HBO's Rome

Couldn't find an old thread for this one, so here goes.

I just finished watching this show for the first time. I usually see it ranked as "lesser" in the HBO canon, but it might be my second favorite behind Deadwood. This show just gets its characters so freaking right, and treats them as products of their time and place so effectively that one almost forgets the twenty first century is happening as one watches.

Vorenus and Pullo are great as the show's anchors, and I don't know how much that I can say about them, just that I wish there were more of them as the show draws to a close. Especially since they seem to best express the themes of the show: people who refuse to be broken in the face of history. Atia (my favorite character) is also a reflection of this, I think.

The show ends perfectly ("About your father..."), but there are places that I would have have to have seen the show go during the reign of Augustus. Speaking of him, he becomes a little bit too overtly villainous as the show proceeds towards its end. This is a small disappointment that doesn't effect the quality of the show at all, but before the last two or so episodes, Octavian is still a well rounded character with depths that we know we aren't seeing. There's also my reading of history, and from my read of it, Augustus eventually grows into his greatness as he ages, eventually becoming a good man. Too bad it couldn't happen before he exiled one of my favorite authors.

Anyway, great show. Any fans?

I've seen McKidd in a ton of small roles here and there. He gets work, but he could really shine in a meaty lead role. Wasn't he in Centurion? (EDIT: Come to think of it, he could make a pretty good post-Craig Bond)

And back to the characters and their time: It's also great that they don't have any viewpoint character for a modern audience. In pretty much every film about this period there's always a character giving voice to modern misgivings about ancient customs and whatnot. I really appreciate that they avoid that here. I also like how they managed to have the characters be so out there with their feelings (the Ancients were pretty... expressive) without it feeling like melodrama or theatre. This is how people there and then acted, and they make it feel completely natural. And in a lot of ways I envy that of the Ancients, particularly when it comes to grief. I've noticed that in our society that you're pretty much expected to mourn for about a week and then get back to work without making yourself noticed. Having a lot of those big emotions ritualized is pretty appealing.

These are the things I think about when watching TV.

Also, Antony's decline and death was handled really well. They did a really good job of making that character feel fresh. He also might have the best line in the series, after Servilia's cursing of Atia and suicide, "Now THAT is an exit." Purefoy delivers it perfectly, too.