Yesterday I uploaded polish review, but this one is extended than previous. Link for compare - https://peakd.com/hive-134382/@herosik/recenzja-1-sezonu-serialu-rome
Years ago, I heard a lot about this show. I heard that it is both a good historical series as well as a soulful show. A few years ago I tried to find out about it, but for unknown reasons, the website had incorrectly numbered sections and I started more or less from the middle, skipping a great introduction. Don't ask me how I didn't notice it then, I probably thought that "if it's a serious series, we immediately moved to important things, without any threads about some commoners". After 2 or 3 episodes, I was bored and decided that I didn't want to watch the next episodes. I am actually happy about this decision, because now I could enjoy it to the fullest. And it is what!
"Rome" tells the story of two Romans from the thirteenth legion - Lucius Vorenus, Titus Pullo, Julius Caesar, their families and friends and Rome. Over the course of 12 episodes, we got a story that could end in this one season. Each of the heroes gets their 5 minutes of satisfying plots, and we have a complete story that has its beginning, development and ending. The story begins with a quick snapshot of short clippings from the decisive battle against the Gauls in which Caesar defeated Vercingetorix. Thanks to this situation, the fates of the 3 heroes connect and we get a very well-written story about the eternal city and its inhabitants. "Rome" focuses mainly on showing city life, various elements of politics, law and dispute resolution at the time. Expanding the above slogans. We can see the conditions in which representatives of selected social groups lived, and what some professions looked like. The creators show us what the Senate looked like, how its deliberations looked more or less, how political disputes were resolved (politicians of the time sometimes went out with their own bodyguards and there were fights between them, just like today between football fans. Art was also used for propaganda purposes, e.g. making fun of your opponent through murals showing elements from his private life). It is true that this knowledge is fragmentary, showing the elements selected by the creators, but it gives a fairly good picture for the average person, as it looked a long time ago. By the way, there is even an interesting, short fragment in which Christianity is mentioned.
This series confirms a scientific thesis I read about some time ago. Namely, the point is that people have not changed much over the years, contrary to what some people say. About 2,000 years have passed (they say about Christianity, and Julius Caesar died in 44 BCE), and we still live similarly and our characteristics have not changed, i.e. drives, tendency to aggression, sex, stimulants, selfishness. Likewise, we are still shortsighted, selfish, cynical, and we strive to get rich in many different ways, sometimes at the expense of others. Of course, thanks to the Christian religion, education, many experiences resulting from many disputes on various levels, generally the entire culture and legacy of Latin people (which we more or less profess or had a significant impact on us, even as anarchists, atheists or outside the system - contrary to the words of some anticlericals, an atheist from Europe closer to a fanatical Catholic than the same atheist from, for example, Asia or the USA), we are less wild, we also have more empathy, but it is not so much progress. After all, not so long ago we had WWII where terrible things were happening. I omit the war in the Pacific, because the bestiality of the Japanese is material for a separate text (if you want, I will write it one day. Too long, don't read version - not without reason they entered into an alliance with Adolf, they are similar to the Nazis in some respects, even today. ). I mean the Germans, Russians, the bestial behavior of some Ukrainians, who sometimes committed even greater crimes than the NKVD or the Gestapo, cruelty towards Jews, Roma, Poles or people who protected or hid representatives of the above-mentioned nations. Not even 100 years have passed since then, and I suspect that if a major war broke out, demons would reawaken in humans.
These extremely bad attitudes aside, Rome shows quite well that we are still willing to trample on someone who disagrees or competes with us for access to resources or influence - be it social or political. Not to mention the feeling of superiority towards people we consider inferior to ourselves (formerly slaves, representatives of commoners, and today poorer or less intelligent people). People acted in a similar way - they ridiculed their opponent in every possible way, entered into local agreements with the authorities, aristocracy or politicians, if only to slightly improve the quality of their existence. Our lifestyle has not changed either - we try to work with as little effort as possible, and we often waste time in different ways. Also this one, although we are slowly moving forward, is a bit too slow looking at how many centuries have passed since the death of Julius Caesar.
As I wrote in the introduction, I watched the series from the inside for the first time and therefore I had no motivation to watch all the episodes. Fortunately, the second time I started with 1 and the quality jump is huge - one episode was enough to keep me interested in the remaining episodes. This is mainly due to Tytus, played by the extremely charismatic Ray Stevenson, known for his role as Blackbeard in the series "Black Sails". The guy is homely, honest, direct and nice, and he likes vodka, women, conflicts, fighting, and at the same time he is not stupid - how not to adore him? I don't know the actor who played Lucius, but I would put him in second place for my favorite characters. At first, I was pissed off by his conservative approach to life and responsibilities, but it changes over time, and the stick that hurt his ass a lot loosens up a bit. Caesar, who appears to be an influential charismatic and intelligent dictator, ruler of the then US, did just as well. This is especially evident in the scene when he arrives in Egypt and the young Pharaoh tries to scare him by screaming. It looked cute, as if the President of my country was trying to shout to Donald Trump or Joe Biden - that is, a small mongrel attacking a 100 kg, muscular and well-fed dog. In addition, the HBO series portrayed Rome very well. We observe them from the perspective of plebeians, legionnaires, their families, families from high society with varying degrees of wealth and influence, prostitutes and other social groups. It is majestic, captivating and at the same time practical. I do not know to what extent it correctly reflects authentic Rome, but this image made a huge impression on me. I know, it was mostly artificial sets (and the famous Roman buildings are a CGI effect, if I'm guessing right), but they were made so well that for the 12 episodes I felt like I had traveled back in time.
I have not seen too many historical series or those that try to pretend past eras (e.g. "Game of Thrones" if we turn a blind eye to the fact that there is magic, dragons and other fantasy elements in this world), my historical knowledge is also too poor to form any meaningful opinions, but "Rome" is probably the best historical series I have ever seen (omitting "Chernobyl" or those relating to World War II, such as "The Pacific"). Of course, not in terms of effective scenes, because although the series had a considerable budget, the battle scenes or epic scenes look poor compared to the two above-mentioned. It's like comparing season 3 of "Vikings" to "The Last Kingdom" from the BBC - you don't have to be a specialist to see that these series are very different from each other. I mean the presentation of a given era - faithfulness to historical realities, showing people's customs, texts or behaviors that were characteristic of those times. Indeed, season 1 of "Vikings", which is of comparable length, has been heading towards fantasy from season 2 (historians say the first is very good), so perhaps in the case of "Rome" it would be similar in season 3, but the creators of the HBO series presented more content and had greater opportunity for simplification. It is much easier (as well as have fewer opportunities to make mistakes) to show some villages (because they are smaller) or castles, buildings or props from those times. You don't have to care so much about details, it's also easier to dress people in old rags, prepare some simple props, etc.
All in all, it's a great show. Both as a historical series and a regular series that we want to watch only for fun, interesting and solidly written heroes or an intriguing plot. This is not some timeless show that will permanently enter the history of cinematography, but I can definitely say that it is an outstanding series. I did not see any disadvantages in it, but many advantages. I recommend, much better than this new Netflix series about Romans and barbarians. The heroes do not speak their real language here, but apart from such a minor detail, "Rome" is better in every respect. My rating is 9/10.
