Why was this show so good, Veeky Forums?

Because it wasn't American.

>HBO Rome
>HBO
>It's actually an italo-british production
What the fuck I wasn't expecting that.

That's a very good point

This definitely helped

IIRC the actors were supposed to be Americans from the HBO stable, including Gandolfini as Caesar, but they found that American viewers overwhelmingly believe that ancient Romans have British accents (???) so they recast the show with Brits.

Thank God tbqh

The history was a bit fucky, but the standard of acting and the writing was really good.

It's a shame it got cancelled, because it's basically Game of Thrones but smarter, which might explain why it didn't survive. Game of Thrones is clearly dumber on all levels (though I still watch it), but perhaps appeals to a large swathe of the public.

Too expensive. All that authenticity cost a shit ton to achieve

Yeah, the timeline is fucked up. It's still fairly accurate concerning modern research. I remember they even had a pun on Ronald Syme. Compare it to I, Claudius which was true to the bone to the senatorial narrative (basically propaganda).

Wat? No, Sopranos was still airing when Rome came out.
Also the language in Rome is great since the aristocrats speak a posh accent while the plebs speak some sort of cockney.

Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo
Bros 4 lyfe

>she will never be your mummy
>you will never be her boy toy
Why even live?

The meat is about right, time is all over the place, cos TV.

1st series is God-Tier. 2nd is good but just all over the fucking place, way to rushed

>Romans
>With american accents

GoT was pretty much a successor to this show. High budget, sex scenes, swords n shiet and a lot of the same actors.

Like who, aside from Indira Varma?

Caesar and Brutus are also on the show.

And the Spartacus series just tried to cash in on Rome's success ending up being more violent, pornographic and cheap.

Nah, Spartacus was aping 300. Down to the assault rock soundtrack.

>Wat? No, Sopranos was still airing when Rome came out.
How long was a Sopranos season? 12 eps? It's not like recording would fill Gandolfini's whole year, and the relevant part of Rome was ten eps with the same studio. Of course they could fit that in if they wanted.

That would have been fucking terrible.

I loved the show, but to be fair it had an absolutely ridiculous budget.

spartacus was awesome

>and a lot of the same actors
> two gigantic productions that mostly poach their casts from among a small pool of the same British actors has the whoop of all three same actors between them
> a lot of the same actors

>gabagool as Julius fucking Caesar
thank fuck that didn't happen

Caesar was born in Rome

expensive set burned down

>lots of sex + violence

>meditation on power/powerful people

pretty simple desu

Great characters
Good overall narrative
Interesting story with many locales and events
Good pacing

The series had already been discontinued by then. The writers knew it had been axed before the second season started, that's why they crammed so much shit into it. They had to go through 3 more expected seasons worth of history in just one. The set burned down after season two had finished filming.

Nothing wrong with that. An obese Caesar tho...

Also it lacked that political correct sheen that is on everything these days. It didn't impose modern ideology on a flawed and unequal ancient society.

Female characters are strong without being cheesy mary sue empowered women, they have real flaws.

If there is anything that annoys me more is PC equality in fiction set in a historical period where things are supposed to be hierarchical and unfair for minorities etc. I don't know why they do it, just to propagandise the values of today or because they really don't want to hurt the safe space feelings of people who can't deal with the harshness of history.

this show had the greatest bromance of all time desu

>Also it lacked that political correct sheen that is on everything these days.
Not entirely true. They shoehorned random African and Indian characters into situations that they probably would have not found themselves in in Rome.

Well they were just extras so it didn't seep much into the plot which is the main thing that annoys me.

However its not unfeasible, Rome was pretty multicultural at its height.

Right. Can't imagine a hyper-traditionalist roman centurion like Vorenus marrying an indian girl.
But then one wonders how did he end up eating rubbish from the gutter when he was the son of a man wealthy enough to give him an education beyond literacy and numeracy and a woman whose family had a horse farm in Mutina.

Well, given how the Roman system of private property worked, you could become bankrupt just because your father got in debt once.

Maybe, but I still think it was just a writer oversight.

Most lorica were hamata

Indira Varma wasn't Indian on that show. I was talking about instances of actual Indian actors playing Indian characters. Like that scene with Hindu traders running a shop

I don't think she was portraying an Indian in the show. The actress could almost pass for an Italian and ancient Romans might've been slightly darker than modern Romans.

