You kind of have to respect the chutzpah from Starz on this one: At some point, some exec actually had the temerity to suggest making a show in which Leonardo Da Vinci — a man widely recognized as looking like God’s much, much older brother — is a sexy, swashbuckling man of action … and instead of laughing this brave soul out of the room, the plucky cable also-ran said, “Yeah, sure, why not?” And so now we have Da Vinci’s Demons, written by David S. Goyer (who has story credit on all three of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies) and starring swarthy Brit Tom Riley as Da Vinci at 25 years old, when apparently he spent his time fighting for the survival of Florence against those holy imperialists in Rome.

According to Goyer, “He’s kind of super-hero-y anyway … my approach wasn’t entirely dissimilar to [writing] Batman or Superman … He had an incredible life, we didn’t have to embellish as much as you’d think.” So, in short order, we see Leo — yes, they call him Leo — inventing a golden robot pigeon, a multi-barrel cannon, a rudimentary Daytona Beach–spring-break-style parasail, and also having sex with a comely young lady in a mask. He didn’t invent sex, though; that, of course, was Trey Songz.