I finished off watching the second season of Rome today. It's an HBO series, no word yet on a 3rd season. It follows many characters, all of them important historical figures, through the politics, intrigue, drama, and tragedies during the volatile period of the first and second Ceasars. And wow, it's great.

But I realized, bout 75% through, that this series actually was (despite it's disguise) a giant, high-production soap opera! Never thought I'd get into that sort of thing. But damn. Awesome. And the window into such an old culture... Really engaging.

Okay, drama's good and all, but what really makes it great? Lotta old school sex going on, that's what! And a surprising amount of wang, too.
Now, I'm easily satisfied when they give me boobs, that's cool and all. Very cool. But then BANG there's the other end of the equation. And to me thats just... very novel. I mean, since most series' penis count is zero, and all....
Maybe I'm just low-brow.

My favorite part:
Cleopatra. Super smart, strong, and as ambitious as she is sexy. And short black hair, my weakness! I says damn, girl!

Anyone else seen this? What did you think?

There will be no 3rd season. Rome was just too expensive. The producers had to fight to get the 2nd season.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread....highlight=rome

Yep, this sums it up in a nutshell. Pretty much the same reasons HBO nixed Deadwood after 3 years.

I still miss it, and would have liked for the events of Season 1 to be done over the course of 2 seasons, mainly because there were a lot of events that could have been explored in more detail, and to give Ceasar more airtime.

I would also have liked season 2 to be extended.

This would have been better than adding a "new" third season, in my view, but what we got was excellent in any case.

Actually Deadwood's cancellation all falls on its creator. HBO was willing to make more Deadwood, but when the creator was told he had to choose between more deadwood or making John From Cincinnati, he chose John.

ROME at least wrapped up in a satisfying way, so it seems (on the surface) a lot more like a miniseries than a TV series.

(Heck, to continue the story in an interesting way would require jumping ahead about 40 years to the last bit of Augustus' reign and then the Emperors who followed him)

I would have loved to that. The only downside would have been no Titus and Pulo.

Yes, there are some great storylines they could've covered (for example, everything about Caligula) but it would've been more like a spin-off show (e.g. "ROME: The Next Generation") than the same show.

Still holding out for the Blu-Rays...

Well that was full of fail!

+1

come on hbo!!

Actually, that's false.

http://blog.jopinionated.com/2007/08...-responds.aspx

Actually, that's just his take on what happened, and there have been other takes, and published reports, that state the exact opposite, that Milch had a choice and he chose JFC over Deadwood. Seeing as how this is a he said/she said situation unless HBO ever comes out with the actual truth, both sides are completely right and completely wrong at the moment.

If it's the case that there are multiple versions of this story, and if "both sides are completely right and completely wrong" then why did you only offer one of them as the possible explanation?

You can say that we don't know, and that it's a toss up, but to straight up say that it all falls on Milch's shoulders is a little much, as backed up by your own post.

Because personally, I believe the stories that lay the blame on Milch. That's why that's the side I brought up, but if someone else wanted to offer the other side, like you did, I have no problem with that.

So you were deliberately misleading? At least now I know how much credence to give your posts in the future.

How was I misleading, I personally don't believe the other side of the story, and it's not my job to offer that side. I posted the side that I believe in, that's all I'm required to do if I choose to speak on the subject. If I had said in my post that any other reports to the contrary are definitively false or something like that, then that would have been misleading.

I was happy w/ how it ended, too. Two top-notch seasons is better than none.

Deadwood's finale would have been fine to end a season, but not a series. It was so anti-climactic and blah. Still love the show, just so much disappointment w/ how it ended both in front of the camera and behind.

You aren't required to do anything, because this is just an Internet forum. But stating something as if it's fact, knowing full well that it's one side of a story, is misleading by omission.

No, that would be flat-out lying.

+2.

No shit. Band of Brothers coming out has given me hope that these will eventually make their way to BD. It is the only reason I have yet to buy the series.

Agreed. I held off on buying "Rome" because the price was high enough that I knew I wouldn't want to double-dip when the eventual high-def version came out (whatever format it ended up being). I'll buy "Rome" the day it's released on Blu-ray.

See? I think that makes 4 GUARANTEED sales for HBO already!

Girlfriend and I just started watching season 2 the other day. Looking forward to getting the rest from Netflix.