ROMEWATCHED

I sort of forgot to write about this in the run up to Xmas but it was all v enjoyable and I can’t wait until the next series. Urgent and key points are as follows:

· Servalan got Octavia to shag her brother to try and find out about Caesar’s secret epilepsy shame. When Attia of the Jullii Cooper found out, she had Servalan waylaid in the street, beaten, stripped and given an asymmetrical haircut that would not be fashionable for thousands of years. Game on!!
· Vorenus managed to socially climb all the way to being a Senator, but then someone grassed up Niobe so she jumped off a balcony rather than be stabbed to death by her irate hubby. Doh. I quite liked Indira Varma and she was also v beautiful.
· Pullo had a Downward Spiral after he emancipated his beautiful slave Loreal but then found out that she loved some other bloke. Head smashery ensued and Pullo ended up as a gladiator in the goriest sequence I have ever seen on telly. Ouch ouch ouch! Him and Loreal seemed to be friends by the end of the series though, so that’s all right then.
· Ceasar defeated Cato and those other blokes in another NO BUDGET OFFSCREEN BATTLE and turned into a megalomaniac dictator. Pompey’s ferrety son Quintus Billius Mitchellus showed up at Rome and began plotting with Servalan etc to get rid of Ceasar. We all know how that ends up…
· In the end, Ceasar is of course stabbed to death in the senate in a very gory and well done scene. He doesn’t say “Et tu Brutus” but you can tell he is thinking it through the power of acting.
· Brutus is something of a sniveller
· Servalan has Attia and the kids round for tea so she can be the first to tell Attia that her powerful uncle is toast, that she has lost her only protector in the city and that she had better fuck off out of Rome while she still can. Game Set and Match to Servalan. I thought Lindsay Duncan was a bit wooden in this part at the start but somehow she managed to turn her wooden expressionless face into a mask of pure malice, without even moving a muscle. That was pretty good acting. Attia appears to be up shit creek but since her poncey son ends up as (SPOILER) Emperor I’m sure she’ll be fine in the end…