Rome

g-punkteffekt · 01-08-2007 10:51am #1

Is it just me or is Rome the best series ever made? I just finished season 2. I'm a big fan of the Sopranos too which is regularly voted best tv series of all time, but in truth a lot of the episodes are awful and it's really drawn out. Rome was all action and plot and it's based on real events which makes it so interesting. I'm so gutted that they've axed it and there wont be a series 3, I doubt it did too well in America with the English accents and history and whatnot, doesn't tick the boxes for them I don't think. Any other fans out there?

MoominPapa · 01-08-2007 12:08pm

If Rome had run for 8 years it would have had a few stinkers as well, I'm sure. But it was great TV, it and the Sopranos just go to prove that good plot + good acting + good production values = great tv, the both of them gone just emphasise that TV execs fail to understand this simple formula the vast, and I mean vast, majority of the time.

It makes sense to finished now, though I wish it didn't. The average viewer would have had some knowledge of the events covered in both series so it worked by filling in the blanks in a superbly entertaining way. Not so with the rest of Octavians rule, the history is just too obscure. The alternative would be to jump to another period of generally familiar Roman history, say Hannibals invasion of Italy, but this would have meant starting from scatch and losing the characters we have grown to love/hate and rebuilding those hugely expensive sets.
Maybe big dvd box set sales might persuade HBO/BBC to reconsider ala Fox and Family Guy

Ivan · 02-08-2007 4:58am

The problem being, that while both soprano's and Rome have big production values, Soprano's has a way higher audience.

And I'm sure I'm bound to piss a few people off, but Rome is WAAAAAY better than Soprano's and thats what frustrates so many of us die hard Rome fans.

Plus Rome is educational!

Still, every time a show gets axed in its prime, I just turn on the Simpsons and thank the stars that at least yet another show, wont be the train wreck that is "Simpsons, Season 32423521561345"

In fact, I'm all for a new system of axing shows half way through their second season, but giving enough money for the show to finish out its 4th season.

I think we'd have alot more good television these days

jor el · 02-08-2007 4:05pm

I really like Rome too, but I'm not so sure if it was axed or just not planned. I think it was only ever meant to be one season and then they made the second as kind of a bonus seeing as how popular the first one was. The story did run out quite well and everything got tidied up so you weren't left hanging on anything (Sopranos!). I'd like to see more of it, but I'm kind of glad it's ended and won't go dragging on for years getting worse and worse as the series goes on (Lost!).

Ivan wrote:

Rome is WAAAAAY better than Soprano's

Hmm, maybe.

Robbo · 02-08-2007 7:11pm

Rome was one of the best series I've seen lately (along with Deadwood) but I don't really see how they could proceed with a third series without either taking a jump forward or backwards in history and thus ditching the cast. If I was to pick a direction, the decline of the Roman Republic (leading up to Caesar taking power) would be suitable.

Btw, if anyone wants to do a little reading around that period in history, I recommend Tom Hollland's "Rubicon".

02-08-2007 7:16pm

Fantastic show, was sorry to see it end but it ended well. Series 2 DVD is out soon enough here(out now in the US). Deadwood might be back, there's talk of them doing some double episodes to tie it up, chances are slim though.

02-08-2007 9:15pm

I had the pleasure of being at the next table to the cast of Rome at a restaurant in Rome.
They were normal down to earth and chatted freely to us and not aloof at all

Ruskie4Rent · 03-08-2007 2:30pm

I liked Rome too, but better than sopranos?

Robbo · 03-08-2007 3:34pm

Deleted User wrote:

Deadwood might be back, there's talk of them doing some double episodes to tie it up, chances are slim though.

Last I heard about that was from Timothy Olyphant (Seth Bullock) saying that he hadn't heard a thing about the supposed final two feature length episodes and don't hold your breath. It's a crying shame because David Milch always said he wanted it to be 4 series, each covering a year.

Fremen · 03-08-2007 3:38pm

I thought series one of Rome was excellent- I've watched it through about three times now. I only got about a quarter of the way into series two. I don't remember much of it, but I lost interest because it seemed a bit more far fetched.

Octavion Caesar is a quality character.

03-08-2007 5:11pm

Fremen wrote:

Octavion Caesar is a quality character.

Titus Pullo ftw!

Kel Varnsen · 03-08-2007 5:37pm

It might be because I'm a boorish philistine, but the adventures of Titus and Lucius were always more interesting to me than the political side of things, especially in Season 2. I would have been quite content with a fictious Rome, borrowing from the truth where it suited them, and otherwise just writing their own story.

g-punkteffekt · 07-08-2007 11:31am

Pullo was cool alright, but when he killed Cicero I was mad at him because Cicero was played really well I thought - but I loved Marc Anthony, if I was a homosexual I'd say I fancied him.

Sandwich · 07-08-2007 9:00pm

Just you Id say.

I have only seen series one, and while I found it entertaining, thought it was pretty low quality stuff : much of the dialogue was very clunky and further weakened by the effort to have it very colloquial; far too many far fetched coincidences and tie ins with history; poor acting (tho the irish girl, her mother, and Mark Anthony were good); no dramatic structure too it, just soap operaish.

For really top quality stuff try Band of brothers or Brideshead Revisited.

MikeHoncho · 08-08-2007 1:38pm

Just borrowed the season 1 boxset off my brother. Cant wait to get stuck in after all the glowing reviews.

tbh · 08-08-2007 1:40pm

Tristrame wrote:

I had the pleasure of being at the next table to the cast of Rome at a restaurant in Rome.
They were normal down to earth and chatted freely to us and not aloof at all

I'm actually jealous. Pullo FTW! and g-punk - I know where you are coming from

I was amazed that octavia was irish, she does a good english accent!

