Showtime’s answer to the gap left by The Tudors debuted on Sunday night. The Borgias, touted by the cable channel as “the original crime family,” enjoyed a 100-minute premiere episode that packed in about as much corruption, sex and murder as any one show can handle.

Jeremy Irons is Spanish-born Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, but after some clever scheming we were soon calling him Pope Alexander VI. His son Cesare Borgia (Francios Arnaud) is an unwilling cleric but able co-plotter, though his relationship with sister Lucrezia (Holliday Grainger) is incredibly suspect. Younger brother Juan (David Oakes) very much enjoys his soldier role, one that’s coveted by older brother Cesare… who seems far more skilled toward this end than toward his religious duties.

If you think it’s odd that a man of the church should have children (there are four total), it’s treated as very commonplace in this 15th century-set drama. Pope Alexander’s predecessor, according to the dialogue, was rumored to have 12 children at the time of his passing. Vanozza di Cattanei (Joanne Whalley) is the mother to all four children, but forced to live a chaste life once her paramour is named Pope.

Not that he’s doing the same, mind you. The Holy Father quickly gets himself a mistress in the form of Giulia Farnese (Lotte Verbeek), a liaison which nearly costs him the holy throne of Rome.

By episode’s end, one pesky Cardinal and one witness to the Pope’s depravity were both neatly killed… because that’s what happens when you cross the Borgias. The show was filled with intrigue and intensity, and we’re already eagerly looking forward to the next installment.