The Empire, part 4
But first, I forgot to mention my Olympic moment tonight! On my way back from the lecture, I took the Metro. I had to change lines, and as I was coming up the escalator from one line, the train I wanted to catch was already there and making the "ding-dong" noise it makes when it's ABOUT TO LEAVE. So I went charging at the doorway in my skirt and sandles and literally LEAPT onto the train just before the doors closed. Yeah, I'm smooth. ;-) It was totally Olympic gold, though! I even got amused smirks from other passengers!
Anyway, since we've already established that the writers of The Empire don't actually know any of their history (and, for some reason, this episode really had me cringing over the way Roman religion was dealt with), I'm not going to pick too much on that. However, they had me raging within TEN MINUTES of the opening! Tyrannus discovers that his boy is with a nobleman by the name of Marius. He goes to fetch the boy, and Marius tells him that if Tyrannus' son stays with him, he will have tutors.
And guess what? These tutors won't just teach him reading and writing and Greek... nooo, they'll teach him...
wait for it...
LATIN!
[insert stunned silence]
Yes, because a Roman boy doesn't already speak Latin. I mean, do the writers have any concept of... well, anything?? Do they have brain cells? Do they think that common Romans spoke something else? Like what? Maybe they think they all spoke English! I mean, I really didn't think that's what Marius meant when he said that Tyrannus' boy was "special."
And I'm so serious; it really looks like they're trying to steal all the scenes and character motivation from Gladiator--right down to the delusions of his wife and blabber about meeting each other again in Elyseum (he finds out she died). Except, guess what? They don't even do it as well.
Ok, I'm done ranting now. I must very grudgingly admit that other parts of the plot this week, at the very least, were more interesting than most of the rest of the miniseries. The dynamics between Antony and Fulvia were entertaining. Perhaps a little more focus on that and ZERO of Octavius hitting on Camane, the Vestal Virgin, and this series might have more merit.
Anyway, since we've already established that the writers of The Empire don't actually know any of their history (and, for some reason, this episode really had me cringing over the way Roman religion was dealt with), I'm not going to pick too much on that. However, they had me raging within TEN MINUTES of the opening! Tyrannus discovers that his boy is with a nobleman by the name of Marius. He goes to fetch the boy, and Marius tells him that if Tyrannus' son stays with him, he will have tutors.
And guess what? These tutors won't just teach him reading and writing and Greek... nooo, they'll teach him...
wait for it...
LATIN!
[insert stunned silence]
Yes, because a Roman boy doesn't already speak Latin. I mean, do the writers have any concept of... well, anything?? Do they have brain cells? Do they think that common Romans spoke something else? Like what? Maybe they think they all spoke English! I mean, I really didn't think that's what Marius meant when he said that Tyrannus' boy was "special."
And I'm so serious; it really looks like they're trying to steal all the scenes and character motivation from Gladiator--right down to the delusions of his wife and blabber about meeting each other again in Elyseum (he finds out she died). Except, guess what? They don't even do it as well.
Ok, I'm done ranting now. I must very grudgingly admit that other parts of the plot this week, at the very least, were more interesting than most of the rest of the miniseries. The dynamics between Antony and Fulvia were entertaining. Perhaps a little more focus on that and ZERO of Octavius hitting on Camane, the Vestal Virgin, and this series might have more merit.
posted by Glaukôpis at 11:35 PM
8 Comments:
I know. I was thinking that too... :-P
Didn't people in many parts of the empire speak Greek regularly? Although it was still a nonsensical scene and anyway there was also a line about teaching him Greek, which made me wonder what language they were supposed to be speaking in the scene...
Re: Lea
Well, yeah, if the boy hadn't grown up in ROME, maybe... but that's just such a huge stretch that it doesn't make sense.
I think the idiot writers ACTUALLY thought they were speaking English! o_O
I love you.
*laughs* Poor 'special' Roman boy who can't speak Latin. Perhaps they should have said 'oratory' or 'poetry'. But then this would actually make sense, yes?
Oh, he grew up in Rome? I wasn't following closely enough and thought, well, maybe they're supposed to be from somewhere else and fudging the travel times (like Gladiator, which they're ripping off right and left anyway) but...yeah. Well, I don't suppose one should expect anything in this series to be the least bit realistic, anyway...
Re: Lea
Actually, now I'm told he didn't grow up in Rome--he came from Cyprus. And now I don't remember the first episode well enough to know for sure anymore! So maybe that's why. But they were teaching him Greek too, so... iunno now!
But... you take English... and you speak English...
They don't teach me English. They teach me English literature. If you say the tutors will teach him Latin or he'll learn Latin, that implies the language.
Same as if you say that someone will teach me English or that I'll learn English, you'd expect that I'm learning how to speak the language.
Post a Comment
<< Home