on the second season of rome (spoilers?)

After The Wire, which I admittedly just watched the first season of but absolutely fucking loved, Rome is easily my favorite show produced by HBO (and the BBC, natch) - there's something irresistible about the combination of history, intrigue, and extremely hot and frequently nude men. Anyway, I watched the first season when it was on the air, but after HBO's mysterious disappearance from my television (free cable=no questions asked), I had to give it up as my only feasible option was a torrent and I despise watching movies/shows - well, uh, "proper" ones - on my computer. So for this reason I'm just now watching the second season of this most awesome of shows, and while I miss Caesar and don't find bloody vengeful Vorenus as attractive as non-bloody, not-as-vengeful Vorenus, I'm still enjoying the hell out of it. I would though like to address one issue in regards to casting, that is, replacing Max Pirkis as Octavian (Augustus) with Simon Woods, who one may recall played Mr. Bingley in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice and was, in my honest and always correct opinion, much hotter than Mr. Darcy (I would make the same point for 1995 Pride & Prejudice, but I'd rather not make trouble for the pro-Firth contingency - or for that matter the anti-Crispin Bonham Carter contingency). Sure, it's kind of jarring having a different actor playing Octavian, and while I haven't seen enough to truly gauge his portrayal (read: his sex scene, though I have seen stills), I will say one thing, one that will possibly lose me even more friends than my controversial Daniel Radcliffe period (c. 2004 - 7/23/07): Max Pirkis is fucking hot. Also, Max Pirkis was, at the most, sixteen during the first season of Rome. Still there? Good. So Stuart, you ask, why then don't you wholeheartedly object to this new Octavian? Well, it's quite simple actually. When discussing the greatness of Rome with another, more civilized person, I can proudly state that the guy who played Octavian was fucking hot, at which point they will assume I am referring to the certainly-of-age Simon Woods, and while I will not necessarily be in disagreement with that, in the back of my mind I will remain my old perverted self. Semper fi.

As for the 17 year old slave who tried to poison Atia - well, that's a whole 'nother problem.