Cast: Mary Donahue, Jos Cushing, Chet Fenster, Chris Muckle, Matt Robins
Director: Roel Reiné
Language: English
‘The Colosseum is a symbol of conquest, it is the symbol of dominance, it is the symbol of Imperial power,’ says someone right at the beginning of the first episode of History 18’s show Colosseum. The platform attempts to give the globe a show that dives straight into the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, throwing in marveling visuals, ambitious craft, and an almost-effective insight by the makers.
Cinema has built its legacy on all sorts of genres but makers have always been gratified to flirt with grandeur married with grit. There’s palpable sweat fueled by style, and a narrative that uses both vulnerability and heroism to amplify victory and defeat both. The one very cool aspect of the first episode of Colosseum is that there are no sermons, and the information passed on by the makers, which always involves breaking the fourth wall and hitting a direct chord with the audience, is juxtaposed by visuals of the amphitheater and the bloodbath that followed in that haunting landscape.
Of course, familiar terrains always lead to nostalgic rushes and this show is no different. From Thor to The Lord of The Rings to Gladiator to our home ground stories like Baahubali come to mind immediately. Executing war sequences with technical finesse and crisp editing is necessary to feel a part of the gorgeous mess, and the show pulls it off. Director Roel Reine, along with his team of seven writers, takes the audacious task of telling a fascinating story on a grand scale, and succeeds so far. That the director is also the man behind the lens for cinematography along with Jan Moeskops helps the show attain that grandeur further. Now on to the next episode.
Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)
Colosseum streams on History18 from December 17, 10 pm onwards.
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