Domino from the title of the series, recorded in a British-Italian production, is Livia Drusila, the wife of the first Roman emperor Augustus and the daughter of the eminent Roman senator, tribune and military commander from the time of the late republic, Marco Livius Drusus. In “Domina” we follow the period since the assassination of Julius Caesar and the decade-long struggle for supremacy between various factions, and these are also the last years of the Roman Republic. But since the protagonist is a woman, and a very powerful woman, this historical drama about ancient Rome is told from a woman’s perspective and in a nutshell “Domino” could be described as “Housewives” meet “Game of Thrones”. We follow Livia’s life from her youth until her rise to the position of the most powerful woman in the Roman Empire, and we will see how she got hold of these titles through manipulation, fraud, intrigue, divorce, marriage and even murder, but also the inevitable rolling in bed.
DOMINA series review
Thus, Livia will turn from a naive girl (Nadia Parkes) into an unscrupulous woman (Kasia Smutniak) who, thanks to her beauty, intelligence, but also her natural instinct for survival, has become the most powerful woman in the empire. Much can be learned about the organization of the late Roman Republic and the early empire and how this vast ancient state that stretched across almost the entire then known world functioned. We see that there was not much love, but, at least when it came to these nobles, only interests prevailed and how the main occupations were intrigue, organizing arranged marriages and how poisons worked at full steam. Of course, there are, of course, a lot of dramatized parts, because this is a feature series, not a documentary, but the fact is that the spirit of ancient Rome is finely affected, the way people lived then and everything that goes on.
It must be admitted that the authors managed to recreate ancient Rome and its surroundings two thousand years ago, and the costumes for which Gabriella Pescucci, the Oscar winner for Scorsese’s “Age of Innocence” is credited, also work authentically. The viewer also gets to know the struggle between the Republicans and those (especially Augustus and his clique) who wanted, in the end, succeeded in creating an empire out of Rome and abolishing the previous system. But, in terms of acting, directing and dramaturgy, “Domina” is not one of those with the quality of top series, and often it really goes into the water, almost like a soap opera that takes place during ancient Rome. Of course, this series also has its good sides, so in the end it deserves a passing grade. Rating 7/10.
MORE TV SHOW NEW: Who is Anna Delvey from Inventing Anna Netflix series