Rome is Back

The first three episodes of the second, and final, season of the HBO series Rome have been aired and I’m finding the series interesting but decidedly mediocre. I don’t even bother to watch the shows when they premier, I catch them a day or two later on HBO On Demand.

I guess they’ve decided to skip the whole Antony marries Octavia bit as too complicated and leave Antony hooked up with Atia; unless of course that poisoner Servilia hired to get Atia manages to succeed. We’ll find out next week. In the meantime Antony has left Rome for Gaul after Cicero done him wrong in the senate, Octavian has hooked up with school chum Agrippa in Campania, where they have apparently raised a nice little army, and Brutus and Cassius are looking for financial support in the far reaches of the empire. Oh yeah, and Cleopatra has turned up in Rome. I’ve also learned that the role of Octavian is to be recast bringing in an older actor to play the grown up Octavian.

On the domestic front, Orestes Fulman has, apparently, kidnapped and sold Vorenus’s daughters, and Niobe’s sister Lyde, into slavery. Voranus and Pullo, after depopulating Fulman’s gang of thugs, cut off the man’s head but were first convinced that the girls, and Niobe’s son, were dead. Then, at the insistence of Antony, Vorenus sort of took over the Aventine as a kind of deranged godfather type. Unfortunately, at the moment, Vorenus is in Gaul with Antony and his criminal empire appears to be coming apart. Vorenus and Pullo have also had a falling out and Pullo was wandering with Eirene when Lyde, who escaped from the slavers, shows up. At the end of episode three Pullo is riding hard, I assume to let Vorenus know that his daughters are alive. Another side plot seems to be developing with Timon. His brother, who sounds like a 1st century BCE version of a Zealot, has shown up and is acting in a decidedly suspicious manner. Whew.

Now I’m up to date and we shall see what develops.