Colosseum

Gave up after 30 mins of episode 1. The endless droning of a selection of boring talking heads, sorry 'academics', tediously intercut every minute with 'action sequences' was too much. Basically daytime TV crud. The only thing missing were adverts evert 10 mins for funeral services, stair lifts, online gambling and teeth whitening. I assume the endless emphasis on gore, mutilation and death was for the American audience, who like that sort of thing. No brain needed to watch this. A real shame as 8 episodes is enough to go into detail on an internationally fascinating subject. The facts are all there it's just horrendously badly scripted, presented and edited. Go read a book on it.

I just happened to notice the first episode in the channel guide and decided to give it a chance since it was a topic that's usually interesting. So I used my DVR to grab all the episodes and then I forgot about it.

When I got around to watching the first episode, I was stunned by the quality of this production. I learned things in each of the episodes that I did not know. And I thought I had a pretty knowledge of the subject.

They hit the ground running with the first episode "The Gladiators". This first episode was full of information that is not widely known about these men and the lives they lived. After this first episode I was hooked. I watched all the rest in quick succession. And none of the rest of the episodes were a let down. All in all it's a very compelling production. If you have any interest in history, and especially the Roman Empire and specifically the Colosseum. This is a great show to grab. I can't recommend it highly enough.

This programme goes much deeper into the origins and history of the Colosseum than any other that I've seen about it.

The details of the construction are mind-boggling and the skill of the master builder behind it is remarkable. The programme also does a good job of placing the construction project in the timeline of the Roman imperial Flavian dynasty.

The dramatic scenes are well done too, with some good acting performances and effective special effects.

You'll certainly have a much better understanding of how the Colosseum was built and it's place in the reigns of Vespasian, Titus, Domitian and other emperors who followed them.

Occasionally interrupted by an interesting series. Each episode might be less than 30 minutes per hour. First and last thing I'll ever plod through on The History Channel.

Colosseum

Overall we learnt quite a bit, but it was quite a mixed bag of generalisms and grandstanding by several historians who went way beyond the history. All emperors had access to use the Colosseum to advance there standing with the people of Rome, not true, the Colosseum typified Rome not true, circus Maximus was the main draw in Rome. Gladiators were trained slaves not wholly true many freedmen to fame and wealth and chose to be gladiators. The Colosseum was how slaves became freedmen, not true Romans free thousands of people each year and even married them.

Several episodes dragged terribly and just kept repeating the same stuff, the worst one was the Martyr.

Overall I liked it but the historians irritated, one man moved his hands matching every syllable, this is like a text message in capitals it shouts at you. For me this is a 6 outta 10, it could have been great but turned out pedestrian.