The OtherArena

[jdw]

Rome is back for season 2 on January 14th.

Sadly, the Great Man was last seen in the position above... and unlike the Rocky movies, there ain't no rematch from a beat down like that.

It will be interesting to see if they create roles for Agrippa and Maecenas as Octavius' key advisors/men. They make a wonderful contrast around Octavius, sort of a Bones-Spock contrast for people not up on Roman history. :) Both were nothing short of brilliant in their roles as well.

I have to assume that they have a new actor for Octavius. The prior one is too young given how many years this will likely cover (I suspect all the way to Actium and the deaths of Antony and Cleo not long after.

There is strong talk that there won't be a Season 3. The thing is just so freaking expensive, and while the last was a decent success in the ratings, it wasn't huge.


John

[jdw]

Bumping since it's back on Sunday. :)


John

[jdw]

Exceptional opening, even if it veers from fact a fair amount.

Antony really picks it up strongly here. Really terrific, especially in the meeting with Brutus and Cassius. Cicero pussing it up is great. Octavian continues to be good.

I again pray that they get roles for Agrippa and Maecenas really quickly.

John

[JAG]

Mark Anthony was HHH.

He fought off all those men.

He made Cicero, Brutus and the other douche cower in his presence.

He slit Quentin's throat.

He refused to get out of bed until he fucked someone on the day of Ceasar's funeral.

Then he fucked the German whore silly.

He told Servilla that she would have the pleasure of sucking his cock later in front of Brutus.

Anthony was just a beast. Except that staying in Rome wasn't his plan. That's why it's a brilliant show.

Jagdip

[jdw]

One thing that makes Antony work as HHH in this episode is that we all know how it's booked:

Antony jobs in the end.

This is a bit like Titanic. We know the finish - ship hits the iceberg, band plays on the deck, ship goes jobs. The whole point of it is how we get to what we all know is the finish.

We need Antony to heel it up here. We need him to be seen as a dangerous power, since we all know that the Senate jobs so quickly in this match that it isn't much of a factor other than Octavian's ability to play it, destroy it, and then recast it overtime.

There's a great line in John Williams' Augustus (which I've pimped before) from Maecenas along the lines of "We knew then even early on that Antony was our rival for power, not the Senate." This was long before Philippi, and in fact within the same year as Caesar's death.

So we need Antony built up. Cicero, Brutus and Cassius were douches who had a rather major streak of cower in them.

That Antony is thinking about a good morning fuck even on the day of Ceasar's funeral is perfectly natural - who among us in times of stress haven't woken up with a little morning wood going on. ;)

The line aimed at Servilla was wicked, but we the audience hace grown to hate her with gusto for all her plotting, so it was a great highspot. :)

I still with that this had been done as a four season series:

Season 1: Up through Pharsalus and Pompey arriving in Egypt (48)*

Season 2: Up through the death of JC (44)

Season 3: Up through Philippi (42)

Season 4: To Actium (31) then the death of Antony & Cleo (30)

* not showing him killed, but leaving the a cliff hanger for when JC arrives and is given the head as a "gift"

It seems like Season 3 doesn't cover cover much, but from the Ides (03/15/44) to Philippi (10/23/42) there are a shitload of twists and turns that makes one's head spin how often fortune and alliances shifted. Seriously... there's a hell of a lot that can fill in 13 episodes.

The other thing I wish they did was have JC send Octavian to Greece near the end of last season. It is where Octavian was when JC was killed, where he was when he received the news, and where he made his first key decision that led him to the Princeps - deciding to return to Rome as JC's heir. It really is an even more dramatic decision than the one Octavian makes in the series. Returning to a Rome where Antony was Consul and had *already* outflanked the Liberatores and sent the packing to the provinces, was a deadly risk move by young Octavian.


John

[JAG]

So, I picked this up today.

And it only took two years of pimping from Uncle John.

Hopefully, it lives up to the hype. ;)

Jagdip

[jdw]

Not only do I write Oscar winning scores and play NBA basketball, but I also write award winning novels.

:P


John

[Iron Chad]

Don't forget your career as indy hardcore wrestling sensation Ian Rotten.

:)

-Chad