John_Mc · 08-08-2007 2:01pm

Sandwich wrote:

Just you Id say.

I have only seen series one, and while I found it entertaining, thought it was pretty low quality stuff : much of the dialogue was very clunky and further weakened by the effort to have it very colloquial; far too many far fetched coincidences and tie ins with history; poor acting (tho the irish girl, her mother, and Mark Anthony were good); no dramatic structure too it, just soap operaish.

For really top quality stuff try Band of brothers or Brideshead Revisited.

Far too many tie ins with History? It's based on history so I think that's the point!

And I thought the acting in both series was excellent.

In fact, I couldnt disagree with your post more (except where you pointed out specific actors as being good actors)

08-08-2007 2:04pm

Ciaran Hinds was excellent as Cesar. I think he's Irish too, Belfast I think.

oxygen_old · 08-08-2007 2:14pm

Rome was only meant to be one season. Season two was kindof an after tought due to popularity. Like Lucius and Verenous were mostly fictional but they were mentioned in Caesars logs as two centurions. But there is no reference of them taking over the Aventine as in season two, it was just the easiest place to put them

BaZmO* · 08-08-2007 3:46pm

Deleted User wrote:

Ciaran Hinds was excellent as Cesar. I think he's Irish too, Belfast I think.

Actually quite a few Irish actors appeared in Rome. Octavia (Kerry Condron) from Tipperary, Pullo (Ray Stevenson) born in Belfast, Agrippa (Allen Leech) from Dublin. Not sure if there were any others but it's probably why we all love it so much!

Just finished watching the last episode of the second series the other night. Really enjoyed both series.

I suppose it was a bit soap-ish with the Vorenus and Pullo characters but I suppose it needed them there to link all the other characters together. It was a bit loose with the overall connection of characters history wise but on the whole I think it worked.

Kinda glad it ended when it did and didn't drag on for umpteen series as I think the historical element would've been totally lost.

tbh · 08-08-2007 3:51pm

BaZmO* wrote:

Kinda glad it ended when it did and didn't drag on for umpteen series as I think the historical element would've been totally lost.

agreed, and i thought it ended very well - a natural ending really.

damienom · 08-08-2007 10:10pm

Got a mail today saying Season 2 has been dispatched from Amazon. Managed to survive it being on telly without seeing any of it so can't wait for a boxset-fest in the coming days!!

If you found it interesting you should read Rubicon, great book on the Roman Empire

09-09-2007 3:15pm

Picked up series 2 today for €55 in virgin megastore. Been watching season 1 all last week, cant wait to start into season 2.

nhur · 11-04-2008 12:33am

Just started watching season 1 - i'm up to episode 5 - what's the significance of the wall? It's kinda bugging me!

I second that on reading Rubicon - it's a great book although quite heavy going - there's also a really good 4 book series, fiction based on the life of Julius Caesar, called the EMPEROR series by Conn Iggulden - nice easy reading and lots of fun - also he explains at the end of each book what's based on fact and what blanks he filled in.

Seriously though - what was the wall about? help!

BaZmO* · 11-04-2008 8:07am

Not sure there is a significance tbh. Although it's been a while since I've seen the first series.

Sherifu · 11-04-2008 9:10am

I loved Rome. Any HBO show is really well made. Sopranos was a very different show. A third series would have been great.

11-04-2008 11:11am

Rome was a fantastic show (only watched a few episodes of season 1 so far). My only major gripe, however (and trust me, this is strange to say), is that there was too many sex scenes. This made it awfully hard to watch in college.

tbh · 11-04-2008 12:12pm

yeah - or in an airport when you're waiting on a flight to a muslim country

K4t · 12-04-2008 12:53am

g-punkteffekt wrote: »

Is it just me or is Rome the best series ever made? I just finished season 2. I'm a big fan of the Sopranos too which is regularly voted best tv series of all time, but in truth a lot of the episodes are awful and it's really drawn out. Rome was all action and plot and it's based on real events which makes it so interesting. I'm so gutted that they've axed it and there wont be a series 3, I doubt it did too well in America with the English accents and history and whatnot, doesn't tick the boxes for them I don't think. Any other fans out there?

I watched all the seasons over Christmas and am a huge fan of the Sopranos.

None of it is drawn out and it is gripping TV from the first episode to the last.

The Sopranos is so far ahead of every recent series, e.g. LOST, prison break, rome, tudors, etc.

Rome is good, the first season especially but the episodes with Cleopatra and Anthony were quite dull.

I still can't get over how anyone, especially a self-proclaimed Soprano's fan could find it boring or drawn out :eek: Crazy.

PixelTrawler · 12-04-2008 6:57pm

I loved rome, thought it was one of the best series ive ever watched - it ended well and with just two series it didnt go on long enough to fade

I loved sopranos also, however it did taper off.

The sopranos peak was series 2 - in fact series 2 was an almost perfect series in storytelling
3&4 were pretty good but the last few felt a little dragged out. The uncertainty of the number of series that were going to be made year to year didnt help plus the actors holding out for money at different stages made some of the episodes seem... like filler - the original plan was 5 series I think - it might have been better if they had stuck to that plan

Back to rome: enjoyed both series and it seemed with series two as if they had more cash as some of the scenes looked expensively made... damn good tv

brendor · 12-04-2008 11:23pm

If you like Sopranos or Rome I recommend Deadwood. Sendit have all 3 seasons cheap at the moment.

Rome

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