series is broadcast in 190 countries countries worldwide, including on SBS in Australia, on Fox Premium in Argentina, SFR's premium SVOD service Zive in France, Sky 1 in Germany, on RTP1 in Portugal, and on RTS2 in Serbia. It was also sold in Japan, Israel, and New Zealand.

Home media

The second season was also released in Blu-Ray on the 24 January 2019. Both Italian editions have the original audio track in English and the Italian-dubbed audio track.

Other media

On the 16 October 2018, a novelisation of the events told in the second season titled I Medici - Lorenzo il Magnifico was published in Italy by Michele Gazo.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the series was composed by Paolo Buonvino. The opening theme song Renaissance was produced with the collaboration of Skin. A video clip for the song was also published the day before the series premiered in Italy.
The opening theme song for the second season changed. Skin and Buonvino collaborated on a variation of the original opening sequence song titled Revolution Bones. Ian Arber composed additional music for the second season.
On December 20, 2019 the full soundtrack I Medici was released by Sugar Music with a total of 47 tracks composed by Paolo Buonvino.

Track listing

Reception

Awards