ROME......HBO Style

HBO is currently running a series about ancient Rome. And, no, I haven't watched much of it.....just enough to convince me that I don't need to.

This series would lead you to believe that ancient Rome was populated with 21st Century Britons, complete with accent. It's almost as bad as Cleopatra with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, but at least the acting in Rome is done well.

A period piece loses it's credibility, in my opinion, when it fails to reflect the ignorance and prejudices of the time. Rome, like HBO's previous successful series, Deadwood, reflects only the ignorance and prejudices of our time.

I know it might be impossible to determine the actual mind-set of any ancient civilization, much less depict it in an entertainment venue that would be accepted by contemporary society, but HBO could have at least made the effort.

Irony

"Childhood obesity soars in UK" - BBC News (2001)

"Do thin models warp girls' body image?" - USA Today (2006)

The first headline, and many similar "news" stories, are examples of how news outlets sensationalize a subject to fill in a slow news day.

The second headline is an example of how the fashion industry takes advantage of slow news days to generate a little publicity. Did you really think that clothes designers were going to replace their skinny, pouting models with normal, pouting women? Ha!.....ain't gonna happen.

Besides, if kids really are too fat, wouldn't skinny models be a good influence?......without the pouting, of course.

I guess the real irony is that anyone thinks that these stories are actually newsworthy.