Rome: The Complete Series

The HBO / BBC TV series Rome, in two seasons, covers the behind the scenes events of the Roman Civil War. Act I brought Julius Caesar to power as dictator for life of the Republic, only to be assassinated on the senate floor. Act II is the alliance of Caesar's appointed heir, Octavian, with Caesar's former general and loyal ally, Mark Antony to defeat Pompey Maximus and the Senators. Act Three is when Mark Antony travels to his eastern half of the empire, becomes the lover of Cleopatra, and is finally defeated by Octavian and Marcus Agrippa.The obvious comparison of this series is with the famed series, I Claudius, which played on Masterpiece Theatre. The two series meld together perfectly, since Rome ends shortly after the battle of Actium, and I, Claudius opens with the celebration, 7 years later, of the victory at Actium by Augustus (nee Octavian), his wife Olivia, his daughter and son in law, and Marcus Agrippa. I, Claudius covers a period of unprecedented peace, often called Pax Augustus. "Rome" covers a period of almost constant civil war.Another big difference is that there are at least three intertwined circles where the action take place. The first is in the politics of the leaders, Caesar, Antony, Cicero, Cato, Pompey, Brutus, and Octavian. The second is between the houses of Caesar's niece, Atia of the Julii, and mother to Octavian versus Servilia, Caesar's lover, and mother of Marcus Brutus, one of Caesar's assassins. The third is in the lives of two soldiers, Lucius Vorenus, a centurion (lieutenant) and Titus Pullo, a legionnaire (private) in Caesar's elite 13th legion. These two men are actually mentioned in Caesar's books on the Gallic wars, but just barely mentioned, giving their characters a slim basis in history. Their lives weave in and out of the lives of the major players cited above. The most important connection is forged when "retired" legionnaire Pullo is hired by Atia to teach young Octavian how to fight. The two close friends set the scene in season one for the season two climax when they accompany Caesar to Alexandria and succeed in sneaking the "exiled" Cleopatra into the camp of Caesar, whereby Caesar deposes her younger brother and places her on the throne of Egypt.What may surprise us is what is missing. This history has been covered by both the greatest playwrights (Shakespeare, "Julius Caesar" and "Antony and Cleopatra" and George Bernard Shaw's "Caesar and Cleopatra", plus the Hollywood extravaganzas such as Burton and Taylor's "Cleopatra") Thus, we immediately miss the famous oration (I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him...) which Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Mark Antony, which is credited with turning the people against the assassins. There is also virtually no large scale combat. All the great battles of the Civil war, including the spectacular naval battle at Actium (shown in the film "Cleopatra") all happens in the background.The writers claim they have aimed less for historical accuracy than for "authenticity". I suspect they have been very successful in achieving that effect. This is not the Rome of "Cleopatra" or "Gladiator" or even "The Robe" and "Ben-Hur". This is a dirty city where the populace was always one step away from starvation if any twist of the civil war interrupted the grain shipments from Egypt. The streets seem to be ruled by "collegia", which appears to our eyes as an exact replica of Mafia families, run by graft, extortion, and murder. Except that their "product" was not primarily drugs, gambling, and prostitution (although there was lots of that to go around). It was primarily the staples of life, grain, olive oil, wine, and pork. Sometimes these collegia worked with the government, and sometimes they didn't.One dreadfully realistic aspect of ancient Roman politics is that political assassination was accepted as simply one of many tools for doing business. This is another way in which the ancient Roman government seems to have been run like the Corleone family in "The Godfather".A big similarity between "Rome" and "I, Claudius" was the presence of slaves at every level, even at the highest. Caesar's most trusted advisor was a slave, probably Greek, named Posca. He plays a key role at several turn, yet the pamphlet of principle characters is so full, they don't even list him. This highlights one of the weaknesses in the overall structure of the series. There are so many minor and intermediate characters, it is hard to keep them all straight, especially Atia, Servilia, and their households. Oddly enough, even second ranked male characters such as Cato, Cicero, Timon, and Pompey are easier to tell apart by both dress and manner. I found that the underlying source of antagonism between the two principle women was never really brought out. One is unsure whether the primary reason is sexual or political. There may be one or two side stories, such as the fortunes of Atia's Jewish mercenary, who is urged to join his older brother to assassinate Herod the Great when he comes to court favor with the new triumvirate, Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus. Lepidus is another unfortunate loose end, but the writers are stuck with him, since he was a loose end in the actual history of the Civil War.These may interwoven threads with their loose ends is the one area where "Rome" suffers most in comparison to "I, Claudius". Another is in the quality of the acting and directing. "I, Claudius" had several important, recognizable actors such as John Hurt, Sian Phillips, Patrick Stewart, John Rhys-Davies, Derek Jacobi, and Brian Blessed. Most of "Rome" actors are unfamiliar to us, although the four most important parts, Ciarin Hinds as Caesar, James Purefoy as Mark Antony, Kevin McKidd as Vorenus, and Ray Stevenson as Pullo carry off their roles quite well, especially Stevenson, who may actually be familiar to American viewers for his roles in American movies such as "The Book of Eli" and "King Arthur".In case you didn't notice the content rating, this series would easily rate an R rating if it were shown in theatres. Every episode has one or more soft core porn scenes. To be sure, sexual passions were one of the driving motivations for the characters, especially Mark Antony and the two lead women, but one does get the sense that these scenes are added as eye candy and less for their dramatic importance. One almost prefers "I, Claudius", with its one very short scene, and ambitions driven by power, to the testosterone drenched atmosphere of "Rome"."Rome" is very high quality entertainment. If I were to give "I, Claudius" an A, "Rome" would get a "B+".

