I just finished watching the second season of HBO/BBC's Rome. I'm not going to delve into my thoughts at length here, but let me just say that, apart from minor drawbacks, I think this is pretty much the best, most entertaining and most historically accurate recreation of ancient Rome ever captured on screen. A standard for all future series and films to match. Following are some good and bad points:
The Good:
- Historical accuracy: as mentioned, historical accuracy is high. And the series does not just focus on the higher ranks of Rome. The emphasis is as much on the common people, something which is very rare in series of this type. All layers of society are probably represented: slaves, gladiators, jews, common citizens, soldiers, patricians,... Furthermore, the plot stays fairly close to history while adding a healthy dose of revisionism where needed. The characters aren't weighed down by the hindsight of history, impersonating famous people like marble statues: these are living, breathing people, pretty much inventing themselves as they go along.
- Mark Antony and Octavian: apart from the show's main two characters (Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus), I thought the acting and writing was particularly strong for Mark Antony and Octavian. Simon Woods, and especially James Purefoy as Antony, really inhabited these characters. Woods with the right mixture of cold intelligence and idealism for Octavian, and Purefoy ever charismatic and bold as Antony. His demise is probably one of the most moving scenes in the series.
- Sex and violence: anyone who's even caught only one episode of Rome won't have missed the copious amounts of nudity and gore present. And I for one really appreciate this courage on the part of the filmmakers. They could have sanitized this, but it would have been dishonest to history, which by all accounts informs us that Romans were fairly frank in matters of sex and violence.
- Rome: one last thing which deserves mention here is the city of Rome itself, which looks a lot more naturalistic than it is usually depicted, realistically recreating the city how it must have looked during the final days of the republic. Not just a few white marble temples and some arches.
The bad points are mostly in terms of characterisation for me.
- Brutus: one of two major letdowns on the series. I'm all for historical revisionism where necessary, but in Brutus' case, I felt that the writers were completely unsure how to treat his character. Here, he simply comes across as a humongous whiner, with no interest in politics, ultimately stabbing Caesar merely over a personal grudge. At no time does he seem to have any idea what he's doing or why he's doing it, even at the Battle of Philippi. It's somewhat ironic really that, by the second season, it's Cassius who comes across as the most principled and competent man, while having been introduced as a completely opportunistic crook in the first season.
- Cicero: granted, maybe Cicero wasn't such a great politician as Roman historians would like to have us believe, but if the character is handled at all, how can you not emphasize that he was at least looked upon as a great orator? Somewhat surprisingly, this character gives no significant speech throughout the entire show. And the only speech of consequence that does appear is delivered by someone else, by letter.
- Battle of Philippi: most of Rome's production cost was spent on vast sets and costumes, so there weren't hundreds of extras available to recreate battle sequences. This is most glaring in season one (where one battle is merely suggested with blurry shots of horses), but understandable. Season two does a slightly better job at it, with CGI to supplement the action where necessary. Still, my qualm with the Battle of Philippi isn't so much its technical recreation, but its 'historical accuracy'. I don't understand it, the battle is so interesting (as reported) the script nearly writes itself. Yet the filmmakers opted for a very straightforward approach with Antony and Octavian overpowering the opposing forces with little or no effort. Cassius is killed in combat and Brutus commits suicide by wading into a sea of soldiers. A missed opportunity.