Rome, episode 3
Sep. 12th, 2005 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiYou know, now that I think about it, what's the point of a spoiler cut for a show like this? I mean, I have no sympathy for people who don't know how Caesar's story ends. Bring on the ides! But for the squeamish and the uninterested, I will cut:
Remember how I said after the first week that they'd gotten the casting wrong? That they'd somehow managed to switch Cato and Cicero, since Cicero is Pompey's age and Cato is relatively young? It works if you switch the dialogue, as well. The exchange between "Cato" and Pompey about leaving Rome was pure Cicero and Pompey -- Cicero is all "are you insane?" at the thought of abandoning the city and Pompey's response is basically "Hello? Which of us is the military genius? That's right -- not you!"
It's not like you can't find all this stuff in Cicero's letters. I suppose the writers might have glanced at those, but you wouldn't know it.
We spent the whole episode thinking that the man Pompey sends to get the treasury was supposed to be Curio, and laughed like maniacs because we thought that, if it was Curio, he'd take the gold and head for Caesar's camp, and that would be a neat way of putting Curio back into the story and getting a sense of how he did Popmey over by switching sides. Sadly, no.
Instead, Titus Pullo ended up driving off with the girl and the cart full of gold! How sweet was that? I loved it!
And this is the thing. I really like the story of Pullo and Vorenus, and I like those characters. Atia gets some good lines (although I have issues with the representation of unrestrained female sexuality in Late Republican Rome, and will have to write something about why that's a problem). But the political history is just careless. I keep having to take deep breaths and say "not for me, not for me." It's very frustrating, because I love this stuff, and I think it could be very dramatic, and I hate the way it gets short-changed.
Not wrtten for me. Words to live by, you know?
Remember how I said after the first week that they'd gotten the casting wrong? That they'd somehow managed to switch Cato and Cicero, since Cicero is Pompey's age and Cato is relatively young? It works if you switch the dialogue, as well. The exchange between "Cato" and Pompey about leaving Rome was pure Cicero and Pompey -- Cicero is all "are you insane?" at the thought of abandoning the city and Pompey's response is basically "Hello? Which of us is the military genius? That's right -- not you!"
It's not like you can't find all this stuff in Cicero's letters. I suppose the writers might have glanced at those, but you wouldn't know it.
We spent the whole episode thinking that the man Pompey sends to get the treasury was supposed to be Curio, and laughed like maniacs because we thought that, if it was Curio, he'd take the gold and head for Caesar's camp, and that would be a neat way of putting Curio back into the story and getting a sense of how he did Popmey over by switching sides. Sadly, no.
Instead, Titus Pullo ended up driving off with the girl and the cart full of gold! How sweet was that? I loved it!
And this is the thing. I really like the story of Pullo and Vorenus, and I like those characters. Atia gets some good lines (although I have issues with the representation of unrestrained female sexuality in Late Republican Rome, and will have to write something about why that's a problem). But the political history is just careless. I keep having to take deep breaths and say "not for me, not for me." It's very frustrating, because I love this stuff, and I think it could be very dramatic, and I hate the way it gets short-changed.
Not wrtten for me. Words to live by, you know?
no subject
Date: 2005-09-12 07:02 pm (UTC)It turns out the guy with the money was called "Durio." Too bad.
Mostly, the stuff with Titus and Lucius saves it for me. I love that he went back for the girl and ended up with the whole treasury. That was wonderful!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-13 04:47 pm (UTC)Hee! I think the third year of high-school Latin may have killed that for me. Although there was a recent bio I was thinking of reading, if only I could remember who wrote it. Do you know what I’m talking about and if so was it any good?
It turns out the guy with the money was called "Durio." Too bad.
THAT was a cheap trick!
Mostly, the stuff with Titus and Lucius saves it for me. I love that he went back for the girl and ended up with the whole treasury. That was wonderful!
Yeah, I’m pretty much really watching for my piratical husband and his honorable sidekick ;) And the occasional lounging Antony.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-13 06:22 pm (UTC)I know! Although I guess if it had been Curio, he would have taken the gold to Caesar, and Pullo would never have gotten it. Which would have been sad.
I like their Brutus, too, probably because I've always suspected that Brutus was a total waste of space. And because he's cute in a foppish way.
Re: here via coffee_and_ink
Date: 2005-09-19 08:43 pm (UTC)