{"id":2128,"date":"2013-03-29T10:00:14","date_gmt":"2013-03-29T17:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=2128"},"modified":"2013-03-28T11:49:55","modified_gmt":"2013-03-28T18:49:55","slug":"mark-watches-i-claudius-episode-2-family-affairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2013\/03\/mark-watches-i-claudius-episode-2-family-affairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘I, Claudius’: Episode 2 – Family Affairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh my god THIS SHOW. Oh, I can already tell I’m going to love this.<\/p>\n

The video file for “Family Affairs” can be downloaded here<\/a>, and all my Mark Watches videos will now be indexed in my Dropbox folder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Okay, thank you,\u00c2\u00a0I, Claudius<\/em>, for continuing to center this drama around Livia and her absolutely frightening ability to manipulate everything to her favor. Si\u00c3\u00a2n Phillips is giving me\u00c2\u00a0life<\/em>, y’all. She is easily the best part of this show so far, though I also don’t want to ignore the fact that Brian Blessed really comes into form as a father enraged by the treatment of his daughter. Oh god, and how great is George Baker? TIBERIUS’S PLANS DID NOT GO AS HE EXPECTED.<\/span><\/li>\n

This really is a family drama, like a Roman version of\u00c2\u00a0The Sopranos<\/em>. Well, obviously\u00c2\u00a0The Sopranos<\/em> came after this. I just meant that it was the only thing I had to compare it to! It’s about the national\u00c2\u00a0and<\/em> personal politics that run their lives. In that sense, we’ve got Livia’s own desire for power intersecting with what Augustus wants for his future.<\/li>\n

Then there is Tiberius making\u00c2\u00a0a thousand billion bad decisions forever<\/em>. Like seeing Vispania and\u00c2\u00a0not doing a single thing to conceal himself. oh my god WHAT ARE YOU DOING<\/em>. Also, I swear there was almost a moment where I thought he was going to say he was getting “friendzoned” by Vispania. I don’t understand how my brain works.<\/li>\n

It’s also very clear that you can’t hide anything ever from Livia. Please tell me George R.R. Martin based Varys on her because\u00c2\u00a0my god<\/em>.<\/li>\n

I’m getting the sense that Livia is going to continue to do\u00c2\u00a0anything<\/em> to place herself in the direct line of power. The entire plot in the second half of this episode concerns Drusus’s fall in a battle, and how Livia subsequently sends her own personal physician to care for him. And by “care,” I mean “quite openly make sure that Drusus never gets better and dies.” Also, jesus, I know that the BBC aren’t necessarily prudes, but that leg wound looked SO GRAPHIC WTF.<\/li>\n

But this backfires, since Augustus clearly favors Lucius and Gaius as his successors, so… oh god, is Livia going to kill them, too? WHEN THEY ARE CHILDREN? I can’t remember my Roman history particularly well anymore, so GREAT. NOW I’M UNPREPARED WHEN I ACTUALLY COULD NOT BE.\u00c2\u00a0Great<\/em>.<\/li>\n