Before Game of Thrones the most expensive and ambitious HBO show was Rome. A decade ago, its budget of roughly 100 million US$ was so huge that HBO had to join forces with two major state broadcasting networks – British BBC and Italian RAI. Most of those resources went into the sets, costumes and props intended to bring historical spectacle worthy of the greatest Hollywood epics.
As the name suggests, Rome is set in Eternal City. The plot is set in one of more colourful and eventful periods of its ancient history, which corresponds with the last decades of Roman Republic and its transformation into Roman Empire. This process was caused by the series of successful wars and conquests that made Rome into the mightiest state of the ancient world; on the other hand, huge wealth from conquered provinces created the issue of its distribution among various strata of Roman society, and became the source of constant friction, social unrest, political bickering and endemic violence that occasionally escalated into civil wars. The series begins in 52 BC at the very end of Gallic Wars, during which ambitious and talented general and politician Julius Caesar (played by Ciaran Hinds) conquered today’s France and became the most celebrated and most popular of all Romans. His success, on the other hand, caused the enmity of conservative senators and led to collapse of Caesar’s alliance with Pompey (played by Kenneth Grantham) who began to plot Caesar’s downfall, unaware that these actions would lead to two decades of spectacular bloodshed, assassinations, coups and civil wars resulting at the very unlikely figure of Caesar’s young cousin Gaius Octavian as Rome’s first emperor.
This period was covered by numerous Hollywood and non-Hollywood films, so the creators of this show needed a fresh approach. Inspiration came from Caesar himself, namely the passage of his book Gallic Wars in which he mentioned two of his ordinary legionaries by name. Two of them - Lucius Vorennus (played by Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (played by Ray Stevenson) - are the actual protagonists of the show that bring ordinary and “little man’s” perspective of the grand historic events. They are different in character – Vorennus is conservative family man, while Pullo is fun-loving rogue – but, due to the various circumstances often bump into each other and various important figures, take or witness various important events and often have to use their deadly skills to survive or protect their friends and loved ones.
This interesting approach also allowed creators to portray some, often ignored but fascinating aspects of ancient Roman history, namely the details of every day including customs, religion and technology. Rome thus shows ancient civilisation which is at the same time alien and familiar to modern viewers. Some of those examples could be found in Roman politics which is, sometimes disturbingly, close to our own dysfunctional and incompetent elites, rampant populism and cynical media propaganda, embodied in character of official News Reader, played by Ian McNiece.
Unfortunately, despite the great and visible effort to reconstruct ancient history, Rome, like so many projects burdened with high budgets, had to cut corners and get "creative", often at the expense of historical accuracy. Some of the most decisive battles aren’t shown at all, some of the most fascinating characters are ommitted and even the iconic Cleopatra (played by Lyndsey Marshal) is reduced into pathetic crack whore. There are also plenty of scenes featuring graphic violence, nudity and sex that are, although way below Spartacus levels, look gratuitous at times.
The biggest problem Rome has is in structure. Originally it was devised as miniseries, but, faced with the epic scope of events to be covered, it was turned into more regular show. As such, it failed; faced with huge costs, networks decided to cancel it, forcing the writers of second season to rush the plot and give audience rather anti-climactic and somewhat disappointing finale. Yet, despite those flaws, fans of classical history and quality drama would probably appreciate Rome thanks to excellent cast, namely McKidd and Stevenson who play the biggest roles of their respective careers. The show looks even better now, mostly thanks to increasingly disturbing similarities of its plot and modern-day headlines.
Starring: Ray Stevenson, Kevin McKidd, Polly Walker, Lindsay Duncan, James Purefoy, Ciaran Hinds, Tobias Menzies, Kerry Condon, Max Pirkis, Simon Woods, Kenneth Cranham
Executive producers: Bruno Heller, John Millius, William J. McDonald, Frank Doelger, Anne Thomopoulos, John Melfi
Running Time: 22 episodes (50 minutes each)
Pro: fascinating reconstruction of ancient civilisation, interesting historical perspective, excellent cast
Contra: historical inaccuracies and omissions, rushed finale, gratuitous sex and violence
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RATING: 7/10
