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SWEEPS DAY FOUR!! Herc’s Seen The New Octavian Of ROME!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
There’s apparently some big sporting contest on CBS tonight, so “Battlestar Galactica,” “Desperate Housewives” and a lot of other Sunday shows are taking the night off.
Not so “Rome,” which comes roaring back with a moving four-star episode that sends Titus Pullo to Lucius Vorenus with news that the latter’s offspring still live.
Along the way Pullo runs into both Octavian (now played by Simon Woods) and Antony, former allies whose warring armies are busy hacking away at each other for control of the titular city-state.
Tonight’s stirring ending remains still vivid in the memory, even now, more than a month after I originally saw it.
9 p.m. Sunday. HBO.
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I think so!!
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great show..picking up with each ep...
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I was totally disappointed when I read that Max Pirkis was leaving the show and that they were recasting the role of Octavian (which I now realize would have been impossible for the 18-year-old Pirkis). But I love Woods -- he was great in "Pride and Prejudice" and he even looks a little like Pirkis, so it won't be a totally jarring substitution.
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forHBO so I could watch this show...but alas I'm unemployed and I don't know how i'm going to pay for my cable bill let alone a tagged on HBO...why am I posting...it's 4am here and I can't sleep
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I'm glad there's some loyal fans! I'll be watching the waring armies of Chicago and Indianapolis tonight, but I will certainly tape this one. Rome just keeps getting better and better, too bad this will be the last season.
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Is this like a Bobby Ewing shower scene ? Why have him in this first episode then ? Very weird....
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Will have to wait till tomorrow to view the next episode (I am a total football addict too) but I do LOVE this show. Needs more female nudity this week as we certainly exceeded our season long allotment of male nudity last week... nuff said
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I, and others, got our hand slapped last week, so your just gonna have to figure it out yourself... :P
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Xiphos, I think I encountered what you just experienced. I see BL Wiseass's comments before I posted, but now his show up after mine, and are time stamped after me. Maybe this is a way for the powers to try to keep the "firsters" from being quite as "annoying" ?
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Its a shame we're only getting two seasons of it
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Thirteen!!!! Indeed.
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Harry is married, but Yoko got in the way and split up all the people who worked on this website and now it's gone to shit. Moriarty has gone solo as a horror director -- he's just made "Texas Chainstore Massacre: The Real Beginning -- The Story Of Leatherface In The Womb" but I hear it's a bit corporate. Merrick stsrs on a TV sitcom called "Talkbacker" opposite Kathy Griffin, and Herc now controls a race of sub-humans that do his bidding from a secret lair in the Bahamas. A lair he shares with Joss Whedon.
Oh, and now years have passed, it's okay to want to sleep with Dakota Fanning. But she's still creepy. -
Vern still rules.
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Wayne Palmer is president. For real. Guy who plays him went into politics. Carrot Top is VP. Mad world.
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...I still haven't made anything of myself. Still wasting time on talkbacks. On the plus side -- the future has great drugs, And I'm on them ALL!
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Neither will Brutus or Sevillia.
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Even for those less knowledgable about history, that's been extremely obvious ever since politically-clever Octavian was introduced at the beginning of Series 1.
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... read a damn history book.
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they all die...
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THIRTEEEEEEN!!!
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Great episode, but why oh why replace Max Pirkis? The new actor seems like he's decent, but so far does not seem to command scenes the way Pirkis did in the role. They've fudged the historical timeline since Episode One, Season One so whatever illogic brought them to recast the role mid-season has served them poorly. It's really too bad.
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but i agree with the above,Pirkis left big shoes to fill.and i'm disappointed that Pirkis' last scene on the show had him all bruised up cause he got beaten like a ho from her pimp.
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I love the ending, especially after adding the opening theme song after killing the slave master.
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The new guy just didn't have it. He completely missed all of the little quirks and the physical characterization Pirkis brought to the role. They really should have just stayed with Pirkis.If you watch 1x12, and 2x01, there are scenes with Atia and Octavian set minutes apart on the day of Caesar's assassination. In 1x12, Pirkis is slightly taller than Polly Walker (Atia). In 2x01, he's nearly a foot taller than she is. He is noticeably taller and older. Would it have really killed them to just keep Pirkis?
