They’re dropping like flies on Rome right now. The body count is bigger than Hamlet and I, Claudius combined. Like everyone else, I was prepared for one last showdown between Atia (Polly Walker) and Servilia (the divine Lindsay Duncan) before the latter had to join most of the Season One cast out there in the great beyond. However, nothing prepared me for the spectacular theatricality of her leave-taking this week. Wow.I have complained lately about this sophomore (and final) season. Comparing it to last year, it’s been too hysterical, too lurid (and in last Sunday’s heaving, grunting tryst between Pullo and Gaia, something like a an ancient twist on Russ Meyer). Anyway, throughout the recent travails wherein domestic troubles have exceeded historical truth, I have still enjoyed this spectacular romp which has combined the tastes and expectations of both Alistair Cooke and Bob Guccione. Any sequence involving Duncan has been a stand-out. And her descent into madness (and who can blame her?) singles her out as the only character for whom we really feel any compassion. Obviously Rome’s creative team felt likewise as her send-off was most memorable. She and Suzanne Bertish (as the devoted Eleni) bit the proverbial dust like a sword-and-sandal version of Thelma and Louise.
Antony (James Purefoy) put it best: “Now that is an exit.”
On other fronts, poor Octavia: let’s not forget she and Servilia enjoyed a December-May Sapphic canoodling. So witnessing her former lover’s suicide just before being married off to her mother’s lover, well, she just didn’t have a very good week.
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