Binge-r #242: Domina + StartUp
Killer Queen: Kasia Smutniak (Livia) in Domina
DOMINA S1
Streaming Service: Stan
Availability: All eight episodes now streaming
In the wake of Game of Thrones’ dragon-sized success, the Roman swords and sandals epic is an adjacent genre that can cop plenty from the wild things of Westeros: marital intrigue, the bloody taking of power, parallel plotting, and arch dialogue are all readily accessible in the ancient history of the city state. Beginning in 43 B.C., when Julius Caesar has been dead for a year, Domina liberally adapts the historic textbook on treachery. Created by Simon Burke (Fortitude), the series was shot in Rome, although it’s not readily apparent given the generic CGI and preference for studio sets, and it gets straight to introducing Livia (Nadia Parkes, as a teenager), the 15-year-old who has been taught how the city truly functions even as she’s prepared for her society marriage to the plainly unsuitable Tiberius Nero (Enzo Cilenti).
“Marriage and children are what Rome expects of you,” her esteemed father, Livius (Liam Cunningham) reminds Livia, but after he chooses the wrong side in a civil war he also charges his daughter with saving Rome as a republic, instead of letting it fall into the hands of dictatorial monarchs. The first two episodes show how she gets in position to do so, surviving setbacks to end up with Caesar’s heir, Gaius (Tom Glynn-Carney), who ruthlessly rises up to the leadership of the ruling clique Livia must usurp. This mean banquets, barbarity, and blood. The show’s focus are the female characters and how they find agency in a patriarchal world, before they have to adapt to the demands of power amidst the grapes served by slaves – including Livia’s closest friend, Antigone (Melodie Wakivuamina) – and some predictable sexual scenarios.
As an adult, played by Kasia Smutniak with Matthew McNulty as Gaius, Livia is a political strategist who moves in the shadows. Domina is big on transacting votes in Rome’s senate, although it doesn’t have a lot to say about politics that is particularly resonant. You do get a generation of teenage children who count some future rulers among them – Nick Cave’s son, Earl, plays the aggrieved Tiberius. “If I wanted to poison anyone the last place I’d do it is at my own dinner party,” Livia tells her step-son. “It was just some bad oysters”. As silly as that explanation sounds, the ludicrous side of the show is the most enjoyable. As it struggles to pull off its aims, Domina can at least rely on a touch of camp to make Rome’s fate worth following.
Law and Disorder: Martin Freeman (Phil Rask) in StartUp
StartUp S1 (All 10 episodes now streaming, plus S2 + S3): The best thing about this ensemble crime drama, set at Miami’s intersection of drug syndicates, money laundering, and tech innovation, is Martin Freeman as Phil Rask, a corrupt FBI agent with a matter-of-fact malevolence bound up in deep psychological scarring. Freeman’s scarifying performance can excise your memories of him in The Office and Sherlock, and he’s ably supported by Adam Brody as a disaffected venture capitalist, Otmara Marrero as an uncompromising cryptocurrency inventor, and Edi Gathegi as a Haitian gang leader looking to get off the streets. They all become bound up in a digital business venture that runs on the edge of illegality, but unfortunately Ben Ketai’s series – which originally aired between 2016 and 2018 on the obscure American streaming service Crackle – is generic in how it relates to the genre. The menacing conversations, floridly unnecessary sex scenes, and handheld camera action sequences are all familiar pieces, although intermittently the show finds a more telling contrast. Consider trying it if you like The Shield or wish Billions had consequences.
NEWLY ADDED MOVIES
New on Netflix: Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (2005, 134 minutes) remains one of the finest cinematic love stories of this century – and Heath Ledger’s best performance; It’s Complicated (2009, 120 minutes) is an exemplary Nancy Meyers fantasy, from Meryl Streep’ character choosing between Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin to sumptuous kitchen design.
New on Stan: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017, 127 minutes) is the dumbest film Guy Ritchie has made – Charlie Hunnam plays the geezer who would be king, Jude Law the evil oppressor; Before Amy Asif Kapadia made Senna (2011, 106 minutes), an incisive documentary portrait of a Formula One champion who went beyond driving fast.
New on SBS on Demand: Documenting the birth of psychoanalysis in the first decade of the last century, David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method (2011, 96 minutes) stars Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung and Viggo Mortensen as his mentor turned rival Sigmund Freud, but the defining presence comes from Keira Knightley as a patient who exudes intellectual and sexual energy – she is electrifying in a way her career has rarely suggested possible.
>> Missed last week’s BINGE-R? Click here to read about Ewan McGregor in Netflix’s 1970s fashion drama Halston and Stan’s terrific lady group comedy Girls5eva.
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