Sean Wolff

3.5 to 4 stars for me, honestly given the giant scope they tried to cover as well as some extreme visuals it's really not that surprising that there are some lower quality cgi and only a few higher list celebrity actors included, beyond that I felt the actors did a wonderful job for the most part conveying their emotions and drawing viewers into the tense dramatizations through the season. For the first season I honestly felt it more than met my expectations as I had some serious reservations going in. And no it's no Gladiator or Sparticus but while it obviously has some influence and themes frome the greats it definitely wasn't trying to be those films and was trying to make a name for itself. The diversity of the characters and storyline that it ties together is impressive and entertaining and definitely made me stick with it throughout the entire season when I had originally only intended to watch an episode or two before I imagined I'd grow tired of it. Low and behold I honestly didn't realize how invested in the story I became until I was at the last 2 episodes, only a few of the characters felt a little stiff and their motivations a little lacking. They might have simply over done the total number of main characters but the majority do well. Yes it is highly dramatized and certainly an R rated show but who actually cares, it's entertaining and still follows some parts of history. It's ridiculous to me what some of the 1 star reviews are complaining about, cleanliness? Really? Rome actually had some very high standards for such an ancient civilization. The highly sexualized nature of the series, are you kidding me? The romans were some of the most promiscuous and free thinking civilizations maybe only less so than the ancient Greeks, don't place your stunted and confused idolizations on them because they certainly weren't very prudish. Historically they had huge orgies and legalized and protected prostitution of both sexes that decreased the spread of diseases surprisingly well. Did the show need to show quite so much sexualized content, maybe not, it honestly might have been a bit distracting at times and it's definitely not a show I'd watch with my mom but it's still historically accurate as far as it goes. If it offends you then don't watch or maybe try opening your mind to the truth especially concerning the discrepancies of ancient cultures and the ones we have today. Other ridiculous complaints I saw in the negative comments I saw were directed at the actors and main characters of color and the general diversity of nationalities portrayed in Rome, I don't know if it was simply racism pouring from their mouths or what but you'd best believe Rome was the biggest melting pot of cultures there is likely as much as the most diverse places today if not more. The empire at its hight stretched across the entire Mediterranean and beyond and facilitated vast trade networks, blending of cultures and professions, it attracted numerous mercenaries and traders from cultures even outside of the empire. Rome was at the heart and the main seat of power for the majority of the empire, it would have seen all manners of characters passing through or setting up lives there.

Watched every episode hoping for it to redeem itself, the only good parts were the occasional action fights, dialog and story writing was lack luster and disappointing, could have been good, I liked their willingness to expand into the lesser covered star wars lore and stuff even holding the jedi as less untaintable was a cool idea. But as a whole the show missed the ball.