Finished Watching HBO's Rome (Spoilers)

[Admiral_Young]

Man...I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to participate in any of the threads while the series was running but we didn't get it here in Canada until it started popping up on the History Channel and then I only got to watch an occasional episode or two, I've just finished watching the first and second series on DVD from the library.

I love this show. Even with the historical inaccuracies and alterations they made in order to tell a more cohesive storyline over the course of two seasons it was awesome. I want a third season. Loved how the series ended the way it started with Pullo and Vorenus, and Pullo letting Caeserion know that he is his true father. They took some liberities that I'm not surre that I liked but were able to tell a better story with them. They made Octavian into a ruthless, asshole which he was in real life apprently but even more so in the series.

I would love them to adapt Colleen McCulluagh's ( i mispelt her last name) excellent Rome novel series.

 

[David Payne]

It was a great series. Did you ever catch HBO's Deadwood as well? I always thought Rome had similarities to that series.

 

[Anachronus]

Yes, I would love to see Kevin McKidd as Sulla.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I loved the show and even wrote a paper about its historical accuracies for one of my history classes. The first season is surprisingly accurate (I didn't look at the second season), with the writers usually taking liberties only in places where the history wasn't filled in or clear in the first place (such as the personalities of some people).

It was a very entertaining show. The second season wasn't nearly as good, but still interesting.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I agree the second season wasn't as strong but still fun to watch Octavian's ascension to Augustus, they should've called him Augustus. They could do a third season of the show showing Octavian's plan to take supreme control of the Republic and its transformation into Empire. I loved his Triumph and Atia defiantly taking her rightfull place amongst the women and putting Livia Drusilla in her place (even though in real life Atia was dead at this point) ...as well as Octivian asking Octavia to care for Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene. Also liked Vorenus finally making peace with his daughter even though it was forced because he was dying...the friendship between him and Pullo really made the series though, following them through major points in the history of the Republic. Seeing Ian McNeise as the Newsreader in the Fourm was awesome...particularly when he was announcing the names he reminded me of the Baron Harkonnen from the Dune Mini-Series that he played. One thing I didn't like was the portrayal of Marcus Agrippa and his relationship with Octavia...not sure if there was any actual historical precedent for that but it deterred his friendship with Octavian when theirs was suppossed to be very strong, so much so that there were rumors of a homosexual relationship which were false but Anthony constantly made a point of humilating Octavian with this matter.

 

[firehawk12]

It's been a while, but the only thing I remember is that FINALLY in S2 they showed a battle. It was the dude shouting TESTUDO! but still, it was better than the absolute nothing that they showed in S1/2.
You'd figure that they'd spend some of that money on showing the nitty gritty of ancient combat given that the two main characters are soldiers, but I guess not.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I don't think it was neccessary for them to show any battles until season two since the first season was all about Caesar coming home from Gaul and making a bid for personal power. The only thing I will say is that I too was disapointed that they didn't show more of the fighting between Caesar and Pompey...they basically had aftermath scenes. I think the show was all about the politics of Rome and the part women played behind the scenes which they did really well.

 

[Star Wolf]

It's been a while, but the only thing I remember is that FINALLY in S2 they showed a battle. It was the dude shouting TESTUDO! but still, it was better than the absolute nothing that they showed in S1/2.
.

Its been awile but wasn't the first scene a battle scene where they show the Roman's passage of lines battle tactics then one of the hero's go battle happy and his commander has to also break formation to save him?

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah you're right...its Pullo that breaks rank and Vorenus saves him or maybe its the other way around now that I think about it. Pullo gets flogged and put in confinement until Vorenus releases and then they're dispatched to get find the standards.

 

[firehawk12]

Oh yeah, in the first episode when they're fighting the Gauls.
Still, I kind of wish there were more battles and less random sex with bare asses going up and down.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ LOL...that's one of the best parts of the series though dude!

 

[firehawk12]

It's all the same thing after a while... and of course, when that girl has the affair with that other woman, they don't even bother. Figures.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

It was a great series. Did you ever catch HBO's Deadwood as well? I always thought Rome had similarities to that series.

I find the characters in Deadwood a lot more compelling (just finished with S1 on DVD). The biggest problem for me with Rome is that I really didn't like any of those people. Which is why the stuff with Caesar, Antony, Cleo & Brutus was the most interesting - it was fun watching famous events history re-created, accurately or not...and since I know they all die violently, the fact that I didn't care whether they lived or died became irrelevant...

^ LOL...that's one of the best parts of the series though dude!

How could anyone object to James Purefoy's ass, anyway?

 

[Spot's Meow]

I'm actually glad they didn't show more battles than they did. It was more about the politics and behind the scenes stuff, as someone else said above, and more battles would have taken away from that. I think the sex scenes were a little boring and gratuitous, and I would have felt the same way about battle scenes.

 

[firehawk12]

Honestly, I just wanted to see some soldiering not of the Gladiator or 300 variety.
I mean, even Shakespeare threw in battles in Anthony and Cleopatra... who can argue with Shakespeare?

 

[Admiral_Young]

You are referring to Octavia's affiar with Servilla which pissed me off (not just because they didn't show anything as you referenced about firehawk) but because all the material I've read on Roman history during the Republic era doesn't mention anything about such an affair, another liberty taken for storytelling purposes. Again though part of my viewing of Rome has been distorted by Colleen McCullough's series of novels on the Republic.

I agree that seeing some of the fighting would be cool...we were teased...but really as I said before the series was really about the ruthless, cutthroat politics that determined policy in Rome and resulted with warfare ususally (so yes I guess we should have been shown the fighting) but really they wanted to show all the political aspects of the show. There was the point of view from the politicans and the point of view from the women who used sexuality to gain some say in how policy went.

 

[firehawk12]

Well, they always showed the aftermath of battles... usually people fleeing after they've lost - ie, Anthony on his little boat after his fleet was annihilated.

And, I can't imagine anything on the show was based in any historical reality. From what I know, Atia dies much earlier and doesn't make it to the end as suggested by the show.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Wikipedia has a section in their episode summaries on the historical differences if you want to spend a few hours reading through but yeah as I said the bulk of the series took liberities.

 

[firehawk12]

Oh yeah, I was obsessive about what happened when the series was airing.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I've been in a Roman history phase for the past three or four years. Ever since I first came across the aforementinoned series of novels which I highly reccomend if you're into this sort of thing. So while I was watching the series I also browsed through Wikipedia as much as I could!