Rome: Is it really THAT good?
 

Well? I've heard nothing but praise around this series. Worth a blind-buy?

I think the review by das is pretty spot on. If you are interested in the period it's worth a look.

I think it's worth owning just for the gladiator fight towards the end of the season.

Yes, Rome is THAT good. Caught a marathon on HBO a while back and was completely enthralled by it. Got better and better with each ep., culminating in a great finale.

Worth a blind buy though? IMO, not for $60+ as the series is relatively short. I'd recommend renting first, or waiting for a better deal/price drop.

I wanted to watch this on HBO last season, but with the clutter of network TV programs, it was not possible to keep up. I heard that Season 2 is only 10 episodes and will be the final season. I am hesistant to pay 60+ for a DVD set unless it really kicks ass.

I think it's still available On Demand, so I might check it out there. Paying enough for cable as it is, might as well utiliize it for once...

It depends what you mean by "kicks ass"

If your looking for a great story that is exceptionally made it does.

If you're expecting a lot of battle scenes and action you will be disappointed.

Considering how much it cost we are lucky to be getting a second season.

Never heard of it.

das

Definitely worth a buy if you don't mind spending the cash. At least HBO put a few extras with it to help ease the pain (a little bit :p).

This will be my most expensive blind buy ever. I didn't have HBO when this first aired so I've never seen even a single episode. I go gaga for anything Roman though (love I, Claudius) so this is right up my alley. Can't wait until Tuesday.

I'm curious to see this myself. I'll more than likely give it a rent first.

The first few episodes are kind of slow, but stick with it. It gets much better.

Well, it's not THAT good (it's nowhere near The Sopranos, and probably not as good as Deadwood), but it is pretty good for a TV series.

And just to confirm, yes, Season 2 of ROME will be the LAST.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6352216.html

That my friend, is relative. I personally like Rome more than The Soprano's and especially Deadwood. Every second word in Deadwood is a four letter expletive. I am really interested in the premise of Deadwood, but I can't even play the show if anyone offended is within shouting range. Not to say that either doesn't have their respective audience, but I am not really one of them. Anyways, to the OP, the production value on Rome is absolutely phenominal and it shows. HBO and the BBC spent the 100 million where it counts and once it gets going, you won't be able to turn it off. It's to bad that BBC only signed on for a two year contract, although I guess it does follow the lines of a miniseries more. I paid about 60 bucks and I thought it was worth every penny, right down to one of the best quality packaging jobs I have ever seen. So yes OP, it is THAT good. All IMHO of course.

So these same people aren't offended by all of Rome's sex and violence? ;)

I was tempted to buy this, but the price seems to be rather steep.

Hmmm, sex and violence, perhaps I should reconsider :eyebrow:

I heard this show was good. Might have to give it a rental.

I was hooked on Rome right away -- I highly recommend it. The DVDTalk review is spot-on!

I'd rather see Polly Walker frolicking in the buff than see Ian McShane's ugly mug spouting c--ksucker!

I got the DVDs in the mail today. The packaging is absolutely gorgeous. Probably my best looking box set in my collection, supplanting my Master & Commander SE.

Picked it up from Circuit City on Tuesday for 62.99. The packaging is awesome and it looks like HBO is doing a much better job on extra features. Looking forward to a Rome marathon when I get back from vacation.

I guess I should have said it was I who found it hard to watch due to the extreme and excessive amount of swearing. Even if they would just cut the swearing in half and dedicate more to the dialogue, I would consider watching it more. Like I said, the premise and acting is interesting and great, but I can't enjoy something where there is so much swearing for no reason at all. Just IMHO of course. It is good that you like it. I wish I could. Sorry to hijack OP, back to the thread. :)


P.S. x2 on Polly Walker frolicking! :)

The thing you're missing is that on Deadwood the swearing IS the dialogue. Those swear words are just words like any other, and the writers put them to some amazing use on that show. The language is crafted with a painstaking amount of care. It's really quite beautiful.

Are their any episodes on disc 6? Or is that just extra features? Just want to make sure I don't netflix a disc of extras I won't watch. :D

What can I say, I am a sucker for pretty boxes..........

ROME: disc VI

Bonus Features

- Eight revealing audio commentaries with cast and crew.
- All Roads Lead To Rome: interactive onscreen guide prepared by the series historical consultant, Jonathan Stamp.
- Shot x Shot: Caesar's triumph - detailing the production of the epic episode 10 triumph scene.
- The Rise of Rome: behind the scenes featurette on sets, wardrobe and actors' boot camp.
- When In Rome: reaturette on the culture of ancient Rome.
- Friends, Romans, Countrymen: introduction to the characters of Rome.
- Photo gallery with over 50 never-before-seen images.

Extra features only on disc 6. Twelve episodes spread across discs 1-5.

I'm on episode 3 already. This show is awesome!

If you like it so far, you're going to love the rest of the season. The first 3 episodes are the low point. It picks up in a big way after that.

