ROME

I do try to catch each episode of Rome on Sunday -- if not for the first HBO showing, then at least when it is re-broadcast on some other HBOx channel. (I'm not Tivo'd yet.)

Rome has been dramatically interesting -- acting's good, characters are good, plot is good. (Who thought this up? They really did all that?) I like the acting, although occasionally, just rarely, I have been conscious of the British-Classic-Actors-ness of the acting.

The show, so far at least, deals with Julius Caesar before the Ides of March that Shakespeare made famous in his version of Rome.

I've gotten the impression that serious effort went into making the environment -- costumes, characters, events, architecture, culture -- quite faithful to what is known about Rome. Millions of dollars went into that effort. That should be quite a resource for students of history. (What was it like to live in Rome?) There should be resources someplace to capture the accomplishments of the technical crew and convert it into forms that students can use. Why should all study have to come from books? Even if some plot events are fictionalized and some environmental elements are imaginary (graffiti in Rome probably was not animated), it should be possible to present the boundaries of knowledge quite clearly. Now, I'm not thinking of making some boring film strips, a static web site for students, or even a short film-for-students here, I'm thinking of making millions of dollars worth of reconstruction available to education.