ROME

[osprey_archer]

So I watched the first episode of Rome, and - STRANGELY COMPELLING. It's a blatant churning maelstrom of id and dominance games! Just like the ancient Romans themselves!

I always liked the Romans better than the Greeks. They never came up with highfalutin justifications for why they were so evil. And they built aqueducts! And roads! And useful things instead of silly little temples!



I like Vorenus, which is unusual given that he was clearly designed to be liked, what with the whole loving his wife and being sort of twitchy about crucifying people thing. But! He crucified people despite his twitchiness. And then he let them down when he got what he wanted, which is, like, humanitarianism for a Roman.

Speaking of the crucifixions, stabbing, ritual animal sacrifice etc.: on the whole it was less bloody than I expected. There's a fine line between "accurately depicted gore" and "gore porn," and Rome pretty much walked it. Given the Romans' general attitude toward violence I think this will shift in the gore porn direction in later episodes, which is going to be a problem for me.

The whole Julii family is pretty awesome (in a "Thank God they live two thousand years away from me" kind of way). I'm kind of at a loss as to how Octavia's idealism managed to survive this long without being gutted by the bitter realities of Roman life, though.

Brutus was not as totally awesome as I wanted, but it would probably be impossible for anyone to live up to Brutus, so. (This is embarrassingly geektastic, but my first and possibly only literary crush was Brutus in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Because he's so brave and noble and awesome and strangely slashy [with Cassius, of all people, because Brutus has terrible taste in men]! And kills his best friend Caesar for the greater good! And has so much angst and is so stoical about it all!)

And...I think that's it for now. Oh, except for the fact that I can totally see this show sparking REAMS OF ESSAYS about history and violence in fiction and so forth, which will be fun for me if not for you.

Comments

[anait.livejournal.com]

Vorenus was pretty much my favourite. I liked how humourless and well-intentioned and grim he was. He was a real dick sometimes, because of his values, but they also made him a really good guy in other cases. A man of integrity, even when it worked against him. Also, he was hot. :)

Brutus is AWESOME!! I loved James Purefoy's take on him. He plays him consistently, he's got a very clear idea of who this guy is. Sometimes I loathed him, and then he'd go and do a scene that went and made him awesome. I couldn't hate him entirely, even when I wanted to. Wait till he meets Cleopatra. It's epic!

The whole Julii family is pretty awesome (in a "Thank God they live two thousand years away from me" kind of way).
Yep. Pretty much my feeling towards every single person in this show. They are painted larger than life in this series, and it isn't pleasant.

Some of the characterizations did make me go WTF? Particularly Octavian. Cleopatra and Antony grew on me, the actors were spectacular. And I liked Brutus. But the Caesar and Servilia were so boring!! Colleen McCullough's Caesar and Servilia were the opposite of boring.

Re: the gore and violence. The scenes I remember as bothering me the most were the gladiator scene with Vorenus or Pullo (I can't remember which) and the sword. Gross. And the scenes involving/implying rape, which always bother me. I just do not want tv to go there.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I can understand Octavian's character (although as yet I've only seen the first two episodes); he seems just cruel and politically savvy enough to have a chance at making it in Roman politics. I would have made him rather less coddled, though.

I haven't reached the gladiator scene yet. I'll be sure to have something handy to hide behind when I do.

And honestly, I half tune out pretty much all the sex scenes in Rome. Even the ones that aren't explicitly rape are a little bit O.o, and while I realize it's historically accurate and everything...I think I'll get the gist without giving the train wreck (chariot wreck?) my complete attention.

[anait.livejournal.com]

Season 1 Octavian is fine. It's season 2 Octavian that gave me many WTF?! moments regarding the writers' characterization choices.

If I remember right, the sex scenes in season 2 are even more grim than in season 1. But I could be blocking out the ones in season 1. Who knows.

Brutus is AWESOME!! I loved James Purefoy's take on him.

*facepalms* I read and wrote 'Brutus' when I was thinking 'Antony.' Yes, this Brutus is likeable enough but is very overshadowed by the rest of the cast. I can see how you would be a little let down, even though I don't share your Shakespearean!Brutus crush. I've never read or watched Julius Caesar!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I would tell you to GO FORTH AND READ JULIUS CAESAR but somehow that doesn't work with Shakespeare; the language is hard enough that, at least for me, I have to read it through once just to get the sense of it, and then again to see if I like it.

And the film adaption of Julius Caesar is really bad.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Oh, and! I agree with you entirely about Antony. The cast as a whole is pretty good, but he's a real standout.

I'd be really curious to see him go head to head with Atia. They have such a similar approach to life that I bet their battle would be epic.

(Also, I've just seen episode three. The scene where Atia and her daughter about who's going to kill whom so the mob won't get them is great.)