Wasn’t this the scene where the thugs gave us a recount of what happened at the speeches? Kind of a reaction quote by the everyman, which probably would become the spoken record we would later come to know as fact.
Yeah, Antony and Brutus do a post-mortem, the thugs do their own post-mortem, and combining them with the knowledge we all bring in of the Shakespeare play, we know what happened, without the show having to top or even match Shakespeare.
Yep. I thought this was a particularly inspired creative decision.
Great series. Even where they fudged the history a bit, they stuck to the essence of what went down (as historians say). The very first scene, also, with Vorenus’ unit on the front line in Gaul, is one of the best depictions of the way Roman infantry fought “barbarians” (none of that crap in Gladiator, where officers get down in the mud and fight Germans one-on-one).
And James Purefoy is going to play one of my favorite pulp literary characters, in the upcoming Solomon Kane movie.
As has been pointed out, Antony did, at least, but it doesn’t matter. They made speeches in the world of the television series; they just weren’t shown.
I guess I am in the minority here; people seem to think it was a great idea NOT to show this pivotal moment. I just could not disagree more, but there you go.
Maastricht, you’re 100% spot on. The series deviates from history in a variety of little ways - Cato wasn’t that old, Atia and Octavia were not the sort of people as they appear in the series, the assassins actually had to flee right after the funeral because the mob attacked their houses, Titus Pullo probably didn’t knock up Cleopatra, and a variety of other things. But what’s brilliant is the capturing of the essence of the time. The treatment of slaves and underlings - indeed, the general disdain for the sanctity of human life - is simply part of that time and place, and the show succeeds in painting pictures of real human beings with normal human flaws who live within the context of that value system.
I liked the first season. That was a much better Caesar.
They have boxed sets with extras. http://www.amazon.com/Rome-Complete-Season-Ciaran-Hinds/dp/B000FJH4X2/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1201206851&sr=8-2
I absolutely loved this series, it is in my top 2 all time. All the actors were great, but I thought Hinds and Purfoy played their parts perfectly. Hinds as Caesar had the perfect blend of charisma, cunning, and intelligence. Purfoy’s brutish, lusty Anthony was spot on too. I’m pretty sure that I will always picture those actors in that role.
TWoP has the recaps, in all their snarky glory. I love reading them after seeing the show…most times I giggle.
For those who have missed the series and want a five-minute YouTube taste of it, here are three cool clips:
A fan-made compilation of war- and battle related scenes set to music; and two mini documentaries, probably from the DVD’s extra features, on the how the series portrays slavery, and religion,
I loved season one as well, and Caesar. Enjoyed two, but I thought it didn’t hold up as well and that it would’ve benefited from three seasons.
Hinds is a great actor–saw him recently in a Broadway show, “The Seafarer” where he played the devil to great effect.
Major props also to Kevin McKidd (Vorenus) and er…I’m blanking on the actor who played Pullo.
I didn’t much care for the second Octavian, when he was older. Just too creepy and glassy eyed for me.
My favorite scene in the whole series was the one in which Julius Caesar visited the home of Lucius Vorenus. His ability to be both emperor and houseguest was an amazing display of acting skill. His perfectly intoned, “Rise, Niobe,” when she grovelled at his feet, his unaffected smile at her, his gracious acceptance of the family’s water without a taster intervening, and his whole “You have misjudged me” speech were all the very best melding of production values, from screenwriting to acting to directing to, well, everything. I must say that Vorenus’s reaction when Caesar arrived at the courtyard gate was quite good as well. Expecting an enemy, he tossed down his sword like a hot potato when, to his surprise, he saw his chief commander instead. Great stuff.
Atia would’ve been a very boring character if they made her the model of Roman matronhood she was in real life. I don’t care if she was dead in real life when Octavian became Augustus, that exchange between her and Livia was priceless.
I thought that young Octavian was amazing, just as he was in Master and Commander. Little did I know that those two things are the only acting gigs Max Pirkis has ever had! :eek: That kid rocks!
I could watch Rome over and over again, and I do.
And MaxtheVool, that is my favorite line, delivered by Atia at her best, when Octavia questions her “gift” to Servilia- “A large penis is always a welcome gift! Now, go and put some flowers in his hair!” 
Speaking of Kevin McKidd, I was noting recently in a thread about movies that you surprised yourself by liking, how mesmerized I was by Topsy Turvy, despite a general indifference to musical theatre. I saw it fairly recently, on cable, after having seen Rome.
One of the things I sat up and noticed in that film was Kevin McKidd’s little scene where he is being fitted for his Japanese costume and becomes incenced at not being allowed to wear a corset. His air of upper-class pomposity and his affected accent start slipping away from him as he gets steadily more pissed off.
I immediately went and checked if it was the same guy as in Rome and was very impressed to see that it was. The man’s a damn fine actor.
I thought the scene in which Pullo hears, from the lips of his dying lover, that she was responsible for the death of his wife, was an amazing bit of acting on Ray Stevenson’ part. How his face change from grief stricken tears to flat, murderous hate, as he reached for her throat and squeezed the life from a woman who was already bleeding to death.
Or the tenderness with which Vorenus tended the body of Antony, wiping the makeup from his eyes and dressing him as a Roman, was also an “ahhhh” sort of moment.
Count me in with the fans. It seems rare to find an historical show that portrays an alien ethic so convincingly. I’m not a great historian or anything, but the show matches with my limited understanding of what Roman morality was like; it was horrifying and totally convincing and compelling. The acting was great, too.
Daniel
I just about threw up during Caesar’s murder, it was so visceral. I couldn’t do anything but stare intently at the screen, wanting desperately for it to end…
Any show that can provoke such a reaction in me is A #1 in my book.
Well, you may be pleasantly surprised by season II. 
I just re-watched season II a few weeks ago (probably for the 3rd time), and it was every bit as good as the first time. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again-- this was, IMO, the best series ever on TV. (I’ve only seen one season of The Wire.)
I didn’t like it. I seem to be a lone dissenting voice, but I expected something more along the lines of Deadwood, and didn’t get it, so found it all a bit plodding.