![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
TV nattering
Sep. 29th, 2005 09:03 amDid we learn _anything_ on Lost last night? No, no we did not. Grrrr. I still think the use of that song is the funniest shit ever though.
And now a little bit about Rome. I _love_ this show. And I love the casting. Because everyone is exactly right, despite the fact they often shouldn't be (there are so many things wrong with how they cast Caeser on the surface and yet... and yet... this actor can do no wrong for me, and while not a handsome man I can't stop looking at him).
I suppose though, what's most interesting to me about it is that while some of the characters in the show may be likable, and some we may understand to be heroes through history, absolutely none of them behaves in ways that we (a modern audience, and particularly a modern American audience) would consider heroic or moral or often even explicable. More than that though, I am rivetted by the portrayal we get of Caesar's ambition, because it's the first thing I've ever seen where I feel like the portrayal of the ambition is both honest and yet makes me question my own. The most recent episode wins for showing us its version of the whole "to be a ring bearer is to be alone" thing (to mix entertainment references in a really wack way). The parallels between how Caesar leaves Servilia in Rome (and her reaction to it) and how he leaves Mark Antony in Rome (and his reaction to it) are just lovely. You're never in doubt as to what the nature of those very different relationships are, nor are you in doubt to the fact that Caesar views them both as disposable simply because he must, because it is the test he enjoys setting for himself, because all else about it is bitterness. Also, man, is Mark Antony obnoxious or what? Most of the time I feel like we're getting funny,b ut throwaway writing on that character, which I think is a strategy, because then he'll do something very abruptly, and one is reminded this brat is also a very dangerous man.
And now a little bit about Rome. I _love_ this show. And I love the casting. Because everyone is exactly right, despite the fact they often shouldn't be (there are so many things wrong with how they cast Caeser on the surface and yet... and yet... this actor can do no wrong for me, and while not a handsome man I can't stop looking at him).
I suppose though, what's most interesting to me about it is that while some of the characters in the show may be likable, and some we may understand to be heroes through history, absolutely none of them behaves in ways that we (a modern audience, and particularly a modern American audience) would consider heroic or moral or often even explicable. More than that though, I am rivetted by the portrayal we get of Caesar's ambition, because it's the first thing I've ever seen where I feel like the portrayal of the ambition is both honest and yet makes me question my own. The most recent episode wins for showing us its version of the whole "to be a ring bearer is to be alone" thing (to mix entertainment references in a really wack way). The parallels between how Caesar leaves Servilia in Rome (and her reaction to it) and how he leaves Mark Antony in Rome (and his reaction to it) are just lovely. You're never in doubt as to what the nature of those very different relationships are, nor are you in doubt to the fact that Caesar views them both as disposable simply because he must, because it is the test he enjoys setting for himself, because all else about it is bitterness. Also, man, is Mark Antony obnoxious or what? Most of the time I feel like we're getting funny,b ut throwaway writing on that character, which I think is a strategy, because then he'll do something very abruptly, and one is reminded this brat is also a very dangerous man.
