I don’t watch a lot of television but once in awhile something grabs me. About 3 months ago I started renting the DVDs for HBO’s Rome from my local Blockbuster. I finished the last one recently. Rome is, essentially, a 20 hour miniseries following the rise and assassination of Caesar and the following power plays that led to the rise of Augustus. This is not a show to watch with kids or the faint of heart. There is blood, gore, nudity and sex. More than once, my wife asked me, “exactly what kind of movies are you renting Dave?”

I thought the acting was very good. Back in school I read the writings of Cicero and had a great deal of respect for him. The actor did such a good job of portraying him in a negative light that I’m going to have to re-read Cicero again. The production not only related the doings of great men but also the common people of the age. The DVDs have a feature where a historian will occasionally pop in a little text blurb to explain some historical fact related to the story that I found very interesting and educational.

Anyway, if you are comfortable with the very adult themes and content, you may want to give it a try.