EMPIRE: "Pilot" & "Will"

By: Jason Davis
Review Date: Sunday, July 03, 2005

Though classical tales are often the stuff of the silver screen, their visits to the television, outside the occasional mythological offerings of Hallmark, have been few and far between. I, CLAUDIUS set the standard in 1976 with its account of three first-century Caesars, but ABC as stepped back before the common era for a look at the foundations of the Empire under Augustus, known before his ascension as Octavius. As history is rarely fit for wholesale dramatization, Thomas Wheeler's dramatic license in constructing his story will be interesting to observe, but the sooner the narration that opens and closes each hour is abandoned, the better. Though such voiceovers worked well in director Yaitanes's CHILDREN OF DUNE and its precursor, here they seem woefully over the top and almost laughable in their portentous delivery.

In the first hour of the two-part premiere, the viewer is quickly introduced to a vast array of characters as Julius Caesar returns to Rome from conquests abroad. Senator Lucius Cassius Longinus makes an account of Caesar's perceived excesses, setting up the latter's eventual betrayal by the Roman senate. Michael Maloney positively steals the episode with his portrayal of Cassius. Every utterance drips with contempt for Caesar and his unequaled public popularity. Often among Kenneth Brannagh's Shakespearian ensembles, Maloney manages to convey the Bard's vicious characterization even without the play's iambic pentameter spilling from his lips. Colm Feore's steadfast Caesar, though limited in screen time by the March 44 BC setting, presents the great general's dignified confidence with just the right taint of arrogance to stick in the senate's craw. Though not as elegantly essayed as the aforementioned figures, Octavius Caesar, actually the great nephew of Julius despite dramatic simplification, and Tyrannus, a gladiator assigned to protect the heir, are well played with plenty of room to develop across the show's run.

Perhaps the greatest failing of the pilot is that it takes too much for granted. Though the audience is presented with Caesar's alleged failings, contrasted with the proletariat's adoration, little explanation is given of how Rome was ruled during the latter days of the republic. The recent civil war isn't mentioned, nor is Caesar's incessant flouting of tradition in a society governed by mos maiorum, the way of its ancestors. Though the arena in which the story occurs can stand these vagaries, the characters of the story cannot. Roughly half way through the first hour, Tyrannus is given a wooden sword by the elder Caesar in what is intended as a moving scene. Unfortunately, its early placement in the story undercuts the emotion due to the brief period the audience has had to generate sympathy for the character. Luckily, these assumptions only plague the first half of the premiere, and "Will," the second hour, significantly betters its predecessor by focusing on the pivotal historical document that set out the future of Rome. As the series concerns Tyrannus's tutelage of Octavius, it's likely that the story won't reach the creation of the second triumvirate, nor Augustus's coronation, without a mighty leap through time and a marked decrease in Tyrannus's presence.


Grade: B-/B