Wed, Aug 01, 2007
Rome
Posted to Media category
I spent most of yesterday watching the first 9 episodes of Rome, the HBO series, plus the commentaries of episodes that have them. It's a wonderful show and deserves all its awards and nominations. But it is very intense and I think I overdosed slightly: I'm going to wait a few days before I watch the last three episodes of the season. The writer's have done a wonderful job of wrapping people around the events of Caesar's rise to power.
The details in the sets and costumes and props are amazing: interior scenes are lit by extra flames in addition to the ones that are visible, but they don't use regular electric lights when filming the interiors (though I have the feeling that they are showing too many candles vs. olive-oil lamps).
The casting and acting are wonderful, too. And strip well: this show makes I, Claudius (which I need to rewatch when I'm done with Rome) look puritanical. The ancient Romans would consider the depictions of sex, nudity and killing perfectly respectable -- which is part of the point -- but they are a bit stronger than I am used to.