DACrowe
Avenger
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2000
- Messages
- 30,765
- Reaction score
- 624
- Points
- 78
Anybody here remember this one? I just recently saw this on DVD for the first time since the seasons originally aired (in 2005 and 2007, respectively).
While they're slightly more flawed and melodramatic than I recalled, they are still without question GREAT. I feel like this was a masterful show that for its few problems created a grand epic with one of the best casts I've ever seen. I just feel like it may have been a few years too early. It was the forerunner of shows like The Tudors, The Borgias, Spartacus, and even Game of Thrones (which despite being fantasy feels like its closest premium cable cousin). If this show had come out a few years later, I doubt it would have been canceled. They were able to just squeeze everything into two seasons before the final curtain, but as entertaining as the second season is--with 2 or 3 amazing plot developments every episode--you could tell there were about 2 seasons worth of story crammed into one with little breathing room. This is especially apparent when we skip the entire beginning of Antony and Cleopatra's relationship near the end of the show and telescope to their budding war with Octavian.
All that said, the levels of quality and craftsmanship make this still a fine production. They, more convincingly than any Hollywood movie to date, recreate ancient Rome as a thriving city with a fascinating class system that is completely fleshed out as a culture far removed from our own. The acting and writing breathed life and humanity into historic figures who had become as banal as marble statues in popular culture with Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian Caesar/Augustus. I do think they went too over-the-top with Cleopatra, but it was still a welcome reprieve from the unbelievable Elizabeth Taylor iconography.
Most of all, the show thrives on the wonderful story of the two Forest Gump-like Roman soldiers who are caught up in the whirlwind of nearly every major historical event. Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson) may be the best bromance in television history. Their ups-and-downs with the families they try to start and the rise and fall in stature they both experience makes this show feel human and more lasting than if it had been solely palace intrigue.
Anyway, 5-7 years later, the episodes still hold up despite some more notable excess. If you haven't seen it and enjoy Spartacus or Game of Thrones, give this show a watch.
While they're slightly more flawed and melodramatic than I recalled, they are still without question GREAT. I feel like this was a masterful show that for its few problems created a grand epic with one of the best casts I've ever seen. I just feel like it may have been a few years too early. It was the forerunner of shows like The Tudors, The Borgias, Spartacus, and even Game of Thrones (which despite being fantasy feels like its closest premium cable cousin). If this show had come out a few years later, I doubt it would have been canceled. They were able to just squeeze everything into two seasons before the final curtain, but as entertaining as the second season is--with 2 or 3 amazing plot developments every episode--you could tell there were about 2 seasons worth of story crammed into one with little breathing room. This is especially apparent when we skip the entire beginning of Antony and Cleopatra's relationship near the end of the show and telescope to their budding war with Octavian.
All that said, the levels of quality and craftsmanship make this still a fine production. They, more convincingly than any Hollywood movie to date, recreate ancient Rome as a thriving city with a fascinating class system that is completely fleshed out as a culture far removed from our own. The acting and writing breathed life and humanity into historic figures who had become as banal as marble statues in popular culture with Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian Caesar/Augustus. I do think they went too over-the-top with Cleopatra, but it was still a welcome reprieve from the unbelievable Elizabeth Taylor iconography.
Most of all, the show thrives on the wonderful story of the two Forest Gump-like Roman soldiers who are caught up in the whirlwind of nearly every major historical event. Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson) may be the best bromance in television history. Their ups-and-downs with the families they try to start and the rise and fall in stature they both experience makes this show feel human and more lasting than if it had been solely palace intrigue.
Anyway, 5-7 years later, the episodes still hold up despite some more notable excess. If you haven't seen it and enjoy Spartacus or Game of Thrones, give this show a watch.
