January 12, 2007
MAD AT MAX?:
Cherish the glory that is "Rome" (Mark A. Perigard, January 11, 2007, Boston Herald)
Julius Caesar lies dead in a pool of blood and assassins chase Mark Antony (James Purefoy) as the second season of HBO's bloody good "Rome" opens at 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Picking up just seconds from the 2005 finale, "Rome" finds a city ablaze with intrigue and knives at every throat.
A grief-stricken Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) cradles the body of his wife, Niobe, and turns his rage on his children.
"By all the gods below, I curse you to damnation," he says.
Unfortunately, the gods are listening. Vorenus comes to rue his hasty words.
Judging from the first four episodes available for review, the second season of "Rome" is as much about a nation searching for its soul as one man struggling for his sanity. [...]
While the original cast has returned, Pirkis has grown several inches and brings gravitas to his role of a teenager becoming the leader of men. His growth spurt makes the producers' decision to recast the role in the fourth episode a mystery. The new actor, Simon Woods ("Pride and Prejudice"), has a similar physique and a CW teeny-bopper look to him.
Been watching Season One on DVD and Pullo, Caesar's slave and Octavian are the three characters who make the show. Indeed, the thought occurred that, given that Pirkis's first two roles are as a Lord in Master and Commander and Augustus here, the rest of what's likely to be a brilliant career will require taking roles below himself. And they fired him?
MORE:
Caesar Is Dead, Rome Carries On (BRENDAN BERNHARD, January 12, 2007, NY Sun)
Caesar is dead. So long live HBO and the second season of "Rome," the extravagantly expensive series returning this Sunday whose vision of the world's most notorious empire alternates between "Blade Runner"-ish working-class chaos and quarrelsome emperors, witchy women, and quibbling upper-class families whose foul mouths wouldn't be out of place in one of the more decadent precincts of contemporary London. ("Rome" is one of those joint HBO/BBC series whose American imprint tends to get buried under the British one. "Look chaps, we know empires," you can imagine the Brits telling their American counterparts. "Leave it to us.")
That's disappointing. I thought he was quite good as Octavian, and was looking forward to his transformation into Augustus.
I only recently found out that HBO cancelled Deadwood, which I liked very much.
Did you catch Season 4 of the Wire yet oj? I thought it excellent as always.
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at January 12, 2007 10:45 AMI've been watching the show all this week to get caught up. Pullo is also my favorite character. His "scene" with Cleopatra was inspirational.
Posted by: Pete at January 12, 2007 11:17 AMI've been watching the show all this week to get caught up. Pullo is also my favorite character. His "scene" with Cleopatra was inspirational.
Posted by: Pete at January 12, 2007 11:26 AMI still haven't seen all of Season 3.
Posted by: oj at January 12, 2007 11:32 AMThe characters are mostly pretty good. One problem is the glacial pace. Granted, I'm only six episodes in, but my wife has already given up on it.
Too bad about Octavian. The actor was perfect in the role.
I want to like the show more than I do.
Posted by: David Hill, The Bronx at January 12, 2007 11:41 AMI suspect that the slow pace with Rome is b/c the producers/writers believe that their audience is very familiar with the main political events of the late Republic.
Therefore, if one knows that, say, Pompy will be murdered as soon as he sets foot on Egyptian soil, the slow pace builds dramatic tension.
If one doesn't know what happened in Rome in the 40s BC, then it's just boring.
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at January 12, 2007 3:50 PMRome is crap. I watched the first two episodes, and they were total dreck. For those who know history, they put in a bunch of apparent throwaway lines ("Hey, we just crossed the Rubicon!"), and for those who don't know history, they put in lots and lots of sex.
Posted by: b at January 12, 2007 3:53 PMI'm looking forward to seeing HBO's "The Sopranos" on A&E.
Posted by: dan at January 13, 2007 6:28 AMdan, make sure the little ones are safely tucked away.
Posted by: erp at January 13, 2007 8:29 AM