"The tree of the Claudians bears two kinds of apples, the sweet and the sour." (Tiberius to his brother Drusus)
Nine years have passed since Julia married Agrippa... Agrippa is already dead and Livia has achieved her goal - Tiberius has divorced Vipsania and married Augustus' widowed daughter. Politics harshly influences family relations and schemes have a crucial impact on the state of affairs, family affairs.
While the first episode underlined the character of Marcellus (Christopher Guard), FAMILY AFFAIRS draws our attention to Drusus (Ian Ogilvy) - Livia's son, Tiberius' brother, Antonia's husband and little Claudius' father. Unlike Marcelus, he is equal to Livia's favored Tiberius. Unlike Tiberius, he has purely republican views and states clearly that if it were up to him, he would restore the Roman Republic at once. In background comes the aspect of ruler idolatry from the Parthian envoys and attempts to make Augustus a god. In that context, every republican heart in Rome would have naturally trembled of creating a despot within the principate. Livia, however, skillfully deludes the envoys of Palmyra as well as the Roman senators seeing the prospect for her son to be on a throne one day. Therefore, Drusus becomes Livia's greatest danger in spite of mother-son ties (it's beautifully manifested in a scene of the two when he says to her "a mother can't love all her children.") Absurdly, and maliciously, she sends her own doctor, Musa (whom we already know for having treated Marcellus with an undesirable effect) when Drusus falls ill in the woods of Germania. He indeed does his job there... It occurs that family affairs soon turn into family troubles.
The one that can be pitied most in this situation is Tiberius (George Baker), still young and yet, clearly disappointed with all those plans, actions and wretched determination of his mother. He is placed in between people that he loves (Vipsania, Drusus), who are the people that he loses, and people who play a far too serious role in his life (Livia, Augustus). His suffering is caused by 'divorce enforced upon him' but his real reclusive existence revealed in later debauchery becomes reality when Drusus dies. This is when he really starts to hate many people openly: his mother Livia and his wife Julia. One of the most memorable scenes depicts Tiberius in a palaestra with his brother Drusus. We see that there is a friendly relation between the two, that both have courage to speak their minds to each other and Tiberius is frank to that extent he tells Drusus about the symbolic 'dark thoughts.' This can, of course, be interpreted as 'dark thoughts' of power within principate which becomes a sort of sick ambition but, it can also mean the confusion within claws of conspiracy, murder and unrestrained pursuit of power. In their conversation, they refer to one of the key lines of the whole series about the Claudian family and the two extreme types of personalities: either sweet or sour, white or black, either good or evil - and what type is Livia? The mother of them both? Allegedly, "a snake bit her once...and died." Symbolically, she is portrayed as a more powerful and poisonous creature than a serpent (with reference to both Egyptian and Biblical tradition). Nevertheless, it is not yet time for the queen to be poison.
Another of such quintessential scenes of the episode which I would like to outline here is the 'trio' - Augustus, Tiberius and Livia. The power of deceit can turn a hot tension into calf-like calmness and deluding intelligence can indeed leave others speechless. Augustus yells at Tiberius over his visit at Vipsania and it seems that the 'almighty emperor' will considerably ridicule the 'pampered son' of his wife until... Livia herself steps in and ridicules the situation. Her calm reaction shuts the mouth of the furious authoritative man. The facial communication of the three is unforgettable and makes the scene one of the quintessential exemplifications of great acting. The scene ends with a perfect mask of interaction undisguised by Livia: the letter from Drusus arrives, Drusus who, by Tiberius' efforts of justifications, was 'wounded,' not entirely 'sane' and presumably 'not himself.'
There is also room for humor, including the scene between two ladies in a massage chamber evokes the Roman spirit of female beauty. The food taster that turns up at Claudius the narrator is also a model of pompous critic powerful in the use of words but weak in the use of constructive arguments. As for the touching moments, Antonia (Margaret Tyzack) placing the crying baby Claudius in the arms of her dying husband works as a depiction of family tragedy and republican tragedy. Yet, the latter seems to be not totally absorbed. Claudius paradoxically takes so much after his father.
Claws of evil keep their existence secret and consume more and more victims. Reduction to mere 'doom' is what is left even to the most serious 'family troubles.'
