1. Notes: 19 / 4 months ago 
    I just finished re-watching HBO’s “Rome” (thank you HBO GO for iPad). It had been years since I’d last seen the show, and while I hadn’t forgotten how great it was, I did sort of forget why it was so great. Sure there’s the backdrop of Caesar’s (and Octavian’s, and Mark Antony’s) Rome, which I enjoyed even more this time around having read up on the time period recently. And it’s HBO, so there’s lots of sex and violence. But what made “Rome” such a great show was its focus on two relatively ordinary Romans: Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo. Lucius Vorenus isn’t a particularly likable guy. After years away fighting for Caesar, he returns to his family only to bark orders at them and make them wish on a daily basis that he’d died in Gaul. The sad part is he loves his wife and his kids, he just doesn’t have any people skills. He tries his hand at being a merchant (selling slaves), and later ends up in politics and running a gang, but it’s only when he’s in the army (a role he pops in and out of on a regular basis over the course of the series) that he knows how to act. Titus Pullo on the other hand is extremely likable. He’s loud and crass and violent, but he’s fiercely loyal to Vorenus — despite the fact that Vorenus makes it clear in the first episode he wants nothing to do with him. Pullo doesn’t take it personally, knowing if he just hangs around long enough Vorenus will come around. Eventually Vorenus accepts that he and Pullo have become friends without his realizing it and, even after severing ties with the man over a stupid act of violence, he ends up risking his life to save Pullo in the gladiator ring. The first season chronicles Caesar’s rise to power, as well as the social and political machinations of the wealthy and powerful as fortunes change and allegiances shift. As centurions, Vorenus and Pullo are often involved in key battles deciding the future of the Roman Republic. Even when they aren’t fighting, the two Romans always seem to be in the right place at the right time (or the wrong place at the wrong time, depending on your perspective) to play a crucial role in history. So while the first season’s plot details Caesar’s transformation from general to Emperor, the show is really about Vorenus and Pullo. Season two picks up in the aftermath of Caesar’s assassination. While Caesar’s friends and enemies battle over who will control Rome, Vorenus and Pullo have their own struggles. And while their loyalties differ (Vorenus stands by his former commander Mark Antony while Pullo supports Octavian who he’s known since the would-be ruler of Rome was a boy) the show never turns into a brother-against-brother story. Knowing they wouldn’t be back for a third season, the producers of “Rome” crammed several years’ worth of story into the show’s second (shortened) season. The accelerated timetable meant re-casting Octavian (the actor playing him in season one was too young to be believed as a military leader) and shortening storylines (Antony’s time in Egypt spans just two episodes but could easily have lasted an entire season) but the result was 10 very exciting episodes. And the show manages to reach a logical stopping point, something “Deadwood” didn’t do. Like “Deadwood”, “Rome” was cancelled because it cost too much to make. I just hope HBO doesn’t do the same thing to “Game of Thrones”.

    I just finished re-watching HBO’s “Rome” (thank you HBO GO for iPad). It had been years since I’d last seen the show, and while I hadn’t forgotten how great it was, I did sort of forget why it was so great. Sure there’s the backdrop of Caesar’s (and Octavian’s, and Mark Antony’s) Rome, which I enjoyed even more this time around having read up on the time period recently. And it’s HBO, so there’s lots of sex and violence. But what made “Rome” such a great show was its focus on two relatively ordinary Romans: Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo.

    Lucius Vorenus isn’t a particularly likable guy. After years away fighting for Caesar, he returns to his family only to bark orders at them and make them wish on a daily basis that he’d died in Gaul. The sad part is he loves his wife and his kids, he just doesn’t have any people skills. He tries his hand at being a merchant (selling slaves), and later ends up in politics and running a gang, but it’s only when he’s in the army (a role he pops in and out of on a regular basis over the course of the series) that he knows how to act.

    Titus Pullo on the other hand is extremely likable. He’s loud and crass and violent, but he’s fiercely loyal to Vorenus — despite the fact that Vorenus makes it clear in the first episode he wants nothing to do with him. Pullo doesn’t take it personally, knowing if he just hangs around long enough Vorenus will come around. Eventually Vorenus accepts that he and Pullo have become friends without his realizing it and, even after severing ties with the man over a stupid act of violence, he ends up risking his life to save Pullo in the gladiator ring.

    The first season chronicles Caesar’s rise to power, as well as the social and political machinations of the wealthy and powerful as fortunes change and allegiances shift. As centurions, Vorenus and Pullo are often involved in key battles deciding the future of the Roman Republic. Even when they aren’t fighting, the two Romans always seem to be in the right place at the right time (or the wrong place at the wrong time, depending on your perspective) to play a crucial role in history. So while the first season’s plot details Caesar’s transformation from general to Emperor, the show is really about Vorenus and Pullo.

    Season two picks up in the aftermath of Caesar’s assassination. While Caesar’s friends and enemies battle over who will control Rome, Vorenus and Pullo have their own struggles. And while their loyalties differ (Vorenus stands by his former commander Mark Antony while Pullo supports Octavian who he’s known since the would-be ruler of Rome was a boy) the show never turns into a brother-against-brother story.

    Knowing they wouldn’t be back for a third season, the producers of “Rome” crammed several years’ worth of story into the show’s second (shortened) season. The accelerated timetable meant re-casting Octavian (the actor playing him in season one was too young to be believed as a military leader) and shortening storylines (Antony’s time in Egypt spans just two episodes but could easily have lasted an entire season) but the result was 10 very exciting episodes. And the show manages to reach a logical stopping point, something “Deadwood” didn’t do.

    Like “Deadwood”, “Rome” was cancelled because it cost too much to make.
    I just hope HBO doesn’t do the same thing to “Game of Thrones”.

     

  2. Notes

    1. liketheappliance posted this
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Welcome to '... like the appliance', a collection of random thoughts from Anton Blender. Mostly about pop culture, a lot on comic books and television.

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