The Redemption Of Lucius Vorenus

[ewx]

CSI Miami started a new series with what was obviously meant to be a bang as Horatio Caine and Eric Delko headed off to Brazil for revenge. The episode was not exactly packed with surprises though and was disjointed and at times silly. For Caine not to have kept up with his exiled loved ones, to the extent revealed by the surprises in store for him, did not really seem plausible.

If anything this episode and the earlier season finale that led into it felt more like a clearing of the backplot decks, rather than a coherently planned conclusion to the various threads involved.

CSI New York finished up its latest series rather better, managing some genuine surprises, although they were more of the “he wouldn't really” variety. More tightly scripted than its Floridan counterpart I think it still suffered from the use of a Die Hard plot rather than a CSI plot.

Rome on the other hand I have much less to complain about. The real highlights were Anthony's end and Octavian's confrontation with Cleopatra (I particularly enjoyed Maecenas's assessment), though the fight towards the end was a welcome remind of what Pullo was all about. I'd been expecting Vorenus and Pullo to end up on opposite sides at Actium so it was good to see them fighting back to back.

A couple of people have mentioned Heroes to me now; the first I somehow ended up thinking that they were referring to something that had already started, but in fact it starts tomorrow, and looks worth a go.

Comments

[cjwatson]

Heroes has been running on Sky for some time, which is probably why you got the impression that it had already started.

Heroes

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Likewise. I just saw a trailer and it looked very promising.

Besides, Sonic and Mobbsy *agreed* it was exciting. It *must* be good :)

[nunfetishist.livejournal.com]

Heroes is excellent. I wholeheartedly recommend it. It starts off a little weak, but rapidly becomes superb. There are bags of amusing geek references, too.

[gareth-rees.livejournal.com]

I have been half impressed and half annoyed by Rome. Some of the scenes are very well done — Octavian and Cleopatra as you say, also the proscriptions, and Antony's violent character — but some things are just plain wrong. For example, Octavian being cowardly at Philippi. I just don't believe it of a man who had plenty of previous military experience and had impressed Julius Caesar with his bravery and resourcefulness. The depiction of Antony in Egypt is straight out of Octavian's propaganda and I don't believe it for a moment. It would have been more dramatic to show us a gap between the character assassination back in Rome and the actual events in Alexandria.

There were other missed opportunities. Where was Octavian's first wife Clodia Pulchra? And where was her mother Fulvia, who was married to Mark Antony and who raised eight legions and fought a war against Octavian? The real story of Clodia and Fulvia in my opinion beats the made up soap opera plots involving Atia and Servilia. (Octavian never consummated his marriage with Clodia, perhaps one factor in her mother's enmity to him.)

An interesting attempt, but no I, Claudius.

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

The k3w1 d00dz here watched Heroes when it was on Sky.
So we're going to give it a go now it's on terrestrial.

[uisgebeatha.livejournal.com]

We haven't seen Heroes yet either; we can only afford Freeview round these parts. :(

I thought Miami was certainly big on the cliffhangery moments and nice scenery, but I agree it was a bit on the disjointed side. And having previously not been keen on New York, I'm starting to warm to it- it has a grittier side to it which I like. And Mac is more threatening than Horatio taking his shades off. ;)

Oh, and Rome was great. I liked the bratty Cleopatra and the creepiness of Octavian. I'm sure I've seen the actor in something else, but I can't put my finger on it...