I will start this with a brief comment on the packaging. Be aware that (like Amazon typically does) they lump different versions together. The version I got was two jewel cases (one for each season) in a slip cover. This was perfectly fine and what I suspected I would receive. Amazon seems to want to give the impression you're getting the more limited set HBO made which was made of a cardboard book.I will note that the packaging I got was great and given how few episodes there are per sesason, it wasn't a big issue. You're not talking about those jumbo 20+ disc sets you may be used to with other TV shows.For my review on the transfer, I watched it on my 4K player (Panasonic UB-420) and Samsung QLED (QN65Q70RAFXZA). I thought the transfer was great, not mind blowing or anything, but definitely not disappointed with it. Almost certainly the best we are going to get and I can live with it.The show itself is excellent and I highly recommend it. You should be aware it is historical fiction. Like the Robert Graves "I Claudius" book (and BBC creation) it takes its liberties but its a ton of fun and the characters are great. Don't expect it to be a 1:1 to your favorite historian though.I think season 1 was far better than the second. A lot of people will blame it on the older actor used for Octavian in season 2, but I just think that the whole tone of the show is for the worse in season 2. Still I very much enjoy this show and am glad to add it to my collection.

THE SERIESRome wasn't built in one day, we all know that and its story can't be told over 2 seasons but this is probably the best we're going to have, audio-visually, for a long time to come. This is an interrupted, extremely ambitious and, eventually, unaffordable HBO project meant to illustrate the process though which an up and coming but flawed - expansionist, aristocrat driven, slave labor dependent - republic morphs into an equally or more so flawed, unsustainable empire. [Hmmm... lessons to learn? Anyone? Anyone?]HBO and the producers of the show should be commended for doing everything in their power to stay as close as artistically possible to the historical record, whatever was available, of the period - and 'Rome' covers Cesar's climb to power and the period shortly thereafter, up to Octavian's triumph and transformation into 'Augustus' - the struggles, the intrigue, the atrocities - and how the events it triggered affected the aristocrats and the plebes, rich and poor, citizens, free men and slaves. The point of view and the storytelling shifts or swings between the history makers - Cesar, his family, Octavian, the aristocrats opposing Cesar - and two more or less ordinary Forrest Gump-like Roman soldiers who find themselves involved with almost everything historians wrote about those years and are also depicted during their more ordinary moments.'Rome' is a feast to the eye, at least in the Blu-ray version that I'm watching. The colors are vibrant and the details on ornaments, wall graffiti, costumes, makeup are as accurate as they come. I would say almost the same about the sounds of Rome but we know so much less about the music of antiquity... Due to obvious budget constraints, camera angles are almost always narrow, focusing on specific buildings or people with the occasional, probably CGI-produced, panoramic shots. And no large, uber-expensive battle scenes but that's okay because the overall story is told well. I don't believe we ever see more than a few dozen humans on any scene but we should admire the director and the camera people even more for their ability to maintain our suspension of disbelief with the limited means at their disposal. Having some of the scenes shot on location - 'Rome' was made in Italy at the Cinecita studios - makes watching even more enjoyable.THE BLU-RAY EDITIONThe Blu-ray edition excels in every aspect, from packaging to the quality of the actual episodes to the Blu-ray specific extras.The two season's 22 episodes of about one hour each are delivered on 10 discs. They come inside an amazingly beautiful book-like binding with each disc on its own 2-page presentation/display that consists of one picture on the left page and some details on each