Great Caeser's Ghost!

HBO's "Rome" is back!

The 2nd season premiered this evening, preceded by last season's stab-tastic finale, about which I went on to some extent about the inevitable climactic event. And the new episode picks up immediately where that left off. Though, mysteriously, Octavio seems to have aged suddenly... Go figure.

Still, everyone's now comfortable in their characters and performing quite convincingly; maybe even enjoying it a little too much... Nah. They're doing great. And, of course, it's still just as shocking and brutal and upside-down in comparison to the usual epic treatment of the era.

It took me a little while for the show to hook me, but I think it really was the characters and the details that did it. Now I'm pretty much committed, even if it somehow makes a turn towards mediocrity in the middle. No turning back now. And here I was thinking of getting rid of premium cable. Silly me.