I went into Those About To Die, the latest big-budget effort by Peacock to convince people to watch something other than The Office on it, not really knowing what to expect; though I certainly had my hopes. Given the Ancient Roman setting, I hoped to see epic gladiator battles and chariot races and a fresh take on this particular period in history. And given the involvement of Roland Emmerich, I was hoping said fresh take would be enjoyably nonsensical a la his 2011 film Anonymous.
The end result is only about half of what I was hoping for. While the production values and action sequences are impressive and often entertaining, the actual story and characters that make up a bulk of the show’s runtime leave something to be desired. There isn’t much of a narrative hook or character dynamics to latch onto; and as such, it often ends up committing the cardinal sin of most forms of entertainment, but especially something centered on gladiators: it’s just boring.
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Those About To Die Plot
In a fictionalized version of Ancient Rome, all eyes are on Circus Maximus: the empire’s leading provider of sports, entertainment, and bloodshed, often simultaneously. Warriors train their whole lives to compete in gladiatorial combat and chariot races, politicians make a show within a show out of providing entertainment to the masses and making public appearances at the arena, and even much of the local economy revolves around betting on competitors within each of the Circus’ main factions.
As senators and other politicians plot against each other and the arena’s fiercest warriors seek dominance in the competition, forces both in and out of the empire start to poke holes in its own foundation. Alliances are broken, lives are lost, and both Circus Maximus and Rome itself are irrevocably changed as the tangled web of conspiracy begins to unravel.
Those About To Die Critique
One thing that Those About To Die makes abundantly clear early on is that it’s not particularly interested in being a traditional historical drama. Most of the characters are, by all accounts, made up for the show, and the plot is significantly impacted by a real-world historical event exactly one time. The show is much more interested in exploring and later subverting the cultural image of Ancient Rome (chariots, gladiators, etc), than it is with examining actual Roman politics or the lives of its citizens.
This isn’t inherently a good or bad thing, it’s just what the show is. It just means that any history buffs hoping that “the never before told story of Rome” promised in the marketing was found through research will have to look elsewhere. But there is value in focusing on just that cultural image, in that it gives you a lot more leeway if you get certain facts wrong and lets you play around with the historical iconography more freely.
And when Those About To Die gets to play around, it does so beautifully and extravagantly. The chariot races are epic in both scope and speed, carefully keeping track of each racer while still maintaining a consistent forward momentum and the result is adrenaline-pumping without question. And both the sword fights and hand-to-hand combat are well-staged, fun to watch, and decadently bloody with plenty of severed limbs and fatal stabbings along the way brought to life by impressive VFX work.
Apart from existing cultural iconography around Ancient Rome, Those About To Die‘s other primary influence is very clearly Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. The interpersonal relationships, emphasis on conspiracy, and the brutal and bloody nature of the combat all feel ripped directly from the George R.R. Martin adaptations, just with the more fantastical elements taken out. Even Circus Maximus’ factions, with their unique colors and insignias, feel like they were engineered to capitalize on House of the Dragon‘s “Choose Your Banner” concept. But this ends up becoming the show’s biggest problem.
The show becomes so focused on maintaining a complex and consistent flow for the overarching conspiracy and the various characters within it that it forgets to make them characters. Very few of the show’s ensemble, despite the best efforts of the talented cast, get real development or personality and often exist solely within the context of their place in the power structure and relationships to other characters. And when you can’t get invested in the characters, you can’t get invested in what they’re doing, at least not fully.
This is to say nothing of the show’s issues with pacing and repetition. Outside of the genuinely great action scenes, the bulk of most episodes is characters standing inside the admittedly impressive sets talking at each other about the state of the empire, or the factions, or their relationship status with very little ever being advanced in these areas and each character’s central points being frequently repeated, sometimes within the same episode.
Bearing in mind that each of the season’s ten episodes is an hour long, that is a full 10 hours mostly consisting of people standing around and having the exact same conversations over and over again. It starts to get boring fairly quickly and no amount of cool chariot races or guys getting their arms chopped off can really save it.
In Conclusion
Those About To Die is by no means a terrible show. It’s well-acted, the action’s great, the sets and costumes are very impressive, and its conspiratorial plot line is handled in a way that feels consistent and easy to follow if you’re paying attention. But it’s hard to pay attention when the meat of the thing so often feels dull. The characters don’t feel like people, I don’t feel like I know anything about who they are, so why should I care if they live or die regardless of how well-crafted the death scenes are?
Maybe I’m in the minority here, maybe others will see something in Those About To Die that I just can’t, or maybe its issues will be ironed out in the second season that the ending is so clearly teeing up. But while the show as presented isn’t terrible, it is very much middling. And given the subject matter and talent involved, that is certainly disappointing. Maybe if given the chance, it will get better later on; but for now, consider this empress less than impressed.
6/10
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