I've missed the last three episodes of Rome, but decided to watch last night's final episode anyway - it was either that or wait months for the series 2 DVD to come down to an affordable price.
And it did not disappoint, although it wasn't nearly as bloody as the last episode of the first series. Still, two suicides wasn't bad going. Mark Antony's fall from grace was suitably vertiginous - from bombastic, arrogant leader to drugged up laughing stock, holed up in Cleo's palace surrounded by Octavian's forces and realising the game was up. And even though you knew what was coming, it was still a shocking jolt when Vorenus removed the sword from Antony's gut and blood gushed out all over the floor.
Has Rome been James Purefoy's Hollywood calling card? Simon Woods' Octavian returned from Egypt to a triumphant enthronement in Rome. But not unlike Al Pacino's Micheal Corleone by the end of the second Godfather film, his final complete political and military victory was achieved at the cost of alienating all those close to him. Octavian's mother, Polly Walker's marvellous Atia , finally had the considerable stuffing knocked out of her by the end. Sitting beside her son in his moment of public triumph, heartbroken Atia's eyes followed her former lover Antony's corpse as it was paraded in front of the baying Roman crowd, nailed to a post on a wagon.
And finally, the one hopeful strand in an otherwise fairly depressing conclusion to the series. The bluff and brutal Titus Pullo wandering off into the closing credits, reunited with his son by Cleo. Aw, bless. Overall I think Rome, dismissed early on as tosh by many critics, has been rollocking good fun.
Lots of blood and guts, heaps of shagging, and two series packed with plotting, scheming and back stabbing - sometimes quite literally. Makes you wonder why TV producers don't turn more often to ancient Rome - the opportunities for soapy melodrama, with great dollops of violence, is immense. This article is more than 17 years old. Last night's final episode of the second series of Rome contained few surprises - but still brought this rollocking drama to a fitting conclusion.
