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Cicero: "Gods, I am tired of young men and their ambition."
For the recap, click the link:
"There's so much evil out in the world, I feel like I could drown in it."
The recap for Nightshifter is also up now, very slightly touched up since I posted it on LJ last week during my computer crisis.
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ANTONY: "Oh, cheer up. You're still alive, aren't you?"
POSCA: "I do hope so. If this is the afterlife, it is extremely disappointing."
Episode four of Rome's second and final season. Hey, I was happy to see that Posca got a scene! I've always been fond of Posca. Such a snarky little old slave.
Is it just me, or are they playing rather more fast and loose with history this season than last? This being the final season means, of course, that a lot has to be crammed into a limited number of episodes, but the same could also be said of the first season, and yet it felt somehow more coherent, richer.
I think a part of the problem is the continuing emphasis placed upon the feud between Atia and Servilia, which so far is doing next to nothing in terms of overall plot development, other than eating up a lot of airtime. They are just going over and over old ground. They hate each other, we get it – move on. I can see why they remain a focus. Part of it is, of course, that the actresses are under contract. But also it makes sense that two such powerful women behind the scenes would not relinquish that power willingly just because the politics of their menfolk have moved onto another stage with new players. Caesar is gone, but both Atia and Servilia remain on the fringes of centre stage thanks to their sons, Brutus and Octavian. But still. They are receiving far too much airtime at present. I'd rather see the actual politics – the men – and it irritates that so many seminal events of world history are being portrayed as coming about largely due to the caprices of a couple of power-hungry and vengeful harridans.
That said, I loved the scenes with Pullo and Vorenus in this episode. It felt like first season interaction, just with the events of season two incorporated. I love Pullo so much this season. The scene where he came upon the aftermath of battle was really powerful, the fields strewn with the dead and wounded, with looters scavenging freely. I loved that the air was at least partially cleared between him and Vorenus, although their relationship remains thorny. I loved that Vorenus mostly let him take the lead when they reached the slave camp, bowing to his experience in these matters. And I loved that Vorenus' love for his children and anger over their fate shone through even though he was trying to be patient and let Pullo handle it. I loved that the little Vorenii have been saved, and that it didn't take too many episodes to achieve it, although repercussions of their ordeal are bound to be ongoing. I loved that after everything that's happened Vorenus was able to overcome the constraints of honour and the expectations of the society he lives in to accept little Lucius. Will he expect Vorena the Elder to continue the fiction that the boy is her son? Or will he accept the child as his own? Time will tell.
We didn't get much of the actual politicking in this episode, or last. My knowledge of this period of history is shakier than it was for last season, which doesn't help. I'm still a little confused about how Antony ended up being hunted down as a renegade – because of the murder of a Senator in the Senate? Or because of what Cicero wrote about him in that speech? Because it didn't seem like there was anyone left in Rome powerful enough to actually drive Antony out, in spite of the murder, and Cicero didn't say anything that wasn't public knowledge anyway. I kind of needed a bit more exposition there. Also, I'm pretty sure that when Antony goes to Egypt, he does so as Octavian's ally, so there must be a reconciliation somewhere in the pipeline – maybe that's where Antony's marriage to Octavia comes in, since that's another historical fact that I am aware of. That marriage would cement the alliance between Antony and Octavian that history says existed. Unless the writers choose to take it in a different direction entirely.
There's something intriguing about watching a TV show where you know right from the start just what a sticky end practically every character is going to come to.
And so we have the new Octavian in place already. I can see why the old one needed to be replaced, excellent though the actor was. We needed to see that Octavian is now fully grown, a powerful man. The new actor looks the part all right, although I kept wondering how much he was basing his performance on the old one and how much he was trying to make the character his own. His speech making didn't convince me, though – a bit like Aragorn in Return of the King. Some men have the voice for speech making, and others don't, and this new Octavian doesn't.
Antony does, very much so. Out there in the wilds, battle-stained and bloody, having his arm sewn up, he was every inch the soldier, the hardened veteran, everything Octavian isn't – Octavian is a politician and statesman, leaving the fighting to others. He and his 12-year-old generals and advisors come across more like little boys playing at toy soldiers than the real thing, but I suspect that's the point. This is a time of flux, a time of great change. The older players are slowly being swept aside, with new blood coming through, and these youths have to start somewhere.
I like Agrippa. Partly because I always like a new character being introduced that I've heard of and know something about, partly because he's very cute, and partly because his accent sounds local to me! His crush on Octavia is very cute, and very obvious. Octavia, meanwhile, never changes – she is the archetypal spoiled little rich girl, living the life of a dove in a gilded cage, always beautiful, always untouched by events, generally oblivious to the world outside – even when those events and the consequences thereof are forced upon her attention she never sees them as remotely relevant to her, but rather as an irritation. She truly is her mother's daughter.
I like that Cicero, one of the last remaining dinosaur's of an older age, is starting to take more risks, now that his cynicism and world-weariness are beginning to outweigh his cowardice. And with Cassius and Brutus also mobilising, surely the proper politicking will begin to receive more attention now, with so many new factions beginning to truly take shape.
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You're the first to hear this, and I may be picking you up off the floor, but I actually enjoyed this weeks ep... go me!!!
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Seriously. I loved this week's episode so much, I was tingling with adrenaline all the way through in the way that only ever happens when you watch for the first time, unspoiled. I want everyone else to love it too. Why couldn't HotH have been like this? And Croatoan?
But I think my coolness for HotH probably came across a bit in the recap, although I tried not to let it and concentrate on what I liked. I did like a lot, but overall it left me cold, and I can't put my finger on why.
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