Those About To Die (Prime) is the latest production about Ancient Rome and no cliche is left out of the narrative. There’s lowly slaves and their rich masters, hunky gladiators duelling with wild animals, and chariot racing now being done with CGI.
No sword and sandals epic would be complete without a power struggle at the top. In this one, it’s Emperor Vespasian (Sir Anthony Hopkins) who has to decide which one of his two sons will succeed him, but let’s be clear – this family drama is not the new Succession.
These historical events are being covered on film for the first time. However, the era of the Flavian dynasty was first explored in Gold for the Caesars (1963), a movie that Aussie actor Ron Randell (who played Charles Kingsford Smith in 1946’s Smithy) described as being: “sheer murder, it’s a miracle nobody was killed”.
Welsh actor Iwan Rheon stars in Those About to Die
The first film about Ancient Rome was France’s Cleopatre in 1899. Since then, there have been never-ending movies and series about Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Caligula and Nero, not to mention all those Biblical epics with Jesus, and the Mount Vesuvius eruption that buried Pompeii.
One of the more successful ones was I, Claudius (1976) . Despite being made on the cheap and filmed on video, the BBC series starring Derek Jacobi is now considered one of the greatest British series of all time. It is also considered the inspiration for dramas like Dynasty (1981), The Sopranos (1999) and House Of Cards (1990, Netflix remake in 2013).
Rome (Binge) was once the most expensive co-production in the history of the BBC, but the US$110 million HBO series only lasted two seasons. Hilariously, the silly sitcom Plebs (Binge), described as being a cross between Up Pompeii (1969) and The In-Betweeners (2008), lasted six seasons from 2013 to 2022.
Research shows that Rome history skews towards men, and Those About To Die is very much a show for the male gaze. That becomes obvious when naked gladiators flashing their butts suddenly become very coy and cover up if they turn around. By comparison, the two naked women sleeping with one covered-up man are required to go full frontal nude.
It soon becomes very clear that Those About To Die is desperate to avoid being homoerotic in any way, even though such moments were played up in Spartacus (Stan). A sequel series, Spartacus: House Of Ashur, is now being filmed in New Zealand and I can’t wait to see how much more revealing it will be, because Those About To Die is dire.
This week on the TV Gold podcast:
Those About to Die (Prime), Lady of the Lake (AppleTV+)
This week Andrew Mercado and James Manning review these two big budget new dramas plus also talk about Brats on Disney+ and the AppleTV+ series Omnivore, executive-produced by Sydneysider Ben Liebmann.
Listen online here, or on your favourite podcast platform.
Read more Mercado on TV columns here.