Rome

[rm]

I'm a little breathless and so sad and it was just what I needed.



I was s moved by Cicero's death.

And by Brutus'. Brutus in particular, this Brutus, has really plagued me emotionally throughout the show. I know most everyone is on about how he's weak and a coward, but what strikes me about this portrayal of him over and over again until his very last moment is his naivete. He hasn't the tools for his place in the world, for his life, for even his passions. And I feel bad for him. I do. Deeply.

Meanwhile oh chilly little Octavian and Antony trying to deal with each other. Especially that business wehere they are making up lists of people to kill. Aie. I miss Max Pirkis, but this new Octavian is damn eerie and odd too.

Comments

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Tobias Menzies, teh guy who plays Brutus, sort of always comes at things with an odd vulnerability. His characterizations could easily be effiminate, and yet that's not where the vulnerability, and I'd even say fragility, goes. I think I admire him so much as an actor, because I watch him and feel like he understands exactly why his appearance conveys and acquiesces to it in what he delivers. That's fucking hard. He did Hamlet on stage in Lond, and I'm not big fan of the play, but oh, I am curious and wish I had seen it.

And James Purefoy. he is doing _amazing_ shit with Antony. to play a crass genius (and Antony is a genius) is hard enough, but to reduce even the most complex politics to sex or food -- it's all desire and to show complex behavior driven by simple impulses so clearly.... amazing. Amazing amazing.

I think the acting this season is even better than last season.

Oh, also, back to brutus -- his death -- I lvoed it because he seemed both terrified of it and eager for it. He was so clearly asking soldiers he didn't know to help him to it in no kind way. fucking brilliant direction.