of the episodes on that specific disc on the right-side page which also holds the disc. There are additional pages that contain titles or some artwork for a total of 30, thick cardboard, full color pages. It's nice that a cloth bookmark was added to help keep track of where one may be with the viewing. The box the book slides in is color-coordinated with the book covers - dark, weathered dried-blood reddish-brown with gold lettering and accents. Simply amazing.Each episode is presented in 1080p, 16:9 screen and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround sound for English and German as well as DTS Digital Surround 2.0 for Spanish, French, Castilian and Polish (voice over). Subtitles are available in dozens on languages.Blu-ray specific extras include the invaluable "All Roads Lead to Rome" - a historian presents the historical fact as the episodes run, a 'must watch' when 'Rome' is viewed the second time around because the abundance of information would make watching it the first time too distracting. Also Blu-ray specific is 'Bloodlines', another interactive guide that shows and helps us understand the connections between the various Roman families.In addition, 13 of the 22 episodes come with audio commentary alternative sound tracks from the cast and crew - presumably to be listened to on the third watching of the series. There are also a number of the usual 'behind the scenes' and 'how did we make this' featurettes.MY RATINGNot surprisingly, I will rate 'Rome' as a 5-star. It's not perfect but it doesn't need to be so to earn its stars - Amazon's five stars mean 'I love it' not 'it's perfect'. And I absolutely love it. In fact, I am going through the second watching now - the one with 'All Roads Lead to Rome' turned on - and I love 'Rome' even more.My only issue is that which earned 'Rome' its MA (mature audiences) rating. I am quite frustrated for not being able to watch 'Rome' with my kids in the same room. I know that some would call it 'butchery' but Blu-ray technology should allow for a 'cleaned', PG-13 version that kids could watch too because I can see how watching a show like this, especially with the historical interactive guide turned on, would make some curious enough to actually read more on the topic.___________________________________________________FAIR WARNINGAnyone considering watching 'Rome' in a 'family' setting should be aware that the show is rated TV MA and for good reason. 'Rome' attempts to accurately depict the Rome of 2000 years ago where sexual inhibitions were all but absent, most women were viewed as 'property' and slaves were numerous. You WILL see explicit sex, frontal male nudity and covering your kids eyes won't be enough - consider earplugs or frequent use of the 'mute' button because the sounds of sex are even more explicit than the images. Besides engaging in sex largely for amusement, violence was part of the Roman way of life - torture, gladiator and other arena fights, assassinations were common. Well... those were the Romans - love them or hate them.

Difficult not to binge watch this series

Joya de serie, sin ningún problema técnico, lo único es que el protector del libro estaba algo descuidado

This series is incredible. It provides an excellent portrayal on how Roman society must have been like. There is love, sex, betrayal, money, murder, and cut throat politics. I definitely like the storyline of the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.

このシーズン１＆シーズン２のオールシリーズ版はお得でした。Caesar(カエサル英語名シーザー)さんの歴史時代を絡めた作品なので、その辺の所(主要人物)を予習しないと泥沼の人間関係が分からなくなります。お話自体はフィクションドラマなので何でもあり(ある意味定番)の印象でした。

I love historical fiction, especially when focused on the Roman Empire. I used films like Spartacus, Ben Hur, The Robe, Gladiator and others from the 50s and 60s to teach my kids about that period. Now, I enjoyed watching the series on HBO but I forgot that it is too raunchy and explicit for younger viewers, so perhaps I will have to enjoy it on my own.The video quality is excellent, I am viewing it in my home theatre and the colour is more film than TV-like, which is a plus.This is certainly one of the finest miniseries in recent memory and is a bargain at current prices, I highly recommend it.