This recreation of Ancient Rome shows that although the Romans could hold a horserace on steroids, and put on a show that makes "WrestleMania" look like kids playing in a pre-school sand pit, a decent lighting grid was beyond them. This thing is so dark; half of it seems in silhouette. There were a couple of episodes where I wasn't sure who was doing what to whom.
Accurate I suppose, but other shows about the ancients have got around it without us wondering how they received a visit from Thomas Edison. My favourite sword and sandals series HBO's "Rome" didn't seem that dark. Admittedly it makes the brightness of the chariot racing and arena scenes stand out.
Director Roland Emmerich said he was inspired to make the series after reading Daniel P. Mannix's history of the games. I read that book years ago; it was a pretty sensational read detailing the happenings in the arena and the Circus Maximus over many centuries. The filmmakers couldn't follow that format or it would have ended up a docu-drama like The History Channel's tedious "Coliseum". Instead they borrowed the format of HBO's "Rome" where we dive into a specific time. "Those About To Die" takes place around 80 AD and features the reign of Emperor Vespasian and his sons Titus and Domitian. The series depicts the lives of the elites contrasted against Ancient Rome's great unwashed.
Anthony Hopkins as Vespasian joins those esteemed British actors deep into their careers that have donned the imperial purple to play Rome's greatest emperors on the cusp of divinity; he gives the series a lift.
Despite the mood lighting, the series has strong stories and a literate script. Although eight episodes would have tightened it, and we get far too much of Scorpus the charioteer, the series becomes compelling, gripping even, as we head towards the end.
We cut between the intrigues of the royal court in the marble-floored palaces and the story of Numidian Cala (Sara Martens) down in the mean alleyways of Rome attempting to rescue her daughters from slavery and her son from the arena. Through her changing relationship with Tenax (Iwon Rheon), an ancient version of crime boss and big-time bookie, we are taken behind the scenes of the chariot racing, and later the sick fun of the Roman Games.
I think the CGI is used well. The recreation of the Circus Max and the Coliseum are impressive, and don't worry too much about the sex scenes, most of them are so gloomy they seem like they were shot in a disused train tunnel.
Roland Emmerich and the filmmakers did what author Daniel P. Mannix did in the book; where the ancient texts didn't deliver enough gasps, they took a somewhat sadistic guess.
Like HBO's "Rome" this series gives an idea of the life of the ancient Romans, living in an empire that through movies and television seems more like an alternate universe than ancient history.
