This is a weird question I know but I've been watching the box set of I, Claudius lately and I am honestly amazed by how well developed the characters come across. Which is amazing considering what Robert Graves was working from; the writings of Suetonius who wrote a heavily-biased 'history' of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty so as to prop up their successors, the Flavians, and so deliberately filled the reins of Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius with ludicrous scandals, most of which discredited today. But you'd never know that from I, Claudius. Suetonius may have, in a sense, written these characters. But Robert Graves made me care about them. The good and the bad, I felt for each and every one.
And that's something I have, sadly, never found in the traditional Romance of the Three Kingdoms. And it's not just a bias thing.
I just don't like the way the Romance is written. No matter who was the villain or who was the hero, it's a matter of style. Reading chapter after chapter, I didn't really distinguish Cao Cao from Liu Bei or know why I was supposed to be on one side or the other because the book didn't get me to care. These characters didn't feel real to me. And what doesn't feel real, you can't relate to. That's not to say you have to write every character as realistically as possible, far from it. Fiction is based on immersion. But the Romance simply doesn't immerse, at least I never felt like it did.
I know I shouldn't be harsh. It's hundreds of years old and translated multiple times. Literature and society have moved on since then. But that's why I'm interested in modern adaptations that go the extra mile in that regard. Admittedly, I've never seen the original Romance of the Three Kingdoms TV series but I've seen some of Three Kingdoms 2010. It's...sort of as close as I've seen to I, Claudius level in that the characters are much more well-developed but even then it's the same problems. One of the biggest is way too focus on some characters means not enough to go around so when new characters are introduced or shown up, you know they're either going to die or fail or both. And yeah, there are lots of characters in the Romance, one needs to prioritise, but not every background character needs to be a bowling pin for a main character to smash to everyone's awe.
What I'm basically asking, is does anyone know if there's anything that takes the form of a sort of first-person look through the Three Kingdoms? Or close to that, at least, POV sort of t
... keep reading on reddit β‘I'm amazed at how well I, Claudius has held up over time. When I first watched it, I was a kid, barely 15 years old. It left a lasting impression upon me. I learned that even a ruling family had its drama, enough to fill a soap opera! More importantly, it gave me my first glimpse of impeccable acting. Oh, sure...I had grown up watching many movies and fabulous TV series that has fine actors, but this was the cream of the crop of British actors.
Derek Jacobi simply blew me away as Claudius, Brian Blessed and Sian Phillips were spectacular as Augustus and Livia, and John Hurt positively killed me as Caligula. These actors had me sitting at the edge of my sofa, amazed, saddened, horrified, and completely engaged.
From this series, I was able to follow both Derek Jacobi and John Hurt in their life-long and fascinating careers. It made me a connosure of great acting, and I thirst for and seek out such acting to this day.
I highly recommend it. The CD boxed set is cheap, selling for as little as $13 on eBay, or $19.99 to purchase and download off Amazon.
Btw: I just noticed a non-speaking part in the second scene of the first episode...played by none other than Gabriel Byrne. My eyes nearly fell out of my head. How could I have missed him?! He is seated (reclining) next to Livia in the party scene. I must pay more attention to non-speaking actors' roles in it from now on. One never knows what other actors may be peppered in the background!
Do try it.
Hi there!
I was watching Spartacus on Netflix, it is a four part series on the Third Servile War and the life of Spartacus and his commanders.
I did enjoy the show, though not as much as Rome or I, Claudius, which admittedly is an unfavourable comparison for any show.
The show rivals Game of Thrones in violence (which is understandable) but what bothered me more was the insane amount of seemingly pointless sex scenes. It felt like 30% of the screentime was people having sex.
Also, the inclusion of Julius CΓ¦sar as a commander under Crassus felt odd and I didnβt like his character. But does anyone know what CΓ¦sar was doing during Spartacusβs revolt? If he was actually there that wouldnβt bother me as much, but I donβt think he was.
Has anyone here watched it? What did you think, in terms of entertainment, setting and historical accuracy?
English isn't my native language (not even my second language).But I do love to watch british series in english and if available with subtitles(not often the case somehow). Imagine my confusion when a unrelated looking 30 year old calls the older women character Mom. Because it didn't happen to often on my viewings (maybe Ma'am isn't that common) I was confused but I put it always aside as me being not attentive enough. Only with the magic of subtitles was I able to understand how much of an moron I was.
He was tired of being pushed around
Implied here is β¦ no episodic series (eg Law And Order)
We enjoy Drama Crime, Nordic Noir, etc.
No SciFi or Fantasy Dramas
Subtitles are perfectly fine
Thanks
Episodes 1-5 had me totally stoked. I was really excited that my favorite fantasy series was getting a decent adaptation. And then what the !@#$ happened those last three episodes? The series took a serious turn from decent adaptation to train-wreck. My main gripe was this whole "we'll take you all to the Eye to fight the Dark One and whoever isn't the Dragon is gonna die" with all the main characters being like, yeah alright that sounds fine to me. What justifies this? They had one Trolloc encounter and were all willing to throw their lives away for a Dragon that had zero prep/channeling experience? What the ever loving... Not to mention the travesty of whatever they did to Lord Agelmar/Loial/Moiraine stilling... come on. The sa'angreal ISN'T EVEN FAT.
Anyways. I might read EotW again just to reset my brain... So annoying because the justification for going to the Eye in the books, Rand's encounter at the Gap and everything else would have made so much more sense for the show to simply implement. :(
So my brother tonight is sitting down to watch Star Wars IV with his son for the first time and we were talking about shows that we wish we could see again for the first time.
So I ask you, what is the one TV series you wish you could rewatch but with fresh eyes for the first time?
Dear fellow Folio Society collectors and appreciators:
If youβve been spending time this past handful of years shopping for Folio Society books second-hand, youβve undoubtedly come across editions by author/translator/poet Robert Graves. Perhaps youβve even seen I, Claudius in book lots, collections, or online sales listings.
If youβve ever been curious about that particular edition, or even if youβve read and loved the book before, I invite you to check out the YouTube video I posted today, where I go for a deep-dive between the covers and review the content.
As always, I welcome any feedback on this little project as I endeavour to improve with each attempt, and I thank you so very much for your time and attention.
Something similar to Peaky Blinders, Hannibal or Breaking Bad would be ideal.
Edit: Thanks for the responses. After much careful consideration I have decided to go with The Wire
That's it. That's the plot. His cookies were pretty delicious apparently.
I don't know if this question has been asked before but I will ask it anyway. What movie do you think would have been better suited as a TV Series?
Some films try to cram wayyyyy too much into too little and feel overstuffed as a result, personally, I think the recent Matt Damon film Stillwater would have been better as a crime miniseries since there was just too much put into the film it felt overstuffed and questions were left unanswered
What films would you say?
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