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Rome: The HBO Series

clayj

clayj

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Jan 14, 2005
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Did anyone else catch the premiere tonight? I thought it was VERY well made... kinda like a TV version of Gladiator, only it takes place a few hundred years before the events of that movie (this is while Rome's still a republic, under the leadership of the Senate and consuls Pompey and Gaius Julius Caesar).
 
that show was freaking amazing. i cant wait to see next week. i hope they will start to show the building up to the battle between julius and pompeii
 
I can't wait to watch it, been looking forward to it for weeks. It's on right now but I missed the first 9 minutes so i'm going to wait for it to come on in an hour so I can get the full thing lol
 
damnit I cannot believe that I missed it!

Oh well, I will have to check the listings when I get home from work then to catch one of the repeats I am sure they will have.
 
I thought it was very well done and relatively accurate from a historical perspective. HBO series' put network TV to shame.
 
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aricher said:
I thought it was very well done and relatively accurate from a historical perspective. HBO series' put network TV to shame.
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Of course, they're also spending (or have already spent) something like $100 million for 12 episodes. Cheaper than big-screen epic movies, but a lot more expensive than any other TV show.

And these 12 episodes are the ENTIRE series. I've heard that if it does well, they might greenlight another season, but it would be a different time period in Rome's history.
 
I would like to see it but I don't get HBO. Do you think they will release it on DVD?

:confused:
 
So far, so good. The series is supposed to pick up pace after the first couple of episodes when characters and plot complications are well-established in the viewers' minds.

What HBO shows do that is unusual is they develop the secondary characters in a series a lot more deeply and richly: even the bit players make you stop and think about them for a while. You definitely see that in shows like The Sopranos and Deadwood, and I think you'll see that happen in Rome, as well.

I guess the only downside is if you're remotely familiar with Roman history, some of the suspense will be kind of taken away: Pompey is going down, Brutus betrays Caesar, &c. &c.

If they do film a second season to take place some time later, I guess they would have to pull a Star Wars and re-cast Octavian as someone a bit older as he goes up against Marc Antony for all the marbles...
 
According to ads, HBO is rebroadcasting Rome next week to cable customers whether or not they subscribe to HBO. Free HBO for a few days to bring in new subscribers. I believe it starts September 3 and goes for a few days, so anyone with cable (assuming HBO is available) should be able to see the Rome premiere.

I thought it was off to a pretty good start overall. It didn't have the impact on us that Carnivále had (we really miss that show), and that's the first comparison that came to mind while watching the opening intro and listening to its music.

But we'll give Rome time to grow on us.

If it's a hit, maybe some channel will catch the craze and rerun I, Claudius!
 
I think I would watch hardly any TV at all if not for HBO. The vast majority of my favorite shows reside on that network, and BBC America has/had most of the rest.

HBO shows tend to be pretty tough to get into if you jump in mid-stream. Took me a while to get into The Sopranos after starting in on about the fourth season. If I want to tackle The Wire again, I'd better just rent the DVDs and start from the very beginning...
 
I found it to be a little disappointing as I thought it would feel more epic although I still like it enough to keep watching.


I'm still bitter towards HBO for canceling Carnivale. :mad:
 
Epic show, though I missed the last thirty minutes of it.

HBO has a great line-up of programming. Well, as soon as "The Comeback" is over... :rolleyes:
 
Just when we drop cable in favor of "free" TV, cool shows like this appear. One thing you can count on, there will be a dvd in about a year. When the Sopranos is back on, it'll be back to cable.
 
Doctor Q said:
If it's a hit, maybe some channel will catch the craze and rerun I, Claudius!
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I'm quoting the post I made earlier, about "I, Claudius", a TV mini-series about Rome that starred actor Derek Jacobi. Tonite, I was flipping channels and saw a movie starting that looked interesting. It was on HBO. Turns out it starred... Derek Jacobi! What a coincidence, I thought.

However, at the end, there was a commercial for "Rome". Now I realize that it wasn't a coincidence. They must have make the connection and run this 1991 movie for exactly this reason! Very clever, HBO.

(the movie)
 
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I missed it, but then found out it was on On Demand, so I watched it later. Pretty good so far, but its going to get much more interesting when Caesar gets to Rome :D

I'm looking forward to it.

D
 
tonights episode was awesome. i guess chappelles show didnt see a real game of dice until now. i cant wait to see the war and see what vesuvius does while he is with titus pullo.
 
buryyourbrideau said:
tonights episode was awesome. i guess chappelles show didnt see a real game of dice until now. i cant wait to see the war and see what vesuvius does while he is with titus pullo.
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Definitely a good episode... it hasn't aired yet in the Pacific time zone, so I will refrain from posting any spoilers for now. I was wondering how the episode's title "How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic" was actually going to play out... just another example of how big things happen because of small things (e.g., WWI caused by assassination of Franz Ferdinand).
 
things are heating up! The first two shows are warming things up for us, but they are warming up fast. I won't post any spoilers yet also but I have to say, i'm really digging this new series by HBO. I know they have bigger budgets then the other companies, but dang they make some good series.

&Z

on edit, I just wanted to add, this is the first time i've watched me some HDTV and whooo boy! wth was I waiting for all these years.
 
i watched it and i thought it was pretty good but i did notice one thing though but i could be wrong but when they were pulling the thing from out of his brain i was under the impression that you cant feel anything thats in your brain but w/e it just jumped out at me and i was wondering about that but that was the only thing that didnt rock the casbah
 
Great episode, and they're getting better as we learn the characters and their motivations.

Should I teach my children to kneel before me respectfully when I come home from work?
 
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