It was actually a joke, obviously I didn't think a character named Niobe would be indian. Then again it always sounded very weird for Vorenus to describe her as "a solid Roman born on the Aventine" when her name is greek, her family clearly doesn't follow roman naming conventions (her sister's name is Lyde) and her brothers live in the countryside (implying her family wasn't actually urban). Let's face it, Rome was an extremely good series, but history wise it was very fucky. It was only good compared with the sea of shit it competes against.

>The actress could almost pass for an Italian
That's because her mom is swiss italian. Skin tone aside she doesn't look indian in the slightest.

>The gifted slave with bow on his shlong

Is there any historical basis for "honorable Roman mothers" giving Slave-dildos to each other?

None whatsoever obviously. Getting fucked by a slave is the same as getting fucked by any other man: shameful behaviour outside of marriage.
Even by show Atia's standards the gift makes no sense whatsoever: why would she who chastises her daughter for sucking slave cock at orgies ever consider fucking a slave herself? Adultery with Mark Anthony is one thing, but with a fucking slave? It's just the writers confusing history with their own fantasies.

If I remember correctly she gave him to mother of Brutus, a widow. Could it have been considered used as insult at least?

An insult so stupid and crude it would have made Servilia cringe in second hand embarrassment rather than get mad, and made Atia a laughingstock maybe.
Besides Atia was trying to suck up to Servilia in that episode, she wasn't trying to insult her. It's just the writers being stupid.

the second season was absolute AIDS, I didn't finish watching.

i've watched season one 3 time tho. Aren't they making a movie? I'm betting it will be terrible, with all the PC bullshit that's injected into everything these days and trying too hard to be edgy like GoT

Didn't the slave just deliver the actual gift? As in he was just part of the package and his big dick was more of a fancy decoration than intended for actual use?

Naked, trimmed and oiled, while accompanied by both kids? No m8, he was the gift.
>A large penis is always welcome
t. Atia of the Juliae

>t. Atia of the Juliae
Also another mistake of the series, if anything she should have been x of the Atii, cognominated Balba Caesonia, where x is her unknown paenomen.

Why the fuck do Romans always have British accents?
Englishmen were barbarians, why not have them have French, Spanish, Italian, even Romanian accents?

Because Americans.

You can try and make a film with Spaniards/French/Romanians playing Romans and Mexican/Quebecois/Moldavian playng non-Roman characters if you wish.

>alexandria is full of blacks and arabs
>not a single greek in sight
>herod the great is portrayed as wearing jewish clothing instead of macedonian fashion
>gauls are wearing dirty rags and bronze age armour
>asterix & obelix contré Ceasar tier roman costumes

Show was shit and only idiots think it was even a bit historical. It was neat to see Vorenus mentioning his ancestors fighting at Zama and Magnesia

>alexandria is full of blacks and arabs
This was particularly obnoxious considering actual egyptians were literally banned from living in Alexandria proper, and the population was divided between macedonians/greeks, macedonian/egyptian mixed bloods (without citizenship), and an enormous amount of jews and assorted levantines (also without citizenship).

It is supposed to sound posh.

>tfw there will never be another rome series with spoken latin

I never got a sexual connotation from that. I just kind of assuming Atia was giving Servilia a new slave who just happened to have a big cock.

Is S2 any good?

My favorite sex scenes was when those thugs raped that one dude in the ass in the public toilet right after he had taken a shit. That can't have been very sanitary.

>If I pick another gladius I have two gladii

t. Vorenus during the last fight, when he alongside Pullo defeats dozen of Roman soldiers

I would say they started out at the wrong time.

If they were to release it now it would do just fine.

What's wrong with obese Caesar dude?

Your other points sure but the Roman costumes were immaculate. They're the most accurate I've seen in anything.

Also that's all a bunch of meaningless bullshit that doesn't impact the actual quality of the show.

They had to do all the shooting on site is why
No CGI
with cgi this shit could have a tiny budget.

Because Shakespeare plays.

Because of Britains legacy of Empire and ruling half the world from Eton college.

Mostly because these ten years have seen fx take enormous steps forward in cost cutting.

this

But the costumes were not immaculate. The helmets were shoddy, everyone wore made up vambraces and the shields were tiny.

It's weird because Shakespearean English sounded more like Pirates/American Southerners.

Keep in mind it had a higher budget than GoT but nowhere near the viewership

British English, has a classy old world feel while still being English. It just fits in the western mind better for historical roles than the jarring modern sounding American accent.

It may just be an arbitrary association but its here to stay now.

>He doesn't like Spartacus

JUPITER'S COCK

Because Americans can understand it and it's different.