A series that deserved far more than two seasons.

Had its obvious flaws, which are few but given the amount of positives, and the nature of the negatives, its worth pointing out. Starting with some of the miscasting in some cases but was well covered by excellent performances in that stead. Ciaran Hinds and Karl Johnson come to mind, where the former looks nothing like an image of Caesar, he nailed a particularly intense yet "man of the people" style performance suited to Caesar. Johnson on the other hand would have been totally perfect had he been a bit younger but its hard to think of any actor with as right a look and voice for the troublesome Cato. In the end any miscasting is well covered and is a testament to the quality of acting within the show.

The only other true flaw is perhaps more notable due to its successor in GoT suffering a similar ailment, in the action sequences. Its somewhat evident that the budget was spent on the extravagant Rome set in favour of a more political narrative. However the repetitive nature of cutting in to the end of watershed events like Pharsalus, Actium and Alesia is rather disappointing, especially given the opening sequence of the pilot which isn't saying much but is more historically Roman that most things I've seen in media. The only true action delivered is that at Phillipi, which is essentially a montage of reaction shots of people dying. Of course, you might assume I'm a truly simple person to want something like this, but it did get tiresome.

Nevertheless, Purefoy steals the entire show, a third season ought to have been dedicated to Antony's exploits.