Rewatching Season Three of The Wire. Bunny Colvin's speech about there being no paper bag for drugs changed me, when I read the extended version in Simon and Burns' The Corner I swear when I started reading that book, and for about halfway through, I was pretty much your standard suburban Democratic cliche(I suppose I was reluctant to consider the ways that I might have to struggle to become a "citizen", right?) Anyway, I spent half the book waiting for Deandre to go back to school and straighten up and fly right, and I suppose I was at least a nominal supporter of the War on Drugs. But about halfway through, there was a click of recognition, and there was no going back.

Also? Watch Pullo's eyes through the whole scene with Gaia. He went from love to confusion to horror to hatred to fierce, unyielding resolution in mere seconds, and then followed it with self-loathing and then hatred again. I cannot believe how much he conveyed with his eyes and the set of his mouth without saying a word. Incredible.

This. Absolutely this! What an amazing job.

I completely agree with everyone's Rome comments and am already lamenting the loss.

Ah well. Great tv is great tv. I'd much rather have something high quality end, than something total crap enduring (CSI: Miami, I'm lookin' at you...through dopey shades, with my head tilted Carusoly.)

Hey...Blue used to be the shit, back in the day. It is true that, in the intervening years, man's let his game get a little weak.(A little weak?[Clay Davis] Sheeit. Dude's been getting by on his Caruso *impression* for five goddamn years, at least. Nice comeback, if you can get it.[/Clay Davis]

Gosh, this show. I finally got to see the finale tonight, and was just blown away. There was so much good there!

I loved the degeneration of Antony, too. From the dude that had Caesar's back, to a dude with his own bid for power, to a dude waylaid by a chick who ran him down, the actor just knocked it out of the park. That keen, that lowing sound he made when he found out Cleopatra was dead? My god, something shuddered inside of me to hear it. And Vorenus, making him truly Roman at the end when he had gone so far from it. Just magnificent. There is an interesting parallel, there, to how Brutus was changed when he went to (what is now) Turkey. How Romans are still Romans, even far from home.

I liked that speculative look at the end, with Octavia and Agrippa. Maybe, finally, someone could be happy. And geez, Octavian was just...a special young man. Very special. By the end, I do think Max played him better. More calculating, less wrong in the head. But still believeable. And did you notice how similar Octavian and Attia's eyes were? Scary in their cacluatedness.

Poor Cesarian! About to get a crucial blow, just to add to his off-kilter life. I wonder what Pullo's reward was. And poor Vorenus, though I think he was happy at the end, to finally be forgiven (for something he didn't do in the first place!).

Gosh, was this a good show, or what?

By the end, I do think Max played him better. More calculating, less wrong in the head.

Agreed. And yes to the similar eyes...except that Simon Woods has that serial killer star that I found distracting.

Funnily enough, I didn't even remotely recognize him in Starter for 10. Should have, considering that character was nuts too.

Simon Woods totally had the serial killer vibe, the kind of guy you just look at and know is both dangerous and wrong in the head. Can't blame a guy for wanting to take over an empire, though, especially when he knows he can.

Interestingly, though, was the way his young wife changed for being around him. When she was first introduced a couple episodes ago, she seemed sweet, naive, a little gullible. Now, though, after a couple years with Octavian, she's a right mean bitch with a bad streak in her. That more than anything shows Octavian for his true colours, I think.

Oh, but I saw Octavian's wife as a schemer straight away. She didn't even blink when he asked if she wanted to marry him...despite already being married! And when he squeezed her hand and said he was going to bat her around, but that it wasn't personal...again, not a blink. Spine of steel or bald ambition? Probably both.

He said that he wanted her because she was a proper Roman wife...but I suspect he saw the kindred in her.

In either case, they were both pretty scary.

Max's Octie had heart and genius. Simon's took that genius and twisted it into something really cold.

I need to go read that character/historical figure comparison.

See there though? How often does television engage me so completely? Not very! I'm gonna miss it.

I thought we were supposed to get something about Livia from when Octavian says (after driving Antony away and imprisoning His women) the line about try the songbirds, my cook does them particularly well, and she picks one up and crunches delicately into its head. That may have been typical patrician eating style, but it felt like a message at the time.

Oh yes, that. It seemed like they were always communicating whatever that message was. Whether her chowing on budgie head or the sweaty smacking about. Those two were made for each other.

And did you notice how similar Octavian and Attia's eyes were?

Yes! That, and Attia's little "I wonder how he went wrong, it was probably my fault" musing that seemed like it might have been about Antony but almost certainly was about Octavian. Lovely.

Damn fine show.

Antony going native in Gaul, and then even nmoreso in Egypt, but dying like a Roman. Vorenus wiping off the kohl and dressing him gave me chills.

Attia is one hell of a woman, and it was nice to see Octavia be on her side there at the end. It takes a fucked up person to end up ruling an empire, but it took a whole fucked up family to put Augustus on the throne.

I'm a little afraid to start Season 4 of the Wire, erika. I have a feeling that it's going to suck me in and eat my brain. I'll definitely get it watched before 5 starts, though.