Rome - New HBO show

Looks like Kevin McKidd is going to be in a time-travel cop show!
Looks like this is starting next week.

Watching a few episodes of this every week with s friend in the US and somehow, even though I often think of it as my favourite show ever, I’d forgotten how good it is. Well, at least the first series remains perfect. I spent a lot of time just admiring the attention to detail in costumes and the set (and cursing that the latter burned down), the cast is perfection and it’s just incredibly entertaining at all points.

Lots of people will say that it never really was as good after Caesar was killed off, but I personally love deranged s2 Vorenus and sadistic adult Augustus a lot. My actual series favourite is Mark Antony, not least because James Purefoy plays him with a sort of dissipated vibe and is a massive ride while doing so.

Watching it in 2020, it’s difficult for me not to agree with the cast who thought that GOT got the funding and promo it should have had. Superb and over before its time.

OTM. All time. One of my favorite ever TV series.

Finished rewatching this yesterday, and had completely forgotten the ambiguity over Vorenus’s death. I mean, he survived injury and being pulled in a cart by Pullo for a month only to then die? Don’t buy it, he’s as dead as Caesarion. Unfortunately due to the set burning down we’ll never know. :(

Also, degenerate Mark Antony in eyeliner with the snake tattoo around his nipple is extremely weirdly hot, still.

S2 is a bit lacklustre in comparison to 1 but there’s still so much I loved this time round again. I was interested to read that Antony being considered to have taken up local customs when he was in Egypt was a scandal irl as well.

The eyeliner is not a huge stretch. Both men and women in the Egyptian ruling class wore kohl. Antonius would have seen this as part of his power moves to rule Rome by capturing control of Egypt.

The snake tattoo is just Hollywood razzle-dazzle. Tattoos appear to have arrived in Europe around 1500 CE. If the Romans knew about them at all, it would have been via Scythian slaves and the Roman senatorial class would have shunned them comprehensively as a disfiguring and barbaric blemish, more like a cattle brand than an adornment.

aye the Romans used tattoos to brand prisoners of war and criminals so would have looked down on them, and it was pretty otm of them say I with no tats!

well the Romans of that era I should have posted.

something like nine centuries later the Holy Roman Empire starting using tats on soldiers i think.

Lads I think ye misunderstood my point about Antony’s tattoo.

I was reading a Byzantine history book recently so I'm an egg spurt!

I think ye misunderstood my point about Antony’s tattoo.

oh, I think not. HBO knew what they were aiming for and it wasn't historic accuracy, but something a bit more, um... differently located.

That was my point though?

funny thing is, the eyeliner could have been true to life. at least when he was in Egypt.

actually thinking his snake “tattoo” was maybe?just henna? Which would have made more sense at the time.
https://www.frockflicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/tumblr_m607rfgUaC1qeun5ho1_500.gif

I've been discovering an obsessive interest in Sumerian culture lately, and kohl (šembi, šimbi, šem-bi-zi-da) goes back 3000 years prior to Antony. Originally charred frankincense, by Antony's time powdered antimony or lead compounds, and neurotoxic. So a little crazy should be expected from those with heavy eyeliner/mascara.

"... Tattoos appear to have arrived in Europe around 1500 CE...."

Didn't Ötzi the Austrian Iceman have some ink on his back?

Yes. He did have some tattoos. The practice of tattooing doesn't seem to have carried forward in any big way into more modern times. When European explorers encountered it in the 1500 CE time period they acted like they'd never seen or heard of such things.

What does that have to do with James Purefoy being hot though?

Quite right, tokyo rosemary. I felt sorry for anyone who couldn’t enjoy Antony’s decline both thematically and visually.

I have the DVDs so I’m going to have to do a rewatch soon.

“Bruno [Heller] once did outline a story that he was going to start the whole series with,” Stevenson said. “An 88-year-old Pullo going down to the riverside by Vorenus’ tomb, or sarcophagus, pouring wine on it, taking a sword out while sitting there on the banks, looking at the glistening river, and committing suicide.

“And as he has his face hit the sand on the banks, a fish jumped out of the water, and the silver light on the fish caught the sword, which brought us right into that first battle with Lucius Vorenus and [Titus Pullo] where he breaks ranks.”

As according to Stevenson, the final scenes of the series would have eventually explained this fate as the relationship between Octavian, who is only a child when Rome starts, and Pullo becomes clear.

Says Stevenson, “The reason was that the only person on the planet who [knows] the Emperor Augustus to be human, who was Octavian, is Pullo. And Pullo’s the only one who has that memory of him or that life. And basically, [Augustus] asks him to. Nobody else could kill him. But at that stage, Octavian is obviously in his paranoid imperial sort of thing, and Pullo is the last tie to that time when he was a boy. It’s genius.”

Finished my third (fourth?) rewatch and it hasn't lost any of its greatness. As for the question about Vorenus' fate: why would Pullo lie to Augustus? Maybe because LV was loyal to Antony and Pullo was just lookin' out for his homie? Hmm.

Would be nice if a surprise "20 Years Later" type film following up on our characters ever gets made. Not holding my breath. But I will make a little offering to Dis and see what happens.

Thanks. Haven’t rewatched since the first time but have certainly thought about it.

I don't think I ever finished this- is there any gay stuff?

ctrl+f gay suggests no :(

THIRTEEN!!!

Ray Stevenson...the one Titus Pullo...Rest In Peace.

Fuck this. Favourite show of all time, adored this guy.

Hadn’t even realized. RIP :(

Been thinking about rewatching recently.

Just was recommending somebody watch that show as an alternative to reading Gibbon.

Finally watched Rome this year, what a treat. Stevenson elevated anything he was in, RIP

One of my favourite non-Thirteen Pullo moments is when Cleopatra is trying to get pregnant and first invites in Vorenus, who refuses. Then Pullo is invited into the tent as second choice, has no problem and they have wild sex with ululating etc. Cut to Vorenus lying outside, fuming, wide awake. Pullo comes out of the tent walking on air, tries to talk to Vorenus, who just shuts him down immediately. It’s an incredible scene with their dynamic and Stevenson’s comic timing is incredible. RIP.

Hahah

IIRC This was the First ever BBC drama (maybe HBO) to be filmed in HD, a good choice looking back on it,

first of the new, rather than last of the old.

R.I.P Ray, you were great in this.

rewatched series one a few years ago, maybe time to go into Season two.

The BluRay has an option which points out all the historical stuff going on in the background, really wish more dramas include that especially all the easter egg filled Marvel/Disney shows.

Forgot about Michael Apted’s involvement.

such a classi, great show. RIP Titus Pullo

The writers hate Cicero so much.

Just saw a trailer with Indira Varma front and center!

She lives round the corner from me and is

…always quite striking even in “just got out of bed to grab coffee” mode

Also a surprisingly awesome audiobook reader for Terry Pratchett’s witches books

Exactly as this thread was revived, I was watching Indira play Lady Macbeth in London's Docklands.

she was great, in case that needed stating....

That’s the trailer I saw!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57_IiR1ynw8