Rome - The Complete Second Season
by Various
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DVD details
Actor: James Purefoy, Kevin McKidd, Lindsay Duncan, Polly Walker, Ray StevensonDirector: Various
Brand: ROME
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 600 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-08-07
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: HBO Home Video
DVD Reviews of Rome - The Complete Second Season
DVD Review: One of the best ever...
Summary: 5 Stars
HBO's series Rome is one of the finest i've ever watched. However, it contains graphic scenes of violence and sexuality, so it's not recommended for younger or sensitive viewers. Any realistic depiction of Roman life would have to include scenes of such a nature. As far as being realistic to the true conditions of the time period, I would say I know enough to think they got SOME of it right.
The scripting and acting is incredible. The costumes and sets were so costly and accurate that HBO decided not to do a third season. That was before they realized after the second season came out that they had a serious hit on their hands. But alas, the sets had already been demolished by then and it was too late. This is entertainment and not history, so be prepared to be entertained. I couldn't figure out where they got these actors from and why I had not heard of them before. A few of them have been popping up recently on TV and in movies. I cannot recall a series that left me so excited about seeing the next episode. They know how to end one, that is for sure. Put the kids to bed and enjoy.
DVD Review: Easily one of the most compelling television productions ever
Summary: 5 Stars
Cancelled due to the titanic costs of production rather than because of lack of quality, this is the second and final season of "Rome" and it continues with the excellent acting, direction, writing, costumes, sets and cinematography seen in season one.
To avoid spoilers I'll just say this season begins at the end of the reign of Julius Caesar. Control of the Empire is torn between Brutus and Caesar's great nephew Octavian and his right hand man Mark Antony. Seductress Atia is torn between the two - she is mother of Octavian and mistress to Antony. Atia is also involved in an escalating rivalry with Servilia, the wife of Julius Caesar.
This season also deals with the domestication of Lucius Vorenus - his transition from officer in Caesar's legion to local politician. Noble Vorenus spends much of this season estranged from his family for reasons I won't spoil here, but his character arc is one of the most satisfying of the show. We're also treated to the "whatever it takes" actions of Titus Pullo, the former foot-soldier. Pullo is a barbaric brute, but also with compassion and the ability to learn and become more humane and educated.
An historic sub-plot occurs in Egypt where Antony and Cleopatra lounge in hazed bliss. The visuals are eye-popping, the storyline broadly historically accurate, and the melodramas, probably mostly fictional, are compelling.
The Mrs. and I were sad to see "Rome" end after only two glorious seasons. This ranks among the most addictive television we've ever seen.
DVD Review: Help Me! I'm addicted and there's no more!
Summary: 5 Stars
Even with it's semi-fictionalized plot line, this is the best series ever produced. The historical "pop-ups" in the special feature All Roads Lead To Rome are wonderful and add a great deal of depth and interest to the program. I know several college-aged young adults who are now much more interested in reading about ancient Rome, Egypt, and Greece as a result of watching both seasons. Buy both seasons if you have bored young adults at home for the summer and go on a Rome kick together. You'll love it. (Beware! This series has the obligatory sex scenes, killing, and cursing every 15 minutes like all HBO series...just so you know.)DVD Review: "Do you mind if I pick some peaches?"....
Summary: 5 Stars
so Titus Pullo asked Cicero, who requested a few moments of reflection, before executing him congenially and respectfully. "He wasn't a snob," Pullo said, as he returned to the family picnic with Cicero's hands in a sack - he had also been ordered to nail them to the Senate door by Marc Antony. (Not shown in the film is that Antony's wife, Fulvia, mutilated Cicero's head in a frenzy of vengance.)
I watched this twice, back to back, over three weeks (never more than 2 per night). I must say that, as a Rome buff, this is an utterly riveting and vivid tour of an ancient culture that seems familiar yet is frighteningly alien.
The historical context is clear: Julius Caesar is gone, and there is a death fight to determine whether or not the Republic can be revived. The characters - with the exception of the plot props, Pullo and Vorenus - are real. Caesar's adoptive heir, Octavius, must unite with his adversary, Marc Antony, to fight the forces loyal to Brutus, before they fight eachother to determine who will rule Rome as supreme leader. I will not play the spoiler, but just say that the drama is absolutely splendidly vivid. And in the gross outline, historically accurate.