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Seriously, it's the only reason I keep it now. Last year when I moved and signed up for cable I got three months of HBO free (the usual "bait") and caught Rome. I kept HBO just to keep watching this. When it ends I'm flushing that network like a smelly floater. Without Rome HBO is definitely a turd.
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I gotta join the chorus. Max Perkis' Octavian was pretty much my favorite character on the show. They should have just pumped him up with creatin or something. He's definately tall enough. I'm sure the new guy will do fine but It's kind of ass for them to have to recast when they obviously had a long enough haitus for Perkis to go through the growth spurt he did. Like I said, they should have just put it in his contract for him to hit the gym and gain 35-50 pounds. That's what Hollywood would have done. Stupid limeys.
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I'm SO GLAD they chose Simon Woods to play Octavian -- he's the perfect segue from the young to the somewhat older character. And his manner of speaking is as measured, logical and yes, cold as Pirkis's, which is wonderful. I love this show! And how heartwrenching was it when Pullo and Vorenus found Vorenus's children. Auuggh. And Pullo himself used to live in a slave camp. I swear, this series is one of the best ever made by HBO (and how annoyed am I that I won't get to see Octavian rule Rome in a third season? BOOOOOO!).
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Ok, yeah, I'll happily jump on the wagon with the rest of the people complaining about recasting Max Pirkis, but this garbage about HBO canceling the show after the second season and how they're cheating us is just that: garbage.This season will end with all of the "bad guys" dead. Brutus. Cassius. Cicero. Marc Antony. Cleopatra. Presumably Servilia (it doesn't make sense to have her live...if she lives, she'll still know her son is dead, I can't imagine she'll really be in the fight anymore). Cato, Scipio, Pompey, and Caesar are already dead. The only remotely historical figures that will be left at the end of this season are Octavian, Octavia, and Atia. Octavian will be the Emperor, Augustus Caesar, and the Pax Romana (The Roman Peace)--a time of great peace and prosperity for Rome--will be starting, and will last over _two hundred years_.There will be NO STORY LEFT TO TELL after this season ends.
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and he agrees... really a shame they let Pirkus go... i mean how much time could have passed? all the kids are the same... every other character looks like a week passed. and the new Octavian? bah... no screen presence and only looks a year or two older than Pirkus. Agrippa is too gawd awful young as well, he should probably be at least 10 years older than Octavian... show is turning into 9021ROME, or Starship Rome, or the Julios Girls... lol. but, i guess Vorenus's girl is a little older (wink, wink) and Timon has went soft. who would a thought Romans used the buttfuck for torture so much?
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Octavian (Augustus), Claudius, and the best: Caligulia!!!!
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Well, I think you could have gotten three solid seasons out of Rome, and I would guess that's what they were shooting for. Season 1 - Caesar's rise to his death, Season 2 - Antony's reign to Cicero's rule to the Second Triumverate and the destruction of Brutus, Season 3 - the downfall of the Second Triumverate and the death of Antony and Cleopatra. What's nonsensical is that HBO ditched Rome early and then signed on to do George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire". What? That's less expensive? Gadzooks. This has been a pretty miserable time for HBO. First they short change Deadwood its last season and now they put Rome into hurry-up mode to wrap everything up. It's made for some visceral episodes, but at the expense of pushing characters and plotlines over the cliff like at the end of the "300" trailer. And as for future stories, I suspect most people are wise enough to know any attempt on television at telling the tales of the first Roman Emperors would be hard-pressed to surpass the quality of "I, Claudius". That's really why I was looking forward to Rome's covering of this period. Between re-casting Ocatvian and cutting off the show's run early, Rome will unfortunately go down as a flawed, but still great work - like Deadwood and Babylon 5, when that show's uncertain future caused its last two seasons to be wildly uneven. Too bad.
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The new guy doesn't really look much older than Pirkis. I'm not slamming the new guy, but if they had to replace the actor, the new guy should look older, not just bigger.
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delicious sandwich
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I believe he was 15 when Caesar died and 18 when he returned as the new Caesar.
If HBO had the right people running things they'd keep this going for multiple seasons. I agree with DarthSidious, there are so many more stories to tell. I'd love to see a lengthy picture on Augustus (Octavian) Caesar and how he handled things though some of his contemporaries are pretty easily dismissed. HBO might be feeling some pressure from whoever has the elaborate Cleopatra biopic in the works. You'll recall the ACIN thread on that where dipshit after dipshit said she should be cast with someone like Beyonce or that Indian chick lol. -
Hey Darth, could you perhaps use something remotely approximating proper grammar and syntax? My eyes are bleeding. Thanks.
