I was just reading reviews of this show from only about a few years ago on Reddit just now and many comments were stating how much they thought there was such a striking similarity between this show and "Game of Thrones," almost like this was setting the stage for "Game of Thrones" since it debuted on HBO a good 6 years beforehand. And I definitely can see that. It's got a lot of the same elements. The sex, the violence, the atmosphere, the world building, it's all on another level. Very cinematic, very high quality. In fact, this was pretty much its downfall. It's production costs were reportedly extremely high at a time when HBO shows were competing with broadcast network productions that were scaling back costs by embracing reality TV like for instance, at the time, NBC's hit show "The Apprentice." "Rome" was slated to go five seasons but only lasted two. It's ratings were decent, but it didn't have the time to gain traction like "Game of Thrones" would be able to in a few more years. In fact I read that HBO executives made the hasty decision to cancel it even before the DVD sale numbers had come in which was too bad because had they waited they would have found out that those numbers were Bank.
One of the things that caught me a little off guard though as I was watching it this afternoon was it severe attention to the realism of what is perceived to be historical accuracy in portraying the attitudes and moralities of the day. Unlike a lot of historical dramas produced in our times, this production isn't tailored to modern sensibilities. The slaves in "Rome" are not treated deferentially by the good guy characters and nastily by the bad guy characters, they're treated indifferently or badly by everyone. Rape isn't done only by bad people, it's done by good guys too and sometimes it's implied it's encouraged by the victims family and loved ones. Cold-blooded killing is a ho-hum affair. Bad guys do it and good guys too, sometimes in the middle of picking some delicious looking peaches. All of this indifference to depravity was actually getting to me. I mean, it's one thing to read about how shit was back in the day. We know, it was a brutal time, but man, it's another thing to see it. I had to click off on my remote and take a break. Oh I'll go back to it, I'm only halfway through the second season and I need to finish it. But when seeing the absolute vile inhumanity and evil of everyday life in Westeros on "Game of Thrones" got a little gruesome for the old eyeballs, one could easily say, "Well, it's just fantasy, it's not a real world." With this show, it's a depiction of how life was, on this world, in our reality, and when you think of it, not really that long ago in relative terms, especially when you think of the way we still treat each other as human beings today. It's a little harder to shrug off.
