Bad Writing in DaVinci's Demons

Are TV shows known for good writing? Well, some have good writing, I've seen it myself. But I'm watching this latest HBO TV show called DaVinci's Demons, and quite frankly, the writing in the show is pretty bad. I still watch it because Leonardo DaVinci is one of my favorite historical figures. I mean, he really is one of the greatest human beings to have ever lived, and a lot of people agree with that.

So when I saw the trailers advertising the show before it came out last year, I thought it would be a great show to watch. It is entertaining to a point, and I keep watching it, but it seems I find myself shaking my head either in disgust or with complete dissatisfaction. And the reason? Bad writing.

I don't mean the dialogue. I mean the story line, and the way some of the events unfold. Take the season ending episode from last year. You have Lorenzo Medici, the top guy in the city state of Florence where DaVinci lives, and he's hired DaVinci to work for him. But he has a mistress who DaVinci happens to have a fling with, and he finds out, and then threatens to kill DaVinci. So what's the problem? Well, DaVinci had just given everything to save Medici's life, that's what. I mean the Medicis were being attacked by a rival faction, and DaVinci storms into the place, (a church of all places,) and fights off the attackers, and then carries Medici to temporary safety while fighting off several attackers at the same time. They make it to a room, where DaVinci bolts the door to keep their attackers temporarily at bay.

And Medici's response? Just as he's thanking DaVinci and offering him anything he wants, he sees a ring that he recognizes as his mistress's, and concludes (correctly) that DaVinci is fooling around with her, too, and then makes a 180 degree turn and threatens to kill him, even as their enemies are pounding on the door to break it down, so they can kill him!

To me, that made no sense at all. Again, the man was offering anything he possessed for saving his life. But hold all bets when it came to his mistress? If it was his wife DaVinci was messing around with, MAYBE then that would have worked. But it wasn't. It was a woman for hire. (To put it nicely.) And then he wants to kill DaVinci? I don't think so.

There are several other examples in that first season, I just don't have time to cover them at the moment. And now that the second season is underway, the last episode has got me shaking my head yet again. More later.