What is the biggest waste of film ever?
Not a film, for me, but a series. HBO’s Rome. It was a magnificent series. But apparently somewhere around the time the first season wrapped up, some important set pieces burned down. And the producers then rushed the second season to a rather hasty conclusion.
And even rushed, forcing far too many years of history in far too little time, the second season was still absolutely wonderful watching.
But it could have been so much better, had the show been given the run it was initially planned to have. It’s a travesty Game of Thrones dragged on for as long as it did, culminating in that God-awful last season when all Rome got was two measly seasons…
The great thing about the show was how well it humanized the characters. They weren’t just stuffy historical figures — they were men and women of flesh and blood. They were bored, horny, tired, calculating, rash. Some little side characters got their moment in the sun, great men came and went, it was all so very well done. The dialogue was great, the scenery spectacular and the casting superb, featuring (among many others) what was perhaps the most historically accurately depicted Cleopatra; a pretty-ish Greek woman with a fairly large nose who cleverly attached herself to powerful men for her own survival…
Oh, how I enjoyed this show. The earlier seasons of Game of Thrones did the intrigue and the courtly scheming beautifully, too, but the show eventually morphed into a cruel parody of itself with once-brilliant characters dumbed down just to wrap it up. Rome never fell off, never lost steam, and as the storyline was directly based on actual history (with some creative filling in of the gaps!) it wouldn’t have run out of steam even if it had been given ten seasons. And damnit, it deserved ten seasons!
Featured In