Rome - TV Review

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum; bad weather, producers bowing out, competing projects - it’s amazing that HBO’s toga-happy drama, Rome, has made it this far. The $100 million budget for the 12 episode period piece has made the show a huge investment - and risk - for the network, especially since audiences don't seem too interested in, well, Rome. Troy and Alexander failed to blow our minds and Empire, ABC’s rival Caesar-centric show, bombed. Top that with the fact that HBO’s two period dramas, Carnivale and Deadwood, are not pulling in the viewers like Sex And The City and The Sopranos did, and you’ve got yourself a bunch of anxious executives. Fortunately, they don't have to worry too much. They may not break even, but Rome is a perfectly decent show.

The premise is simple, Julius Caesar (Ciaran Hinds) returns to Rome after an 8-year war to take control of the city from Pompey Magnus (Kenneth Cranham). But he doesn't come back alone, he brings his army and it’s through the carefully developed stories of these mere common folk belonging to Caesar’s task force, like brutish Titus (Ray Stevenson) and introverted family man Lucious (Kevin McKidd), that the drama of Rome unfolds. That’s not to say that Rome isn't full of "royal family" soap antics, it is, take for example Caesar’s niece Atia (Polly Walker) who uses sex to get a horse.

The only problem is that the show is also weighed down by complicated language. Yes, the philosophers of Caesar’s time are responsible for rhetoric-centered, Master of Arts programs in Ivy League schools across the nation, but let me be the first to say that no one wants to watch it on TV. The over-the-top verbiage works against the potentially captivating moments in the show making it difficult to understand - or care about - the political pitfalls Rome is facing and overshadows the show’s more comedic moments, like Atia instructing her slaves as to the order in which they are to cut the family’s throats in the event they need to commit honor-salvaging suicide.

To counter long-winded speeches in the senate (and outside of the senate) Rome is full of pointless nudity, over the top sex, graphic violence, blood-soaked pagan rituals and some pretty good acting. As Octavian, the once and future king, Max Pirkis (Master and Commander) is both a scaredy cat and an annoying pompous brat and his mother, the first ever desperate housewife, Atia, has enough conniving gusto and self-aggrandizing motivation to out maneuver all the men in Rome. The common folk, living in their open concept apartments, have their fair share of drama and deceit as well. Niobe (Indira Varma), adulterous wife to Lucious, is bound to get her pretty little self into a load of trouble once her husband finds out about her infidelity. Her story gives a nice respite from the nefarious plots and back-stabbing taking place in the upper echelons of society, the ones that ultimately shaped our destiny - or at least provided fodder for intro to philosophy courses.