NOTIFICATION: Rome Season 1

Next season to start will be:

Rome
Season 1
Initial run: 28/08/2005 - 20/11/2005

Starring:

	Kevin McKidd	as	Lucius Vorenus
	Ray Stevenson	as	Titus Pullo
	Polly Walker	as	Atia of the Julii
	Kenneth Cranham	as	Pompey Magnus
	Lindsay Duncan	as	Servilia of the Junii
	Tobias Menzies	as	Marcus Junius Brutus
	Kerry Condon	as	Octavia of the Julii
	Karl Johnson	as	Porcius Cato
	Indira Varma	as	Niobe of the Voreni
	David Bamber	as	Marcus Tullius Cicero
	Max Pirkis	as	Gaius Octavian
	Lee Boardman	as	Timon
	Nicholas Woodeson	as	Posca
	Chiara Mastalli	as	Eirene
with	James Purefoy	as	Mark Antony
and	Ciarán Hinds	as	Julius Caesar

Pre-season buzz (quotes):

• "[Pullo and Vorenus] are the only two ordinary soldiers mentioned by Caesar in his book, so the idea was to do a sort of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern take. I essentially took the seed of that idea to try to tell a big, historical epic, but from the street level, the everyman’s point of view." - Bruno Heller, quoted in an AP wire
• "It’s a wonderful device to be able to show the huge events in history this way. Sometimes it is the man in the street who drops the stone that causes the ripple, which upsets the empire. I’m sure it’s happening today as we speak." - Ray Stevenson, quoted in an AP wire
• "[Rome] is an ingenious amalgam of hard-core history and yummy soap opera, with lots of violence and sex. [...] The series opens with Julius Caesar fighting in Gaul and plotting his return to Rome. Caesar is a man of the people, which scares the pants off the political establishment (who, come to think of it, don't actually wear pants). The most threatened of all is Pompey, a rival who happens to be married to Caesar's only daughter, who soon dies in childbirth, leaving him without an heir. You really can't make this stuff up!" - Newsweek
• "Rome is not afraid to overdo it. There are clashing swords, flashing robes, and humming markets. There's a bounty of flesh: screwing, bathing, bouncing, writhing. And there's a load of exposition, so much that Rome sometimes feels like it was written by a particularly awful color commentator who won't shut up and let us enjoy the game. Odd, since the premise of HBO's 12-part series is pretty simple: It is 52 B.C. Gaius Julius Caesar (Ciarán Hinds), beloved after his eight-year war in Gaul, is back to challenge Senate leader Pompey Magnus (Kenneth Cranham) for control of Rome. Meanwhile, two of Caesar's soldiers, roguish Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson) and surly family man Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd), have returned home to basically provide reg'lar-guy story lines for those of us who are scared of history." - Entertainment Weekly
• "Romans didn’t have our body shame and fear of sexuality. I think that is part of the modern fascination with that world ... there was a lack of shame about those things, that we had to portray with a lack of shame in order to make it work." - Bruno Heller, quoted in an AP wire
• "Like the city, “Rome” certainly wasn’t built in a day. The idea was first put into development in 1998 and the first scripts were written three years later. Pre-production started in 2003 and took six months. With a budget of $100 million, the first 12 episodes were shot in about 14 months with a crew of 350 in and around Rome, where five acres of standing sets, including a re-creation of the Forum, were constructed on the backlot of Cinecitta Studios. There was considerable re-shooting on the first three episodes to incorporate all the detail and historical accuracy HBO felt necessary. More than 4,000 costumes were made using materials authentic to the period." - AP
• "Sunday, HBO premieres its big fall production, 'Rome,' a 12-part, $100 million costume soap opera set in the year 52 B.C. Expensive it is. Bloody and sexy it is. Heavily promoted it is. Gripping it is not. All it has in common with 'The Sopranos' is that the characters are Italian." - San Diego Union-Tribune

Pre-season buzz (statistical):

• Episodes of this programme are named, including the pilot.
• The season premiere is titled "The Stolen Eagle". It is known to take place in 52 BC.
• The season finale is titled "Kalends Of February". There are 12 episodes total in this season. It spans a total of 8 years and the season finale takes place in 44 BC.
• There is no distinction made in the credits between main cast and guest cast. Therefore the list above is compiled from various sources.
• This is the first new show I have started since "Twin Peaks" back in the first half of 2008, and therefore both the first new show I have started this year and the first new show I will be reviewing. As usual, after the first 5 episodes I'll take a decision as to whether to go on with it or not.