Roman Empire: Caligula-The Mad Emperor (Review)

Major spoiler warning for ancient historical events/ Caligula-The Mad Emperor. Also, trigger warning for anyone uncomfortable with even mentions of incest. So....a lot of people, I guess.

So, the final and worst season of Roman Empire still deserves to be....reviewed, then chucked in the trash never to be seen again. Okay, so I’m being harsh on it mostly cause of the small detail of certain goings-on in Episode 3 (“In Search of an Heir”), but I’ve got to be honest, I think this was not good television, didn’t even come close to the first 2 seasons, but I watched it, so hey, I might as well review it, because I did that for the other seasons. Unlike the others, I will probably never watch this series again.

Caligula is another handsome, savvy yet vaguely tyrannical Roman leader who ends up getting betrayed by someone formerly close to him having previously had good intentions but crossing a certain line causing this former friend to lead a plot to assassinate him. (I’m sensing a pattern with the Roman Empire series’ protagonists.) However, whilst there is an engaging psychological take on the new main character, giving us a lot more backstory into his overall life than either of the past two seasons did with Caesar and Commodus, the character himself seems far less engaging than the volatile Commodus who we begin liking (despite his name’s connotations) and end up despising, or Caesar, who himself is fairly generic in his portrayal, but his actions are guaranteed to cause excitement through a conquest or a civil war or something exciting....what was that exciting here, with Caligula? It’s not as if it was boring, but there’s a certain anticlimax to the events of Caligula’s life and reign....even in his assassination, it just seems to be kind of a given that the Senate would decide “he’s drunk on power, maybe we should you know, stop him” after all he has done, there is no real breaking point for them to decide this. The fact that Claudius is the one to take over is admittedly a surprise....except for anyone who might have heard the name “Emperor Claudius“ before. My point is, whilst this is perfectly acceptable from an educational perspective (as the analysts make sure to disclaim some of the more disgusting details we see that I’ll get on to in a second), I never felt that was the point to Roman Empire as a series, I more felt that the drama (“docudrama”, hello?) was the focus, whilst the historians’ analysis in between scenes was more a nice sprinkling on top, whilst with this series....it’s like if Game of Thrones was more boring, and was based on historical events.

There is a point to the GoT comparison, by the way, in that Episode 3 is a whole load of incest (there’s no point in hiding from it, I’m getting it out of the way). Caligula’s search for an heir leads his sister, Agrippina, to propose herself as the bearer of his child. Caligula predictably reacts with “You’re serious?” before proceeding to....agree....wait, sorry have I got this right? Yup, to agree and....start affairs with his other sisters, Drusilla and Livilla. Lovely. The problem I have with this is not the possibility of incest in a Roman throne room; Tiberius, Caligula’s uncle, urging him to divulge in sexual depravity may or may not have given him some psychosexual issues, I don’t know, and the intention of Agrippina-at least it was her idea in the scene; it is certainly true that she married her other uncle Claudius once he was emperor-was certainly to keep a secure bloodline, something common in Ancient Egypt, as is mentioned. The problem is more that it is so up front, that we see so much of it, that the drama aspect displays the affairs so unapologetically, as if not everyone who sees this will think “this is disgusting, what the hell are they thinking?” Moreover, the experts literally analysing the series these scenes are taking place in are mostly unconvinced as to the accuracy of these rumours of Caligula’s affairs. Why, then, are we presented with them so bluntly, as if it is certain they are fact, when we are literally being told otherwise soon after? It feels as if we are watching two different series, because we are literally being given two different interpretations! Which is it, and if the experts think that it isn’t true, why are you grossing us all out with these scenes?

So honestly, I feel like I would’ve enjoyed this a lot more if the rumours of these incestuous relations would’ve just been brushed aside. They didn’t even have to mention them if they didn’t think they were true! Actually, there were several things Caligula was rumoured to have done that they could’ve gone into but didn’t (the infamous killing of a priest with a hammer comes to mind), so it doesn’t even seem like he is a “Mad Emperor”, even when analysts are literally suggesting he is crazy (this backs up my theory about the drama clips and analysis being totally different series’). Aside from his tyrannical purges, he more often comes across as desperate-for an heir, taking his own men prisoner and pretending they were captured Britons- but not insane, as is often suggested about this historical figure. Often portrayed as unstable, committing atrocities for fun and declaring war on Neptune (Roman God of the Sea), it would’ve been way more interesting to see this either backed up or disproven by the historians, with the drama aspect portraying more likely events on screen. Not....what we got. So Caligula comes across as just another Emperor who wanted to protect his power too much, rather than an insane, unstable and violent person that would not have been surprising given his traumatic origins, and being the first of the Roman Emperors to be assassinated.

Basically, the moral of this review is to not watch the third and, as of now, final season of Roman Empire, like, go check the others out, for sure. Just....don’t watch this one. It’s not even good without the gory details being shown to us, as the tone is a little dull once you get into his reign (his origin story is more interesting and gave me some false hope), at least, duller and somewhat moodier than you’d want from this series. But the gory details do make it a thousand times worse.