Nasty, brutish and short.
No, not him. That sums up tonight's episode of HBO's Rome. Romans are all horrible terrible people.
"What about the aqua duct?"
Shut up!
We begin pleasantly enough with Atia enjoying some dinner theatre at home, where one of her slaves sings Monty Python's "The Most Deadly Song in the World"
And deadly is was, as the slave doesn't even make it to the song's end. Atia looses her appetite and her temper and has Servilia's visiting murderous little slave boy tortured and murdered.
Mother, what are you doing now?! Such fun.
Meanwhile...Tweedle Dumb arrives after a battle between Anthony and Octavian to witness a beautifully done camera pan across the battle field. Who should arrive, just at that moment, out of nowhere but a new actor claiming to be Octavian. Using the royal footstool, he drops everything to help T. Dumb find Tweedle Dee (the former Don Dee), even giving him a letter stamped with the royal seal.
Needless to say, Tweedle Dumb does find Tweedle Dee, who gets the news his children are alive.
We then visit Brutus in Turkey for...for...I'm not exactly sure why we did.
Oh no, Servilia has been kidnapped, and we are then given 10 more minutes of torture, until we, and the actors have had enough.
And then, and then...
This episode of Rome was mostly given over to the fictional characters, with the historical elements appearing here and there only where needed. Left to their own devices, these character misbehave in the worst ways possible. The Tweedles amazing influence over the rich and powerful continues as well, including a somewhat unbelievable scene about requesting army leave.
There is a message about torture and war, but it's lost among the images of lovingly crafted violence.
Good elements there are as well though: the increasing "Imperial" look of Octavian and his surrounding, and umm, oh, there must be something else.
Because honestly, it's hard to care for the murderous parade of thugs the writers present us with.
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