August 29, 2005
Rome
Posted by Christine Hurt

Yesterday I added HBO to our cable package so I could watch Rome.  I recorded and watched the six episodes of the mini-series Empire, so I thought Rome would be even better.  I'm not so sure.  Sure, there's more graphic violence and naked women, but I'm not sure the show is much better.  Of course, now I've paid my $10 ($15 with tax), so I'll watch it next week.

For starters, there is no likable character so far.  I have to have one person that I care about.  In Empire, I liked Tyrannus and Camane, the Vestal Vigin.  Octavius grew on me.  No such characters in Rome.  The juxtapositions are interesting.  In Empire, Octavius was an 18-year-old hedonist, with neither the appetite or the strategem for politics, but he was conflicted and rose to the occasion.  In Rome, Octavius seems pre-pubescent and selfish to the point of cruelty.  Although physically immature, he wraps up the hour-long premiere with three sentences that explain everyone's actions to the Roman officers.  Oh, you thought Caesar was depressed and confiding in Brutus, while Brutus drunkenly spilled the beans to Pompey?  No, that was Caesar's plan all along, and I know this, even though I'm 13, I haven't seen Caesar in 8 years, and no one talks to me about anything.  Psychic or savant, this deus ex machina device was jarring.

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