Rome! And Bad Sex!

[lesbiassparrow]

Dear Rome:

Please stop sticking the worst and least sexy sex scenes I have ever seen on any TV show into an otherwise not too bad hour of TV.

Thanks.

Me.



I think this show is a lot better with the political machinations than it is with anything else. I am particularly fond of Cicero and his wibbling over what to do and his desperation never to go too far. Cicero may have been a bit of a wanker (for example, I am not convinced that the conspiracy of Catiline ever actually happened despite all of Cicero's vilification of Catiline) but there is something endearing about him and his feverish attempts to make certain things in Rome didn't explode too much. I don't know if they'll insert the embarassing incident where he writes a letter in support of Caesar which is supposed to be private, but which Caesar then posts up all over Rome, but I hope so because it's one of the few funny moments in that period.

And I think the Pompey stuff is excellent; they dance on the edge with having him want to be top-dog without showing him madly keen to shed blood for it. Which is very much true to the sources that I've read, so kudos for getting that across quite subtly. And I was sure they were going to do some big moment with the kid announcing this was the Rubicon, but they surprised me there.

But the sex, oh my god the sex! And the portrayal of women! Eiee! It's all so very Victorian with the evvvill ambitious woman (Atia) who has mad and loud sexual desires because she is nasty and cares naught really for her children. And the sex just looks so unsexy and dumped in there because they obviously feel that we need the fact that the Romans were people of great appetites telegraphed very loudly to us. And you don't necessarily have to replicate everything in your sources; you might not want to replicate their opinions of women for example.

But Antony is rather hot. He looks very good in a toga.

Comments

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I try to block out the sex scenes because they're so unerotic - I wonder if that's the point, really... Yes, that's it. They want us to understand how degrading ... err, no, I can't even finish that thought - they just kind of suck - except for the Lucius/His Wife one which sucked also but was clearly meant to suck for her... Less is definitely more. Hopefully, everyone will be too busy fighting the civil war to be doing any more shagging. ::clings to hope::

Anthony, sprawled in the Senate in his toga? V. hot.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I really don't know what they're thinking with the sex scenes; it's not even just that they're unerotic, it's that they just seem like afterthoughts. As they feel that you need at least four of them every episode in case we forget that the Romans were voracious on all fronts but can't be bothered to write them really into the story.

I thought the Antony and the Senate scenes were really well done. It's that sort of stuff that has me keep watching (well, that an my interest in the subject). But I don't think they're very good at writing women or at least ambitious women and given that women play such a big part in this story they really ought to get their act together. And maybe that's part of the sex issue: a quite remarkable amount of Atia's character time on screen seems to revolve around her sex life or her hitting Octavia (or whoring her out to Pompey).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

So, do you think it's worth renting (I don't have HBO). Considering that "Empire" nearly gave me fits, I am a bit on the skittish side...

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

It's better than Empire and the production values are excellent (the costumes are amazing). I think the writers have some issues with women though I guess that's now really fair to say given that they've only had a few episodes. However, I think so far they've shown themselves more adept with portraying the politics and the buddy relationship of the two soldiers who represent the common man.

It hasn't gripped me really though I think it has some good elements and could end up being very interesting. I'd say it's worth renting but you might want to fastforward through the awful sex scenes (they are really awful).