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People are making too big of a deal over the replacement of Octavian...there was no way they could continue with the old Octavian, maybe for another two or three episodes but that's it. This is because one supposes the show is running up until the point where Octavian/Agrippa beat Antony at Actium and ruling the Roman world. When this happened, Octavian and Agrippa were in their early thirties I believe. Max Pirkis was believeable as an 18 year old, maybe even a 21 year old, but not as a 30 year old.
There should've never been a third season to this show because if it was to ever get into Augustus and the drama of the caesar line, the show would go downhill. After Augustus took power there wasn't as much inner strife in Rome(Pax Romana) therefore there wasn't as much political intrigue that translates well into...drama. If there was a third season, just to keep it interesting it would have to deal with rome after Augustus and the eventual fall of Rome. We already know the stories of Caligula/Nero and there's really no new way to tell them. The next big issue that took place in Rome after that was the dawn/rise of Christianity and we know that story, too. Even if there was a third season there could _never_ be a fourth season that people would be willing to watch.
Fuck it, as a fan of anime I'm used to shows with short runs. Just sit back and enjoy it. Besides that, HBO doesn't run hour dramas for too long by nature...sure the Sopranos has had 7 seasons but it's taken almost ten years to release them and the Sopranos is probably the most popular hourlong drama of all time.
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that the slave master/owner/whatever's minutes were numbered when he uttered the "cunny" line. He got a beatdown that only a few people more badass than Chest Rockwell and Brock Landers could deliver. Titus Pullo (who you KNOW has spent MANY nights going after some Saturday Night Beaver) and Lucius Vorenus. In light of the great programming we get in this show, I'll forgo my usual signature, and just simply go with: THIRTEEN!!
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I agreed with one of the previous post saying that the new guy doesn't pull off a convincing Octavian, oh well still better than most shows.
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I like 24 and have seen them all, but it's not saying much to say that Rome is better. As much as I love it, 24 is just not a very good show. Rome is much better and quite frankly, Vorenus would kick Jack Bauer's ass to the curb. I watch all the geek shows that all the other talkbackers watch and although I would have put BSG at the top earlier in the season, I think Rome holds the top spot for me right now.
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I'll have to agree with you there, Maltheus. About Rome being better than BSG, that is. Personally, I think 24 is jingoistic crap. Anyway, I think BSG is brilliant and insightful programming, but the acting and dialogue are sometimes a bit off, and the show isn't as consistently as good as Rome is _every single week_ without fail. The Shield is the same way. The acting, dialogue, and plotting are consistently top notch. BSG just isn't quite as consistently great as those other two shows.It's interesting to note that BSG is a 20 episodes per season show, while Rome and The Shield are thirteen'ish episodes per season. BSG Season 1 was 13 episodes. That season is nearly on par, as far as consistency, as Rome and The Shield. It was still a bit off in places though, so, BSG has dropped a little in quality since going to the full length season format.
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"The only remotely historical figures that will be left at the end of this season are Octavian, Octavia, and Atia."
Although they haven't portrayed Atia remotely like the historical character, I'd expect them to keep her lifespan "true"; she won't be around at the end if get to at least Octavian as Consul. -
I hope that both these actors have long and successful careers! the scene where they find the children was truly moving. I'm getting rid of hbo as well when rome is over.
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Why did Octavian age so much, but Voreneus' wife's bastard son did not? Ah well, i still love the show.
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They wanted someone older so they get someone older, only smaller and gayer? I was fine with the original. Hope that guy gets some more work. He was awesome in this and should have gotten a fucking Oscar nom for Master and Commander.
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Saying there's nothing left to do once Octavian becomes Cesar Augustus is ridiculous. Had HBO taken the time to do this right (as has already been mentioned 3 seasons would have been about perfect) then the 4th season could have been done in a slightly later era. It would have been fascinating to do two seasons there and then moved on to Caligula and Claudius, then skip forward again to do later periods under other Emperors. New seasons in later eras provide them with the chance to introduce a new cast and avoid the inevitable demands for more money by actors in popular series. Plus they took the time and spent the money to build this ridiculously awesome 5 acre set and now they're just going to call it a day after two seasons? Stupid and wasteful.
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