Kevin's Watch

This show is really frigging good. If you have HBO, I highly recommend it. If not, rent Season One on DVD, as Season Two has just started. The show does a good job of depicting historical figures like Caesar, Pompey, Cato, Cicero, Antonius, a young Octavian/Augustus, while at the same time depicting members of the working class (plebeians) and the soldiers, like Titus Pullo, etc. Anybody else like it? (I was surprised to not find any other threads on it?)

I remember this being on BBC1 here i think, its great.

Hell yes, this show is absolutely awesome! I wasn't aware that Season 2 had started. I don't have HBO and I watched Season 1 on DVD about a month ago. Great characters, great dialogue, great storyline, I could go on and on. I read somewhere the other day that Season 2 would be the last - what a shame.

Indeed. Season 2 the last? That would be a real shame. I have to finish Season 1 before I start the second...

From what I read, the show is very expensive to produce, and ratings not very good, so one more season and that's it.

I was just thinking about starting a Rome thread last night.....but it was really late.

I just finished season 1 a couple of days ago. This is such a great show, but I can't believe they killed Caesar!!!1!!1!!!!!!!!
I liked him!!!!!!1

(heh....new emotie guys)





















Seriously. They really did make me like Caesar, I was sorry to see him go. And his death scene was the most graphically awful thing I've ever seen.....even knowing from the start how it happened.....man that was intensely disturbing.



It's also always interesting, and sometimes entirely disconcerting, to see a depiction of a society with a completely different (or in this case nearly absent) morality. The casual indifference of nearly everyone to torture, suffering, death, and rape is so alien.....it's morbidly facsinating.


Season 2 starts tomorrow here.....can't wait.

Totally agree, b&b. (Nice to see you around, btw.) I haven't gotten to the Caesar episode yet, but look forward to it, albeit anxiously. And you are totally right about the morality thing - what I noticed right off the bat was the fact that servants look on almost indifferently as their masters and mistresses passionately have sex. And then there's the scene where Antonius is humping a prostitute behind the tree while his contingent of troops wait impatiently to continue the journey. Heh.

And here was me thinking the girl behind the tree was just some willing young local farmer lass. I can be so naive sometimes.

Heh. Well, I was assuming she was a "camp follower" if you will.

Trapper439 wrote:And here was me thinking the girl behind the tree was just some willing young local farmer lass. I can be so naive sometimes.

I had the same impression.

Hi LM! It's good to see everybody....


My impression of the scene with the girl behind the tree was that Antony simply found an unfortunate shepherdess. She seemed resigned to me, and it never occurred to me that she might have been willing.....

does that mean I'm disturbed?

It's entirely possible that she was a local girl / non-prostitute. I also got the impression that she was somewhat unwilling.

I don't want to get into that debate here. It's just a bit too Dworkinesque.

OK, for anyones who watching season 2, take the scene

Spoiler

where Lucius Vorenus takes the leaders of the other Collegium and strikes a deal with them

, the recent historical parallel is when Charlie Luciano gathers the country's crime bosses and establishes The Comission, after Luciano and his buds (Lansky, Gallo, Siegel) have had Farranzano (Capo di tutti capi) killed.

Regardless, it's well written and the sets and costuming has been very good. Question to those watching season 2, any care to speculate what Tymon and his brother, recently living in Jerusalem, Levi are up to. Of course Tymon makes his living as a petty thug and sometimes a horse trader, frequently employed by Attia, mother of Octavias and Octavia.

Hi Taras!


Well, Levi seems to be a devoutly religious man, but I can't decide if he really is, or if he's just using it as leverage (for some reason?) against his brother. He seems awfully sanctimonious about it to Tymon.....but he seems to have something shady going on the side. My gut feeling is that he's a shady character. And I'd be willing to bet that Tymon is fired, from Atia's service anyway....And I think Tymon's got some soul searching to do if he wants to be more than

Spoiler

an animal. The line needs to be drawn a little before torturing a woman. Like say, at torturing anyone.....

As a costumer, I'm awestruck by these costumes......makes my toga plan for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum look sad...

Hooked on this show (as my avatar might indicate).

I'm still bummed that Season 2 will be the last, but at least they stuck it out for two seasons.

Hey Encryptic...

New episode tonight.....I forgot! Yay! I was annoyed last week when they postponed. Stupid Oscars....

birdandbear wrote:Hey Encryptic...

New episode tonight.....I forgot! Yay! I was annoyed last week when they postponed. Stupid Oscars....

Hola.

Last week's episode not airing confused me. Gave me the impression "Philippi" was the last episode and I'm thinking "Wait, they left a bunch of plots unresolved", then I found out there's 4 more episodes (IIRC) left. I didn't even realize the Oscars were on that night, otherwise I would've figured that out.

I'm DVRing tonight's episode as usual and I'll watch it tomorrow night. I don't watch much TV (though I tape movies constantly), but Rome has been one show worth keeping up with.

If one is watching this on HBO, and your cable system has an "On Demand" feature one can see several (maybe about 4-6)featurettes on the making of the series, they're about 5 - 10 minutes long each.

FWIW, I think the series obvious ending is the

Spoiler

Battle of Attia (28 or 26 or 24 BC), a great naval sea battle that destroys the Egyptian navy, and thereby ending Egypt's and Antony's and Cleopatra's dominance in the Levant. Additionally, Octavian manages to make a few key alliances in the Levantine areas, one of the more famous ones is with Herod, who becomes the King of Judea as mentioned in the New Testament. After this great Roman victory Octavian becomes "First Citizen" (AKA Imperator) of Rome, and most semblances of republican rule in Rome are gone. Additionally, Robert Graves I, Claudius starts with the celebration in Octavia's household of an anniversary of the victory at Attia

.

Interestingly to me at least is how Octavian's wife seems such the innocent. If one is to consider Graves's account Livia seems to be the principal schemer in Octavian's household, scheming to get her favorite son, Tiberius to succed Octavian, and then scheming to insure Caligula succeds Tiberius.

Season 2 has just started over here, tonight was Julius' death scene - great episode.

The scene when Titus is saved by his comrade - whos name i can spell heh - was ace too.