Friends, Romans, Countryman Lend Me Your Ear

Thanks to network television continued refusal to put anything worth watching during the summer, I get to use that time to catch up on some quality television I may have missed. Namely the ones on premium channels that I don’t subscribe to in part because I am what the government like to classify as poor but more importantly if I subscribed to one of them I would sit around and watch movies all day trying to get my money worth, not accomplishing anything else. I went through two series this summer the first of which was HBO’s reinterpretation of ancient Rome (a review of the first season of Dexter is coming later this month).

Rome is basically a tale of two stories. The first follows the real life Julius Caesar and his fight for the city against former ally Quintus Pompey. Although those two tend to take the back seat to Caesar’s conniving niece Atia of the Julii and the two brats she has raised Octavia and Octavian. And they intertwine with plenty of names you should recognize from your history book, Mark Anthony, Brutus, and Cleopatra.

Certainly any history is already spoiled of some of the major plot points that take place in the eight years the first season covers. And even the people that don’t watch the History Channel constantly will first think of the famous last words of Caesar (or as Shakespeare would have you believe) when Brutus first walks on screen, but each second of the show keeps you engrossed that it doesn’t distract you that much until the events are imminent.

That is thanks to the second story following two Roman soldiers in the Caesar led thirteenth legion, Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo. The names are actually taken from actual soldiers in the thirteenth, but there is no historical parallels accept in name. Instead these fictional characters have a Forrest Gumpian ability of showing up at some important events in ancient Rome and having a direct effect in some important tides of change.

The relationship of Vorenus and Pullo are the heart of the show and their odd couple appeal lead to some humorous moments. Pullo is a light hearted brut who loves the trill of battle and whose legion is basically the only family he has ever know. On the other hand Vorenus is a straight-laced family man how is loyal to a fault. No matter how each other try, they ever since in the first episode when Anthony sends them on a wild goose chase together.

But the most important characters are the sets themselves. The production value on the show rivals that of many big budget movies. No detail is missed on the massive sets to the point where not only are the viewer transported back to the time I wouldn’t be surprised if the actors themselves sometimes forgot they were on a soundstage. Of course it may have been too good because the cost of the show led to the series only having two seasons. With that said, the make-up department could have done a better job aging the characters who never seemed to age despite the eight years between the first and last episode. The biggest offender was Octavian who starts out as an eleven year old and ends nineteen yet looks fifteen throughout the whole season.

There are plenty of extra to devour on the DVD with eight of the twelve episodes getting an audio commentary. Two of the bigger scenes, including a gladiator match, get and in depth featurette as well as two featurettes, one focusing on the sets, wardrobe and actor and the other a History Channel worthy look at the time. There is also an introduction pieces to all the characters, which is good because there are a lot of them. But the best feature is All Roads Lead to Rome, an onscreen guide (think a classier version of Pop-Up Video) that is available for every episode that gives you more historic context to what is going on compiled by Jonathan Stamp, the historical consultant on the show.

Rome 1.x gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.