3. ROME
A down-to-earth account of the lives of both illustrious and ordinary Romans set in the last days of the Roman Republic.
This show was just gorgeous to look at. the sets, the sction scenes, the costumes…all just top notch. But the biggest selling points of ROME were the acting and brilliant writing. From top to bottom the entire cast of this show was incredible and the storylines that were written for this show were just amazing. even the first season (which was basically Ceasar’s rise and fall) was insanely entertaining to watch despite knowing exactly where things were heading because of the performances by the cast. ROME also featured some of the most multi-faceted women in any show on TV. The bitter rivalry between Lindsay Duncan’s Sevillia and Polly Walker’s Atia was more compelling at times than anything that the men were up to. And this show also features one of my favorite TV bromances of all time in the Roman soldier odd couple of Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo. Played by Kevin McKidd and Ray Stevenson, Vorenus and Pullo could not be more different but they always had one another’s back and they provided both the shows humor, action and heart.
Favorite Episode: “The Spoils” (Season 1/Episode 11)
Ceasar is riding high completely unaware of the betrayal by Brutus (at the urging of his scorned mother Sevillia) and instead is looking in the direction of his staunchest supporter, Brutus, for signs of possible betrayal. To this end he plans to send Brutus away to govern in Macedonia and the exchange between Ceasar and Brutus is so full of emotion and James Purefoy is at his best as he displays the betrayal and disappointment he is feeling towards his “father”.
But the thing about this episode that really got me was the cementing of Pullo and Vorenus as brothers. By this point the two men were on divergent paths (Vorenus a politician/Pullo a hired thug), their friendship has hit a rough patch and Pullo is facing execution for murder. Watching how pitiful Pullo is as he is led into the arena to fight three gladiators is just heartbreaking and then when Vorenus jumps into the fray to save his friend I wanted to cheer. This episode was violent and bloody but also full of great character development and brilliant performances.
Crustula 
Those are my two favorite HBO shows too! I definitely need to see Rome still. That is one that I missed.
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Rome is great…I recommend it to everyone whenever I find out they haven’t seen it and the best part is that it is only two seasons so you can run through the whole awesome experience without having to take a huge chunk of time out of your life.
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Eastbound and Down is my #1-4 and #6.
Couldn’t agree more on The Sopranos. Everyone kept pointing to the Russian guy that escaped Paulie and Christopher in the Pine Barrens (home of the Jersey Devil!) as a dangling plot that was bound to come back and bite everyone in the ass, but nothing came of it. Instead, we got 2 or 3 seasons where the biggest stories were Johnny Sack’s fat wife and Ralphie killing a horse.
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Looking back on it there were so many unresolved dangling plot threads and just totally dropped potential storylines on the Sopranos. I think a lot of people look at the show with rose colored glasses and recall it as being much better than it actually was.
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