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llywelaSpent most of this evening absolutely glued to the season finale of Rome, the elaborate period drama put together by the BBC and HBO.
And, now it's all over, I really can't deny it - I fell in love with this show. And this is me talking, who nitpicks constantly through any period film or drama that purports to be based on actual historical events. But this...
Okay. The history is fudged and distorted in many places. But those are countered by the wonderfully authentic detail work - I already waxed lyrical a few weeks ago about the scene of Servilia cursing Caesar while scratching out his effigy on a lead tablet; Bath Spa is full of them.
And over and above everything else, the series has told a wonderful story - in fact, a whole cast worth of wonderful stories. They took the names out of the history books and turned them into real people, vivid and compelling characters living in a fast paced and often brutal age. Caesar himself, Mark Antony, Brutus, Cicero, Pompey, Cleopatra...such familiar names, and they've all been in there. And also those less familiar, such as Caesar's niece Atia, mother of his eventual successor known as Octavian and of Octavia, who was eventually married to Mark Antony.
But it wouldn't have been the same show without those two common men, soldiers in Caesar's army - Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo. While the patricians fought out their high stakes political endgames, these two provided us with an alternate perspective, that of the ordinary citizen trying to get on with life in a fast-changing and often dangerous world, their ordinary lives affected at almost every level by those high stakes political games being played out by those above them.
I fell in love with the story of Vorenus and his wife Niobe, who married so young, and then he went away to war for eight years and left her alone with two children, returning at what for her was the worst possible time as, believing him dead, she had just given birth to an illegitimate child she was then forced to pass off as their grandchild - their oldest daughter by then being just old enough to make the lie plausible. Watching them fall in love again over the last few weeks, knowing that Niobe's secret could come out at any moment and destroy it all...
Equally fascinating has been the rise of Lucius Vorenus compared to the much poorer fortunes of his close friend and brother-in-arms Pullo. Fellow soldiers, but so clearly not equals. For as Vorenus has risen through the ranks and, in civilian life, gone on to become first a magistrate and this week a senator (and still, oh so reluctantly, a pawn in Caesar's politics) so Pullo, the son of a slave, in stark contrast has risen precisely nowhere.
It hurt to see Vorenus, such an honest man, squirming under the pressure of the corruption all around him. And it hurt to see Pullo throwing his life away - so happy one minute, freeing his slave girl Eirene in blind hopes of marrying her, only to find that she was already planning to marry another, a fellow slave. Because a slave owner would not, of course, stop to consider such a thing. Pullo's downward spiral began at that moment, murdering that man.
Because this show is, above all else, brutal. The ick factor was especially high tonight, especially Pullo's battle in the arena - supposedly being executed, but he fought back valiantly, killing so, so many men. And Vorenus, who had thrown him out for that first murder, still couldn't not be there, had to watch - and then couldn't bear it any more, and jumped in there with him, and pulled him out.
Brothers-in-arms, indeed.
The intertwining of the life stories of the many characters was beautifully done. I was on the edge of my seat at the end, as Caesar's allies - his bodyguard senator Vorenus included - were lured away from him, and Niobe's secret finally came out and was used as a political tool. Just when they were so happy, and full of plans for the future. And Vorenus' rage, and her despair...and how he cried holding her body after she threw herself off the balcony - I had a tear in my own eye. And again at the look on Mark Antony's face when he finally got into the forum and saw what had happened to Caesar...
And watching the 'bitch' endgame play out between Atia and Servilia...
Can't wait for the second season!
And, now it's all over, I really can't deny it - I fell in love with this show. And this is me talking, who nitpicks constantly through any period film or drama that purports to be based on actual historical events. But this...
Okay. The history is fudged and distorted in many places. But those are countered by the wonderfully authentic detail work - I already waxed lyrical a few weeks ago about the scene of Servilia cursing Caesar while scratching out his effigy on a lead tablet; Bath Spa is full of them.
And over and above everything else, the series has told a wonderful story - in fact, a whole cast worth of wonderful stories. They took the names out of the history books and turned them into real people, vivid and compelling characters living in a fast paced and often brutal age. Caesar himself, Mark Antony, Brutus, Cicero, Pompey, Cleopatra...such familiar names, and they've all been in there. And also those less familiar, such as Caesar's niece Atia, mother of his eventual successor known as Octavian and of Octavia, who was eventually married to Mark Antony.
But it wouldn't have been the same show without those two common men, soldiers in Caesar's army - Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo. While the patricians fought out their high stakes political endgames, these two provided us with an alternate perspective, that of the ordinary citizen trying to get on with life in a fast-changing and often dangerous world, their ordinary lives affected at almost every level by those high stakes political games being played out by those above them.
I fell in love with the story of Vorenus and his wife Niobe, who married so young, and then he went away to war for eight years and left her alone with two children, returning at what for her was the worst possible time as, believing him dead, she had just given birth to an illegitimate child she was then forced to pass off as their grandchild - their oldest daughter by then being just old enough to make the lie plausible. Watching them fall in love again over the last few weeks, knowing that Niobe's secret could come out at any moment and destroy it all...
Equally fascinating has been the rise of Lucius Vorenus compared to the much poorer fortunes of his close friend and brother-in-arms Pullo. Fellow soldiers, but so clearly not equals. For as Vorenus has risen through the ranks and, in civilian life, gone on to become first a magistrate and this week a senator (and still, oh so reluctantly, a pawn in Caesar's politics) so Pullo, the son of a slave, in stark contrast has risen precisely nowhere.
It hurt to see Vorenus, such an honest man, squirming under the pressure of the corruption all around him. And it hurt to see Pullo throwing his life away - so happy one minute, freeing his slave girl Eirene in blind hopes of marrying her, only to find that she was already planning to marry another, a fellow slave. Because a slave owner would not, of course, stop to consider such a thing. Pullo's downward spiral began at that moment, murdering that man.
Because this show is, above all else, brutal. The ick factor was especially high tonight, especially Pullo's battle in the arena - supposedly being executed, but he fought back valiantly, killing so, so many men. And Vorenus, who had thrown him out for that first murder, still couldn't not be there, had to watch - and then couldn't bear it any more, and jumped in there with him, and pulled him out.
Brothers-in-arms, indeed.
The intertwining of the life stories of the many characters was beautifully done. I was on the edge of my seat at the end, as Caesar's allies - his bodyguard senator Vorenus included - were lured away from him, and Niobe's secret finally came out and was used as a political tool. Just when they were so happy, and full of plans for the future. And Vorenus' rage, and her despair...and how he cried holding her body after she threw herself off the balcony - I had a tear in my own eye. And again at the look on Mark Antony's face when he finally got into the forum and saw what had happened to Caesar...
And watching the 'bitch' endgame play out between Atia and Servilia...
Can't wait for the second season!