Nine years have passed since Julia married Agrippa... Agrippa is already dead and Livia has achieved her goal - Tiberius has divorced Vipsania and married Augustus' widowed daughter. Politics harshly influences family relations and schemes have a crucial impact on the state of affairs, family affairs.
While the first episode underlined the character of Marcellus (Christopher Guard), FAMILY AFFAIRS draws our attention to Drusus (Ian Ogilvy) - Livia's son, Tiberius' brother, Antonia's husband and little Claudius' father. Unlike Marcelus, he is equal to Livia's favored Tiberius. Unlike Tiberius, he has purely republican views and states clearly that if it were up to him, he would restore the Roman Republic at once. In background comes the aspect of ruler idolatry from the Parthian envoys and attempts to make Augustus a god. In that context, every republican heart in Rome would have naturally trembled of creating a despot within the principate. Livia, however, skillfully deludes the envoys of Palmyra as well as the Roman senators seeing the prospect for her son to be on a throne one day. Therefore, Drusus becomes Livia's greatest danger in spite of mother-son ties (it's beautifully manifested in a scene of the two when he says to her "a mother can't love all her children.") Absurdly, and maliciously, she sends her own doctor, Musa (whom we already know for having treated Marcellus with an undesirable effect) when Drusus falls ill in the woods of Germania. He indeed does his job there... It occurs that family affairs soon turn into family troubles.
The one that can be pitied most in this situation is Tiberius (George Baker), still young and yet, clearly disappointed with all those plans, actions and wretched determination of his mother. He is placed in between people that he loves (Vipsania, Drusus), who are the people that he loses, and people who play a far too serious role in his life (Livia, Augustus). His suffering is caused by 'divorce enforced upon him' but his real reclusive existence revealed in later debauchery becomes reality when Drusus dies. This is when he really starts to hate many people openly: his mother Livia and his wife Julia. One of the most memorable scenes depicts Tiberius in a palaestra with his brother Drusus. We see that there is a friendly relation between the two, that both have courage to speak their minds to each other and Tiberius is frank to that extent he tells Drusus about the symbolic 'dark thoughts.' This can, of course, be interpreted as 'dark thoughts' of power within principate which becomes a sort of sick ambition but, it can also mean the confusion within claws of conspiracy, murder and unrestrained pursuit of power. In their conversation, they refer to one of the key lines of the whole series about the Claudian family and the two extreme types of personalities: either sweet or sour, white or black, either good or evil - and what type is Livia? The mother of them both? Allegedly, "a snake bit her once...and died." Symbolically, she is portrayed as a more powerful and poisonous creature than a serpent (with reference to both Egyptian and Biblical tradition). Nevertheless, it is not yet time for the queen to be poison.
Another of such quintessential scenes of the episode which I would like to outline here is the 'trio' - Augustus, Tiberius and Livia. The power of deceit can turn a hot tension into calf-like calmness and deluding intelligence can indeed leave others speechless. Augustus yells at Tiberius over his visit at Vipsania and it seems that the 'almighty emperor' will considerably ridicule the 'pampered son' of his wife until... Livia herself steps in and ridicules the situation. Her calm reaction shuts the mouth of the furious authoritative man. The facial communication of the three is unforgettable and makes the scene one of the quintessential exemplifications of great acting. The scene ends with a perfect mask of interaction undisguised by Livia: the letter from Drusus arrives, Drusus who, by Tiberius' efforts of justifications, was 'wounded,' not entirely 'sane' and presumably 'not himself.'
There is also room for humor, including the scene between two ladies in a massage chamber evokes the Roman spirit of female beauty. The food taster that turns up at Claudius the narrator is also a model of pompous critic powerful in the use of words but weak in the use of constructive arguments. As for the touching moments, Antonia (Margaret Tyzack) placing the crying baby Claudius in the arms of her dying husband works as a depiction of family tragedy and republican tragedy. Yet, the latter seems to be not totally absorbed. Claudius paradoxically takes so much after his father.
Claws of evil keep their existence secret and consume more and more victims. Reduction to mere 'doom' is what is left even to the most serious 'family troubles.'