Oddly, I found the best part to be the ongoing melodrama of Pullo and Vorenus. Wholly fictional, Vorenus must cope with the destruction of his family. It gets worse than you could possibly image our modern vantage. Meanwhile, Pullo - the symbolic survivor of the end of he republic - is adapting to his new role, employing the violence that he knows is the only thing he will ever do well. Their story is really wonderful, a great plot device, and emotionally real. It alone is worth the price of admission: as I said, you really feel what it was like to live then, even smell it. ("You see," Pullo's ignorant wife says, "a slave is better when you beat her" as the slave winks at Pullo before doing even worse.) Vorenus is an honorable man turned criminal, still bound by oath to Antony, but also to the values of the republic; he cannot adjust and his fate is entirely believable yet unimaginable. Truly fine fiction.
If you know the history, it must be admitted that the producers played fast and loose to the point of the truly ludicrous. Atia and Antony were married to others and there is no evidence that they had a love affair, Octavius was married twice by the time he met Livia, etc. These things are known, not uncertain at all: it is pure poetic license and makes the plot move better, e.g. the rivalry of Sevillia and Atia, also fictional. I wish it were more accurate in these details, but the plot is nonetheless extremely taut.
That being said, the portrayals of Octavius and Anthony are also wonderful: Octavius is a cold and calculating visionary, Antony is a sensual creature looking for his piece of the glory and not thinking too far ahead. The sincere Agrippa is excellent as well, a natural adjunct to a political genius, as is the cynical Mycenas. Brutus, who is emerging as a courageous leader of potential, is also finely acted. Finally, Antony and Cleopatra, in the drug-induced search for pleasure and excess, are priceless.
Warmly recommended. This is fun and deeply stimulating. If you take it for what it is, the entertainment value is first rate. Heck, it got me to read 3 bios!
DVD Review: ROME - Season II
Summary: 4 Stars
Both Season I and II were well done with characters, costumes, mores, settings and plots that were appropriate. The whole effect was absorbing. My preference is to buy and watch a season by nightly episodes, rather than wait for the weekly episodes on HBO.
There was talk of a Season II - it never materialized, nor was it needed.
Description of Rome - The Complete Second Season
The year is 44 B.C. Julius Caesar has been assassinated and civil war threatens to destroy the Republic. In the void left by Caesar's demise, egos clash and numerous players jockey for position. The brutally ambitious Mark Antony attempts to solidify his power, aligning himself with Atia, but coming to blows with her cunning son Octavian, who has been anointed in Caesar's will as his only son and heir. Meanwhile Titus Pullo attempts to pull his friend Lucius Vorenus out of the darkness that has engulfed his soul in the wake of personal tragedy. For once again, the fates of these two mismatched soldiers seem inexorably tied to the fate of Rome itself.Unlike another certain celebrated HBO series, Rome's end will satisfy those swept up in its lavishly mounted spectacle and invested in the human dramas of the historical figures and fictional characters. Season 2 begins in the wake of Julius Caesar's assassination, and charts the power struggle to fill his sandals between "vulgar beast" Mark Antony (James Purefoy) and "clever boy" Octavian (Simon Woods), who is surprisingly named Caesar's sole heir. The series' most compelling relationship is between fellow soldiers and unlikely friends, the honorable Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus "Violence is the only trade I know" Pullo (Ray Stevenson), who somewhat reverse roles when Vorenus is overcome with grief in the wake of his wife's suicide. Season 2 considerably ups the ante in the rivalry between Atia (an Emmy-worthy Polly Walker), who is Antony's mistress, and Servilia (Lindsay Duncan) with attempted poisonings and sickening torture. Another gripping subplot is Vorenus's estrangement from his children, who, at the climax of the season opener are presumed slaughtered, but whose true fate may be even more devastating to the father who cursed them.
Rome's second season does not scrimp on the series' sex and violence, in both cases exceedingly brutal. But in this cauldron of treachery and betrayal, words, too, are vicious, as when a defiant Atia ominously tells Octavian's new wife, Livia, "Far better women that you have sworn to [destroy me]. Go look for them now." In writing Rome's epitaph, we come to praise this series, not to bury it. Although two seasons was not enough to establish a Rome empire, it stands as one of HBO's crowning achievements. --Donald Liebenson
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