Peereddi
I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.
Kamila Bell
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Scotty Burke
It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
chaos-rampant
History? Only the imperial machinations around the throne. Drama? Plotting and counter-plotting spoken around a room. Acting? It's only great if you're impressed by good posture and enunciation. (I was impressed by this Livia, her steely determinism)No, history for me to be effective in a lasting sense has to surround the lived atmosphere. This is stagebound artifice around the supposed events. There's no life here, only staging about staging. It's a Roman Days of Our Lives with the only lofty difference that the actors impersonate historical persons and the same tempestuous games about power are enacted in costume and sandals.
clivey6
Rent this and for the next few weeks that snaky, insidious theme tune will be inching its way across your subconscious. Especially as there's no other music in it, contributing to the stagey, slightly hollow presentation. Don't expect any long shots of the Colosseum or exciting chariot races, it's all on set.The historical context and arch dialogue delivered by star turns such as Sian Phillips, George Baker, Brian Blessed, Derek Jacobi and John Hurt may convince you that this is more highbrow drama than it really is. I enjoyed it, but it follows one theme: someone in the Roman court is overtly or covertly murdering their way to the succession either on their own or someone else's behalf, and the others are too dim or cowed to prevent it. I'm not sure how historically accurate it is, and watching innocent people get stitched up is only so entertaining in my book.It does get a bit repetitive after a while. Even the star turns are more entertaining than impressive. Phillips might be channelling Disney's Wicked Queen as Livia, while Hurt is not too far off Kenneth Williams in Carry On Cleo in his portrayal of Caligua.Some nasty stuff implied rather than seen but which would give Hostel 2 a run for its money make this non-family viewing, on the other hand those drawn to it for that reason would be disappointed by the lacklustre orgies. By disc four I had got quite depressed by its goings-on, there really seemed to be no respite from it. That's not to say it isn't very enjoyable at times, but it seems to peak just before Caligula's arrival.If you're still keen for a bit of Roman when you've completed the series, the movie Quo Vardis picks up where it left off, dealing with Emperor Nero's reign (Nero is well played by Christopher Biggins in I Claudius and Peter Ustinov in the movie).
nycmec
I think this series is terribly overrated. I kept watching through the whole thing, hoping it would get better, but it just got campier and campier when Caligula came on the scene. Sian Phillips anchors the first half of this series with fine acting, but after Livia's death, I felt my interest wane. There is some good acting, but quite a fair amount of bad (Augustus Cesar in particular). The series is overly driven by plot--even over 13 episodes the series feels like a rote telling of events rather than a fully realized drama. This is an historical soap opera, all surface and no depth. For those who rate this the finest television series ever, I would refer them to "The Wire," which maintains characters and a narrative over five seasons brilliantly.
jamesroo
like all TV and movies based on historical events they add things that are quite untrue.the two most glaring examples of this in i Claudius is the portrait of Livia and her son Tiberius.and the problem with this is Livia drives this story mostly so her character is so important as this murderous evil woman. i went and read many historical books on Augustus after seeing this great TV series.mind u it is one of the best I've seen besides shaka Zulu.according to most historians Livia was a devoted and loyal wife of Augustus till the end and had nothing to do with his death.Augustus lived a long and healthy life for a person back then and died old age and some aliment he caught at his old age.all these murders Livia is supposed to have done in this series has no proof of any kind.Livia by the way had all the power she could want as the wife of Augustus.he was devoted to her.Tiberius did become emperor through the death of wounds Germanic's had from battles and these became infected causing his death leaving Tiberius next in line as emperor.in his early life Tiberius was a competent general on the battlefield and was a pretty good emperor most of his early reign.only as he grew old he became feeble and what we would call a dirty old man.no one is sure if his death was by Caligula or not.and again at the beginning Caligula was a competent emperor.when he caught this unknown fever is when he became mad.so i understand the liberties taken in this great series about Livia and Tiberius but remember this is done all the time in historical facts in movies and TV series. this is still a great TV series with great performances.
