Actually, that is unfair but this first episode had so many characters to introduce and so many story lines to kick off it was a wonder we had enough time for any emotional content. But what a feast for the senses, though. Gritty Roman battle against the Gaul (I believe more accurate looking than the free-for-all at the start of "Gladiator" by incorporating real Legion tactics...cool!). And there was some bit of emotional context or at times a glaring and purposeful lack of it. In one scene, Julius Caesar is giving a message that his daughter has died in childbirth. What would normally be a tender scene of loss we soon find to be one of cunning in that he is obviously more worried about the political loss (his daughter was married to his "friend" and rival...the daughter being the last real bond of peace between them). Yet in another scene, a woman we think to be callous and calculating (and she is) goes to great spiritual and religious lengths to ensure the safety of her son (and if Sunday mass was like this today, I would...well, be a vegetarian is all I can say).
I liked the small touches. The emphasis that Rome is a dirty, graffiti covered city (not the marble, uber-clean one of other movies and shows) is cool (in fact, graffiti plays a huge part in the stunning opening credits, oddly enough). And for those that do not think it "current" enough or out of date, there is an almost heavy handed scene where the Roman senate rails against Caesar and his 8 year "illegal war" and how it uses resources better used elsewhere and how the lives of their soldiers are being wasted on a useful fight. Again, almost heavy handed but it was clear where the filmmaker's point of view stands on the current war in the Middle East.
It has blood (a ton), it has sex (again, a lot) and it has cruel politics (in excess). It is everything this summer's "Empire" wanted to be but couldn't because it was made for prime time commercial television. Thank the Roman god's for HBO and their willingness to continually put out challenging and interesting programming in a way that can't be done anywhere else on the television right now. While I hope that the pace slows down a bit to explore the dozen or so main characters or so (some we know from history like Caesar, Brutus, Pompey, Octavian, and Marcus Anthony but others we don't like Titus and Lucius, the "common" soldiers introduced as well).
I liked the small touches. The emphasis that Rome is a dirty, graffiti covered city (not the marble, uber-clean one of other movies and shows) is cool (in fact, graffiti plays a huge part in the stunning opening credits, oddly enough). And for those that do not think it "current" enough or out of date, there is an almost heavy handed scene where the Roman senate rails against Caesar and his 8 year "illegal war" and how it uses resources better used elsewhere and how the lives of their soldiers are being wasted on a useful fight. Again, almost heavy handed but it was clear where the filmmaker's point of view stands on the current war in the Middle East.
It has blood (a ton), it has sex (again, a lot) and it has cruel politics (in excess). It is everything this summer's "Empire" wanted to be but couldn't because it was made for prime time commercial television. Thank the Roman god's for HBO and their willingness to continually put out challenging and interesting programming in a way that can't be done anywhere else on the television right now. While I hope that the pace slows down a bit to explore the dozen or so main characters or so (some we know from history like Caesar, Brutus, Pompey, Octavian, and Marcus Anthony but others we don't like Titus and Lucius, the "common" soldiers introduced as well).
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