Department of evil overlords

[rozk]

Now, Livia had clearly read the evil overlord website, because she understood that you had to kill absolutely everyone in your way. Her son, who wanted the Republic back, and all of her husband's grandsons because they were in the way of her other son, and just about everyone else. Except for Claudius, because she knows something about him and knows that it will be of use to her...Gods, I, Claudius is terrifying in its inevitability.

The weird thing about seeing it again is how much - especially in the scene where she tells the gladiators that if they fake it, she will send them down the mines - Sian Phillips' performance foreshadows the long long years in which we heard a very similar voice hectoring us at every turn. One of the best examples of the uselessness of art that I know is that the British public watched I,laudius and still voted for Thatcher.

I've also been watching Bittersweet Life which is one of those Korean thrillers where absolutely everyone ends up dead, mostly because gangsters punish minions with ultra-violence for quite minor disagreements and minion who survives takes pronounced exception to this. It is one of those films where you lose count of the stiffs and are glad that you live in a culture where people have learned to apologize, and accept apologies that do not involve the deprivation of major body parts.

Also, evil overlords should beware minions who start listening to the classical music of other cultures and getting faraway looks in their eyes, or who start contemplating the winds in branches of trees in a meaningful way. 'It is not the wind, or the tree, it is yourself' said the sage, apparently, and minion gets that look of significance which means he will probably kill several score people even after a knife in the guts and a bullet to the brain.

Either kill people straight off, or content yourself with a statutory written warning. Anything else leads to the damaging of a lot of fancy glasswear and having to get a whole new set of minions.

Oh and I finished a draft of the impossibly huge introduction. So I am past the halfway mark on Superheroes!, even if I have to put all the cosmogonic stuff in an appendix rather than leave it where it is.

Comments

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I'm really annoyed because I somehow missed noticing that this was on and didn't record the first couple of episodes. My sister has hopefully been recording it, because they're away for a couple of days and she phoned me this evening to ask me to record it - but I don't know if she kept the earlier episodes. Oh well, if all else fails I could buy the DVDs.

And yes, from my memories from the last time I watched the series, it makes a VERY good Evil Overlord tutorial, far better than anything that Lucas has ever done.

[debg.livejournal.com]

I've got it on DVD. My Claudius-love is nearly beyond words.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

I continue to be amazed at how faithful the TV series is to Graves' books -- and how faithful Graves was to Suetonius. (When I read the first few Caesars of Twelve Caesars, I had the uncanny feeling of haven't I read this before?.

[akicif.livejournal.com]

I think I, Claudius maps fairly well onto the first part of Twelve Caesars, but doesn't Graves' revisionism, or at least presentation of Claudius' side, cut in in Claudius the God?

[(Anonymous)]

But the thing everyone remembers about I Claudius--evil, scheming, poisoning Livia--isn't in Suetonius at all.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

You don't know how many people watched I, Claudius and thought "What this country needs is a woman like that in charge." I always find it offputting when absolutely everyone who's halfway decent (apart from the viewpoint character) is efficiently and undetectably done away with, and everyone who isn't gets to live. It's too neat. My two favourite things about the series are the line they stuck in at the end, and trying to follow the harmonies of Wilfred Josephs' music (I still can't). Oh, and Brian Blessed. Three favourite things.

[makd.livejournal.com]

Gah! I, Claudius is the absolute favorite TV show of this entire household -- The Spouse, The Daughter (27 years old), and I will drop what we're doing to watch a re-run or talk about the show. And Derek Jacoby and Sian Phillips? Don't get me started... Well, okay: My all-time favorite line was said by Livia, but I don't want to spoil it for you in upcoming episodes. And Caesar: master of the empire, but at a complete loss to control his familia. Julia? unbelievable.... so much to love in this series.

and this: One of the best examples of the uselessness of art that I know is that the British public watched I,Claudius and still voted for Thatcher." Hell, WE (i.e., Americans) watched, saw Caesar (who was, in many ways, similar to that great B actor, RR), and STILL many Americans voted for him....TWICE.

I will never, ever, understand the populi. (maybe that's why I'm a sociologist.)