It;s interesting that we had such different reactions to Domina and to Those About to Die -- I really enjoyed Domina but the total lack of interest in Roman history outside the spectacular drove me up the wall with the other show. I guess for me, although Domina had its faults, it was redeemed by whoever made it having an actual interest in the process by which Octavian the triumvir became Augustus the princeps. And there was a lot of good historical context, like the stuff about the younger Crassus, and the Marcus Primus trial: having him murdered does make a bit more sense than his committing suicide, actually. And Piso! I loved having Piso there! What I'm saying is, I guess, that there were a lot more historically accurate easter eggs thsan I would have expected. I did regret Octavia's personality change in the aged up section, but then again the new actor for Agrippa was totally channeling Zhukov from the Death of Stalin, which I enjoyed greatly.

I really liked the way it set up the relationships between Livia and Gaius (after all, that's most likely what she called him) and Livia and Tiberius; it probably also helped that I'm in the group of historians who think that Tiberius really did mean to restore the Republic (or perhaps, dissolve the principate? sine Augustus had already technically restored the Republic) after 14, at least as he understood it, which means senatorial government -- and ran into precisely the problem you notice here, which is that the senators were by that point both unwilling and incompetent. As an aside, of course, the reason that most senators who talked about republicanism meant more power for themselves is why "restoring the Republic" never gains much popularity in the actual Roman Principate. It's literally unpopular!

Anyway, I'm sorry it didn't work for you. I think they made a second season which I still haven't managed to see.