Das römische Reich

Although this is tagged as a Documentary under Genre it is just a TV show. Any resemblance between this show and actual history is purely coincidental and no-one should use this show to inform anyone about any aspect of the Roman Empire or any of its inhabitants.

As a TV show it's entertaining, as an historical documentary it's junk.

A dramatized documentary on the Roman Empire, focussing in each season on one of its most famous, or infamous, emperors.

This series had some potential: a dramatized documentary on the Roman Empire - sort of The World At War meets Rome or Spartacus, right? An edifying documentary mixed with realistic, gritty, action-filled dramatizations.

Well, no. It doesn't even come close.

The documentary side is pretty basic. Sean Bean is no Laurence Olivier when it comes to narrating: he really doesn't have the gravitas or accent for it. The facts presented in the documentary are then sometimes distorted to make for better drama (though some of the original facts were interesting enough, so why change them?). So, as a documentary it is mediocre.

The drama itself is pretty bland. There's a few good action scenes but it is mostly pretty dull. Performances are at best passable and nothing more. Some of the minor actors are quite bad.

So history got rewritten for the sake of drama, and the drama largely sucks. Seems like they should have just stuck with the facts. And got a better narrator.

I'm not really a history buff so I can't comment to the legitimacy of the reports, but I can say it's a fairly enjoyable docuseries. The re-enactments are good quality and add to the series, the interviews at least appear knowledgeable.

You have to really look at this show as fiction, not as historically accurate. Despite the talking head historians, this show is at best loosely based on history, playing up the more scandalous rumours and often just making things up.

That said, it's a fairly entertaining watch. Nothing incredible, but kind of a bored-on-a-rainy-Sunday kind of deal.

There's definitely a lot of historical inaccuracies but it's entertainment and there's lots to learn for people that don't know anything about that time period.