Rome

I just finished watching both the seasons of the HBO/BBC production "Rome".

My Verdict: The best piece of television drama I have ever seen.

The series spans the history of the Roman empire from the victory of Julius Caesar in Gaul and him becoming the Emperor of Rome after dismissing the Senate and Pompeii, to Julius Caesar's famous assasination (at the hands of Brutus his nephew) and then to Octavian becoming the Emperor after defeating Mark Anthony and Cleopatra in Egypt. All of this is narrated with parallel stories of the life of two fictional characters. This forms for 22 one hour each episodes of glorious writing, directing, acting and production. Its interesting to see how the political and the power games played centuries ago have striking resemblances in contemporary global politics.

The DVDs of Rome have a neat feature called "All roads lead to Rome" - turning it on shows historical tid-bits about what you see on the screen. It gives an incredible insight into the things you see in the frame - the daily lives of Romans, the customs etc. Ohh I wish all history lessons were taught like this. Immensely enjoyable and entertaining. If any of you kind readers ever think of gifting me anything - get me the complete DVD sets of this show. My gratitude will forever be yours.

One note: The show has graphic content: nudity, language and gory violence. Not to be watched with children. The graphic content however is essential to the narration.