Recommended: Rome

This DVD came out a few weeks ago, and because I was lucky enough to have nothing better to do (ankle, remember?) than lie around on the couch, I was able to watch the entire season in a 24 hour period. While it's not quite as good as Deadwood because it's a bit too constrained by actual events, it's definitely worth watching. The Caesar stuff is fascinating, of course, and the interpretation of Brutus is different from anything I've ever seen before (and MUCH more interesting), and the two female leads are wonderfully vicious, but the best parts are (a) Octavian--who is played by the brilliant young Max Pirkis, and (b) the two Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-ish characters of Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo.

I call them Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-ish not because they are ridiculous and pathetic (they are not), but because they play a central role in EVERYTHING (good and bad) that happens to Caesar. They are instrumental in winning the war againts the Gauls, they strike the first blow in the battle with Pompey, they are the ones to find the treasury gold, they find Cleopatra, etc etc etc. If I liked Forrest Gump I would say they are Gump-like as well, but since that movie is absolute crap, I'll just say that they are two wonderfully interesting characters who find themselves living inside giant historical events. Lucius Vorenus is the serious boy scout, and Titus Pullo is the unsophisticated thug, and their story is the real story of Rome.