Rome Season 1 Episode 1

Rome Season 1 Episode 1:

HBO’s historical drama, Rome, depicted the events during Ancient Rome’s transition from Republic to Empire. With the series first episode, the tone was set as this drama was laden with uncut violence, sex and conspiracy that envelopes the show’s colorful characters. Naturally, for an avid movie fan such as myself, this drama begged for comparison to other similar works of cinema such as Gladiator. However that was not to say that Rome’s debut episode stood in the shadow of its Hollywood counterpart since it delivered an engaging start to the series.

Perhaps taking a cue from Gladiator’s introductory battle scene, Rome kicked off its first scene with a brief battle as well. From here I saw Gaiuse Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul, present day France, which brought him fame and fortune while also envy from his political rivals back in Rome. As Caesar stayed on the Roman frontier, his close friend Gnaeus Pompey Magnus began to face pressure from the corrupted Roman Senate to betray his friend in order to seize power for himself and preserve the power for the noblemen of Rome. Tensions boil to a climax at the mid-way point of the episode as Pompey ordered his men to steal Caesar’s covenanted Legionary Standard. The Legionary Standard which represented the pride of Caesar’s military forces, the act of the stealing it constituted as an act of war. Unsurprisingly, Caesar sends two of his men to recover the Standard and achieved in doing so but not before they discovered it was Pompey’s doing. The episode ended with Caesar marching his men back to Rome, foreshadowing the inevitable conflict between Caesar and Pompey.

Ciarán Hinds as Julius Caesar

As the episode began, I noticed the sizable cast involved with Rome. I also immediately recognized veteran actor Ciarán Hinds from his role as Russian president in the 2002 action film, Sum of All Fears. Hinds portrayed Julius Caesar and I was happy that such a focal character in the drama is filled by an actor with extensive experience. Opposite of Hinds is equally capable Kenneth Cranham who portrayed Pompey Magnus, rival of Julius Caesar. Complementing these two men was an army of supporting characters, each of which acted extremely well in their respective roles. However I also found that despite the superb acting from the cast, I became confused on whom the drama focused on. Although Hinds and Cranham both get considerable screen time, so do Ray Stevenson and Kevin McKidd who portrayed the 13^th Roman Legionaries, Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus respectively. Despite Vorenus being Pullo’s superior officer, the duo bickered at one another like siblings while they were searching for the Legionary Standard. I don’t know if these two are only present in this episode since I would like to see their peculiar relationship continue and become fleshed out in the season since both characters added the “average Joe” perspective to the drama that is mostly dominated by the Roman elites.

Kevin Mckidd as Lucius Vorenus. Mckidd was also the voice of Captain John "Soap" MacTavish in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Lastly I need to mention Polly Walker who portrayed Atia, niece of Caesar . Throughout the episode, Atia and her family are shown as the noble elite of the Roman society. The first scene Atia appeared in was where she enticeed a dwarfish mercenary into providing her with a prized horse. She struck me as a very manipulative woman since she used sex to get what she want and I figure there would be plenty more of this as the series continued. It also became obvious that she was power hungry as well. One particular scene was when Atia forced her daughter to divorce her husband in order to marry a widowed Pompey simply for power. I found myself saying “What a bitch” under my breath as I saw Atia offer her young daughter, Octavia who’s portrayed by Kerry Condon, to an elderly Pompey for sex. To add insult to injury, the ensuring scene showed Atia insulting her daughter after she failed to wed with Pompey. This clearly shows the character of Atia as a selfish manipulative bitch that doesn’t restrict her actions to anybody until she achieves her goal. Also it is important to note that once Atia realized she had no more use for Pompey since he found another wife, she changed face and vowed to see him killed. Also earlier in the episode, Atia pressureed her son into visiting Caesar with the prized horse that she acquired after whoring herself to the dwarfish mercenary. The entire demeanor of Atia is very annoying but perhaps a great representation of the conspiracy that was so famous in Rome.

On a brighter note, the drama’s production value is surprisingly well done. Whether it was the armor worn by the Roman Legionaries or the robes by the Roman Senate, all looked convincingly authentic. This high level of detail also helped differentiate the clear difference between the plebs and the noblemen. Also this bold well in the few battle sequences as this drama, much to my pleasing, did not shy away from violence. My main reason of not watching TV dramas in the past was the toned down violence that also led to toned down realism. However when a person is impaled by a spear in Rome, they show exactly that. You won’t find any wooden swords or cheap props here. Furthermore, the various settings are equal to the ones found in any Hollywood movie.  There wasn’t any time during the episode that I questioned whether or not I was watching some cheap soap opera instead of a high quality drama.

Characters are onscreen with very authentic looking props and costumes

All in all, Rome kicked off with a great first episode. The acting and production values are at top notch to deliver an engaging experience into the Ancient World. My only gripe with this episode was the amount of characters. Although colorful, they were just far too numerous that made me lose track of who was who a few times. This reminded me of Homer’s Odyssey since both Rome and the Odyssey have an extensive cast of characters but both assume that their audience already knew them. Also I would consider myself a fan of the Roman historical genre as I thoroughly enjoyed movies, literature and games that revolve around the famed city.

Pros

+Great acting from all characters

+Great attention to detail

+Raw cinematography, hardly anything is uncut save for explicit sex scenes

Cons

-Too many characters for a first episode

Episode 1= 4/5