# Rome **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 20, 2008, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rome/478072 "2008-12-20T15:33:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rome/478072/41 "2011-07-21T07:56:37Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I have to go against the consensus here. I was not very impressed by the series. I felt like they added in all these soap opera elements which were a distraction from the world-changing events that were going on. And I didn’t like the way they threw these two fictional characters into the heart of real historical events and then made them the pivot on which these events turned. Yes and no. I disliked some of the too-obvious soap opera elements - although I chuckled at how they lampshaded the way the characters both manage to survive everything and end up near the historical figures, by claiming that the Gods protect them, and even Caesar doesn’t want to mess with the Gods! It’s a difficult path to walk for writers - they want to show how normal citizens lived through difficult times, that’s very commendable; but they need to find ways to keep these small characters related to the big historical figures, which means they go through up and downs all the time. They can’t be killed off, because then the identification figures for the viewers would be gone; but they need to get into danger to show what life was like at that time (and the lawlessness, and how you’re in danger unless you have your own band of strong-men to protect you, comes across really well, I think). The only other way would be a bigger ensemble of bit characters, but it’s already a bit difficult to tell the two red-headed scheming women (Attia and Servilia), the two young black-haired men (Brutus and Mark Anton), the women around Vorenus etc. apart if they only pop up for 5 min each ep. I also liked how they finished the first season: Caesar “hiring” Vorenus both as bodyguard and to use his popular support is a smart move, and certainly Caesar would have had some kind of body guards (besides Mark Anton - even though with 70 attackers, nobody could’ve saved him). But at the same time, the bodyguard couldn’t save Caesar, so he had to be distracted; and to use the long arc of Niobe’s cheating, the discovery, the secret wandering from Octavius to Octavia to Servilia to pay out for a distraction at a crucial point. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rome/478072/42 "2011-07-21T08:41:45Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > Um, Vorenus said this to Pullo himself while they were on the way back from Gaul to Rome, how he could hardly wait to finally get home to Niobe. And since Pullo had been with him the whole time, and didn’t call him on it, I take it to be meant as truthful. I don’t remember Vorenus saying to Pullo that he had not had sex with another woman in his long absence separated from Niobe. I do remember him going on about how much he missed her though. It’s been a while since I saw the episode though. ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rome/478072/43 "2011-07-21T08:44:39Z")
“true bread for true romans!” ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rome/478072/44 "2011-07-21T09:34:57Z")
[quote=“Dewey\_Finn, post:33, topic:478072”] There’s a > [@](#): > > ([Rome (TV series) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_%28TV_series%29#Cancellation_and_future)) on the Wikipedia article from the show’s creator about what he intended with future seasons, “I discovered halfway through writing the second season the show was going to end. The second was going to end with the death of Brutus. Third and fourth season would be set in Egypt. Fifth was going to be the rise of the messiah in Palestine. But because we got the heads-up that the second season would be it, I telescoped the third and fourth season into the second one, which accounts for the blazing speed we go through history near the end. There’s certainly more than enough history to go around.” > > Too bad, as I loved the show and would have liked to have seen it completed properly. That’s interesting to hear - I already thought the first season was speeded up too much, leaving out the whole problems the Cleopatra-dynasty subplot caused in Rome. It’s interesting because ARTE aired the two-part BBC docudramas - where history is told, and recreated battle-scenes etc. are shown - about “avenging Cesar” (and “the last border”, about the conquest of Britain) before showing Rome, so seeing “historical drama” and “drama occuring in historical times” some things are left out that I’d consider important developments. ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rome/478072/45 "2011-07-21T09:52:58Z")
how does a queen who has lost everything act? cleopatra (crying): “does lucius vorenus wish to speak to me?” vorenus (smug): “no.” cleopatra (still crying): “then lucius vorenus will stop looking at me!!!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rome/478072.md?page=2)