Those About To Die (TV Show)

All in all: enjoyable on the same level Spartacus the tv show was, i.e. unabashedly trashy yet wish some surprisingly engaging character development. Given Roland Emmerich is responsible for one of my least favourite historical or "historical" movies, "The Patriot" and also for the Oxfordian eloge Anyonymous which I haven't watched, I liked this far better than I expected. My main reason for watching was that it's set in the Flavian era, which hasn't been cinematically and tv wise milked to death yet, and I had recently reread my definitely favourite work of Lion Feuchtwanger, the Josephus trilogy. BTW, I gather there's a book of the same title - i.e. "Those about to die" - which serves as inspiration but not isn't a historical novel but a non-fiction work covering the entire development from funeral games in ye early republic to elaborate mass productions throughout much of the Empire. As I haven't read said book, I only base this assumption on wikipedia and can't say whether it's any good, and can't compare or contrast, either.

( On to the gloriously trashy saga )

In conclusion: not a must, but if you liked Spartacus (the tv show) back in the day, you'll probably like this one, too. Oh, and if you've read Lindsey Davis' mystery series starring Marcus Didius Falco and want some visuals, you could do worse.