I was one of the lucky ones to get this from Suncoast for $19.99

Can't wait to start watching it.

Thanks!

Dropped disc 6 from my queue.

das, one (tiny) issue with your review. You say that each episode spans years of time. While that's true from the perspective of the actual historical timeline, it seemed to me that the show was deliberately compressing time and that, aside from the one jump of 2 years between episodes during the Egypt campaign, the rest of the action in the show was all meant to occur within a few months of narrative time.

Bought it blindly for $69.99 and have yet to regret it. GREAT show!

I'm not sure it's meant to occur within a few narrative months. I just think the writers have done a poor job defining the passage of time, which can be confusing to a viewer unfamiliar with the historical background (one of my few gripes with the show). Narratively, it can be compressed, but I don't think we're supposed to interpret it as a short timespan. Otherwise, some of the events wouldn't make much logical sense. While not explicit, I got the feeling the movements of the calendar -- and to some extent, the town crier -- are there to help indicate that certain events are spanning months, not days.

das

I finished watching Rome last night,and it was great and I liked watching the episodes with All Roads Lead To Rome: interactive onscreen guide on it was like getting a little history leason and the same time.

Perhaps, but most of the personal dramas between the characters seem to take place over the course of days, not months or years.

There was a lot of debate about this on the AVSForum HDTV Programming board when the first season was being aired. The general consensus there was that the show was compressing the timespan.

Just finished watching Rome, so of course the first thing I did was search out old threads on DVDTalk ...

Anyway, I agree with das on the passage of time. It's subtle, and they don't highlight it, but it's clearly there. Look at how much Lucius the Younger ages over the course of the season for the most obvious example. The big problem is that they don't really do anything to make the actors age -- which is fine for someone like Julius Caesar, but it's really obvious with Octavian.

There's a stated gap of 2 years between episodes during the Egypt campaign. Infants grow a lot during that amount of time. The problem with your theory is that Octavian seems to hardly age at all, which would again be consistent with a timeline of only a couple of years. If the season was meant to take place over the course of 15-20 years (as the real timeline follows), both Octavian and Lucius would be A LOT older by the end.

Maybe someone here can help me...

Layer change on Rome - Season 1?

Im on ep 4 - Stealing from Saturn and 23:48 minutes in I noticed something odd. It paused and did a long load that Ive never noticed my DVD player have to do for a layer change. I was watching it with the fact track and tried without it, yet it still happened. This happened again on Ep 8 - Ceaserian, I didnt note the time.

It seems to happen on discs with 3 eps on it. Das was kind enough to help me saying that he never noticed it. However for it to be on multiple discs seems more than it could be a one off defect. Can someone check theirs to HELP ME OUT?

I had high expectations for this show since I read an article about the project in a British newspaper almost 3 years ago.
The article was saying that Gladiator was crap and this serie will be serious about history.

Finally started to watch it and I can't help but being disappointed. I was hoping for a show really explaining how the people were living at this time.
Instead of that I have a pseudo Dallas unfolding.
Regarding set and costumes I find them pretty close to what Fellini have done almost four decades ago.
I thought they made discoveries on Romans since then.
Don't get me wrong I still enjoy the show very much.

For those interested by Romans I highly recommend the two following BBC docu drama:

Colosseum - A Gladiator's Story
Pompeii - The Last Day

Especially the last one as the actors are actually speaking Latin. The DVD boxset is only $10.

The wife and I just rented and watch the first two discs and I have to say that this series is amazing. The "All Roads Lead To Rome" is awesome to help tie in some history to what is going on. This show has quickly become one of my top series of all times, and like I said, we only just finished disc 2 last night, so we are only 5 episodes in.

I have to say that the Soprano's are one of the top series on my list of all time, but with how quick and easy it was to get into Rome vs (to me) the slow start of the first season of the Sopranos, Rome just hit the ground running.

This would definitely be worth a blind buy!

I netflixed and liked the series a whole a lot and gave it a 4/5 on netflix.

But the last 2 episodes were really the driving force behind that, as the middle of the season was kind of medicore and it was a 3/5 going in those 2 final eps.

Some of the acting was a bit over the top (Antony, Cleopatra are the main examples) and they left out big chunks of plot (and battle scenes) which annoyed me.

Enjoyable as a whole, but definitely inconsistent from ep to ep in terms of quality IMO.

I've been watching these on Netflix as well. The first few episodes were a bit disappointing, but it has definitely improved. I have discs 4 and 5 on the way.

Ravenous, I also noticed odd layer changes on a couple of the discs (I think the 2nd and 3rd discs but not on the first). I don't remember the exact places, but the pause seemed to be much longer than for most discs. Which DVD player do you have? I have this player: link

Just finished - the last two episodes were awesome! Episodes 3-5 (disc 2) were my least fav, and had me almost losing interest...but the second half of the series was great. I must've watched the gladiator scene a half dozen times.

Will hold out and get this one whenever it comes out on HD.