11-08-2005, 09:08 PM
Hmm the board seems to have eaten my old logon after the move.
Now I realize there's a huge long thread on the HBO/BBC Rome series but I thought there might be interest in an episode by episode discussion. The episode commentary in the other thread is lost in bunches of other subthreads. So anyway, I just watched Episode 1 (the US version), and the idea was this thread was specific to that show.
What I thought was good:
- The whole ambiance of Rome. Colorful, gritty, seedy, very alive! If this isn't what Rome was really like, then it's a damn good shot at it.
- the short battle scene. While I'm no expert on arms/armor, the comments that I read in here seem to say that it wasn't bad. At least they weren't wearing lorica segmentata in 52BC. It showed they fought as an organized group, not in melee. The whistle thing is speculative but a good and valid speculation and shows that the Romans had a scheme when they fought. Still no pilum volley, but there was lots of stabbing with gladii between the shields -- very good! The only real slashing I saw was when Pullo ventured out past the line and freelanced. I'm sure that our reenactors could have done better, but overall I really liked the small battle. Too bad it wasn't bigger, they probably didn't thave the budget for it.
- Treatment of slaves, attitude toward torture, attitude towards arranged marriage. Don't know how accurate this specifically was, but it did bring across very clearly that the Romans.Were.Not.Like.Us . Which is a valuable thing to remember. "Bring him back alive, or I'll use your children's eyes as beads"
- The Senate. The guy they had playing Cato was brilliant. I understand that he may have been too old, but Cato is one of those souls who was old when he was a teenager, I think.
- Atia. 'nuff said
What I didn't like
- I thought Caesar was way off. Much too much of a cold fish, for starters. He was popular with the proletariat, for heaven's sake! Can you imagine a snooty aristocrat like that being popular with dockworkers? And what's with the hair? a) wasn't Caesar almost bald by this time, and b) when he had hair, I thought it was light colored?
Not much else. I really liked it. Feel free to start threads on other episodes.
cheers
Rich K.
Now I realize there's a huge long thread on the HBO/BBC Rome series but I thought there might be interest in an episode by episode discussion. The episode commentary in the other thread is lost in bunches of other subthreads. So anyway, I just watched Episode 1 (the US version), and the idea was this thread was specific to that show.
What I thought was good:
- The whole ambiance of Rome. Colorful, gritty, seedy, very alive! If this isn't what Rome was really like, then it's a damn good shot at it.
- the short battle scene. While I'm no expert on arms/armor, the comments that I read in here seem to say that it wasn't bad. At least they weren't wearing lorica segmentata in 52BC. It showed they fought as an organized group, not in melee. The whistle thing is speculative but a good and valid speculation and shows that the Romans had a scheme when they fought. Still no pilum volley, but there was lots of stabbing with gladii between the shields -- very good! The only real slashing I saw was when Pullo ventured out past the line and freelanced. I'm sure that our reenactors could have done better, but overall I really liked the small battle. Too bad it wasn't bigger, they probably didn't thave the budget for it.
- Treatment of slaves, attitude toward torture, attitude towards arranged marriage. Don't know how accurate this specifically was, but it did bring across very clearly that the Romans.Were.Not.Like.Us . Which is a valuable thing to remember. "Bring him back alive, or I'll use your children's eyes as beads"
- The Senate. The guy they had playing Cato was brilliant. I understand that he may have been too old, but Cato is one of those souls who was old when he was a teenager, I think.
- Atia. 'nuff said
What I didn't like
- I thought Caesar was way off. Much too much of a cold fish, for starters. He was popular with the proletariat, for heaven's sake! Can you imagine a snooty aristocrat like that being popular with dockworkers? And what's with the hair? a) wasn't Caesar almost bald by this time, and b) when he had hair, I thought it was light colored?
Not much else. I really liked it. Feel free to start threads on other episodes.
cheers
Rich K.
