Someone had lent me the complete two season dvd set of HBO's Rome. I hadn't seen them before and was interested. I watched them over a couple of weeks. That's really my favorite way to watch a series. There are 12 episodes in the first season and only 10 in the second. The first season covers Ceasar's rise to power from about 49 BC to the eventful March day in 52 BC when he recieved that fatal dagger up the strap. Season two depicts the fight between the reigning houses and the eventual defeat of Mark Antony by Octavian. They were a right bunch of muderous bastards back then and they liked their shagging and swearing too. Oddly, a lot of the characters seem to talk like they're from England. It's an HBO show that was partially funded by the BBC and made in Italy.
That's Ray Stevenson in the middle, he plays Titus Pullo and Kevin McKidd, in the picture on the right above, plays Lucius Vorenus. They are vaguely based on some real Roman soldiers and they fit right in. We follow them around a lot as they try to adapt to their changing lifestyle. Inevitably they fall back on what they know and stab people. They interact with Caesar and Mark Antony and even Cleopatra. Lots of people get stabbed. The story plays pretty fast and loose with the real history of the time and place. Several people die in different ways than they did. Often in a much more showy way. Mostly it was done for dramatic effect, and occasionally, it was to compress the events in the story. There's a lot of violence in the show, lots of people get stabbed, slashed, hacked, beheaded and just plain fucked right up. Some people might not want to watch it. There's as much nudity and sex as there is violence. It seems every few minutes someone is sticking something into someone.
It certainly looks great. All the costumes and props and sets are top notch. There's a huge cast and lots of extras. Often many of them are naked. They spent a couple of million bucks on each episode and there's a lot up on the screen. Just not a lot of clothes. There's lots of intrigue in the story, it was an exciting time, lots of double crossing and back stabbing and butt stuffing. They are an awful lot of horrible people with little or no concern for human life. I sure wouldn't have wanted to live back then. Probably would have gotten stabbed. There are a lot of pretty naked ladies and a more than generous amount of manass for the ladies. Our main characters grow and change, especially Titus. I really enjoyed Ray Stevenson's work but at times his Brit accent and slang were a little too noticible. Worth a lot for the most part but be warned it's often unpleasant.
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