Fifty years later I can see many of the points you bring up, but when I first saw it at the age of 22 I was blown away. I had never seen anything like it, and it was my first exposure to the Roman world. From that start, I went on to learn about the Roman Republic , the Roman Empire and many of the heroes and villains of that story. For those reasons, and because I liked the character of Claudius so much I still think of the series fondly. The villains in the show were indeed horrific, but at the time I would never have connected up the decay of that culture to our own. Much easier to see today, and I have learned through my study just how much the world lost when the Roman Republic was overthrown. Oh and I really did like how the smart and clever Claudius thrived because he was under-rated and overlooked. I have always loved such characters and always thought of Claudius as kind of a Roman Columbo.
Fifty years later I can see many of the points you bring up, but when I first saw it at the age of 22 I was blown away. I had never seen anything like it, and it was my first exposure to the Roman world. From that start, I went on to learn about the Roman Republic , the Roman Empire and many of the heroes and villains of that story. For those reasons, and because I liked the character of Claudius so much I still think of the series fondly. The villains in the show were indeed horrific, but at the time I would never have connected up the decay of that culture to our own. Much easier to see today, and I have learned through my study just how much the world lost when the Roman Republic was overthrown. Oh and I really did like how the smart and clever Claudius thrived because he was under-rated and overlooked. I have always loved such characters and always thought of Claudius as kind of a Roman Columbo.