I finally finished watching HBO’s magnificent Rome today. With only 12 episodes in the entire season, I’m amazed it took me this long to finish watching all of them, but it’s the sort of series that you want to stretch out for as long as possible. Every episode is an intricate kaleidoscope of Rome during the time of Julius Caesar’s ascension, and it’s quite easily the best of HBO’s original programming.
I can’t rave enough about this series, but I should mention that the version prepared for HBO Asia censors a couple of the scenes that give Rome so much of its attitude. For example, in one of its opening sequences, a wealthy Roman couple is shown having sex in their bedroom. Standing a few feet away, slaves are fanning them to keep them comfortable. It’s bits like this that gives Rome its street cred, and is what makes it so convincing.
One of the things I’ve found most fascinating about the series is the way its opening credits uses roman graffiti as its centerpiece, because it plays a fairly important part in the show. The vandalism on the walls and posts of Rome were like the blogs we have today: they were the means by which ordinary people voiced their opinions on what was happening in their country. On one occasion, Caesar tries to send one of his senators, Brutus, away from Rome because the graffiti on the walls depict Brutus stabbing him in the back. On another, vandalism depicting Caesar’s extramarital affairs set off a chain reaction of betraval and revenge that ultimately ends in his assassination.
But what really gives this series its soul is the fact that it’s written from the point-of-view of two foot soliders, Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, whose many (mis)adventures are wonderfully interwoven with the bigger picture of Caesar and his bid for power. It’s through them that we become acquainted with the more underprivileged side of roman life and the fascinating little details like street-gangs and court”room”s and slave labor.
That said, my favorite character is of course, the ever-conflicted Brutus, who you probably know was the senator who planned Caesar’s assassination. What’s great about Brutus is that he knows that Caesar is a tyrant, but he feels a certain amount of loyalty toward him because of their long friendship. When he eventually makes up his mind that Caesar’s death was for the good of Rome, he becomes angry when his co-conspirators suggest poison or taking Caesar’s life while he slept. He says, “It must be done honorably. In daylight, on the senate floor, with our own hand. With my hand.”
At the Senate, Caesar is struck down and stabbed while Brutus watches. The look on his face is just classic: he loathes the task that has been set to him. Unlike Shakespeare’s version of the assassination, Caesar does not, in fact, say “Et tu, Brutus?” when he finally sees who is behind the plot though. By this time, he is so overcome by his wounds that all he can do is try to weakly pull his robe over his face as he bleeds to death on the floor of the Senate.
Check out Rome if you can. I’ve seen DVDs collecting the first season already, and the second season isn’t slated for release until sometime in 2007 so you have lots of time to catch up.