WHY I AM WATCHING WHAT I AM WATCHING TONIGHT

Tonight, I am definitely not going to be watching the gang at MSNBC shadowbox with Reality and try to convince me that the political news out of New Hampshire is anything anyone actually needs to pay the least attention to. I’ve been doing that with watching them for the past four days: any time Chris or Rachel or Lawrence or Ali Velshi or whoever says the next segment will cover any aspect of the “event” in New Hampshire, I hit the fast forward on the DVR and get through the commercials and the next segment, and then stop at the end of that one to find out if there will b any actual news in the following segment. This is why I always watch whatever I watch on Cable TV on DVR: there are many things besides the commercials I never watch that also don’t need watching.

Although, every once in awhile, there’s something that flashes up from one of the commercials that looks like something I should know about; so I stop and rewind and check it out - like I did Sunday night at the end of the third episode of “Belgravia: the Next Chapter.” Yes, I admit it, I plead guilty to being a fan of Julian Fellowes’ historical soap operas. You can also hook me every time with any other good, solid, historically-founded soap opera. Which is what I’ll be watching tonight.

The ad Sunday night that caught my interest was the MGM+ announcement that the second season of “Domina” is available.

I hadn’t actually watched the first season, but when I checked the IMDb (the Internet Movie Database - the “bible” for finding out everything you need to know about a movie or TV show) and discovered what the story is, I then went and began downloading Season 1, currently available on streaming. I’m up to Episode 4 of 8, and with there being no news in the news tonight, I’ll likely get through the first season tonight.

“Domina” is the story of Livia Drusilla Claudia, beloved daughter of Livius Claudius, patriarch of the Claudians, one of the five great families of Rome, and second wife of Gaius Caesar, adopted son of Julius, better known in history as Octavian, and even better-known as Caesar Augustus, first Emperor of Rome. Those here “of a certain age” who remember “I Claudius” on PBS will remember Livia as the schemer one did not knowingly cross, the real power behind the throne.

“Domina” is about how - and more importantly why - Livia Drusilla Claudia comes down in history with that reputation. She was a woman, in Rome, where no man was expected to take her seriously other than as an attachment to either her father or her husband - merely a vessel for bearing children for the greater glory of Rome - with no rights and no power. And yet, she is correctly remembered as no one to cross. The real power behind the Emperor’s throne.

The story is interesting because there are so many aspects of Roman history that have a bearing on our history. The United States has not been known as “the new Rome” since the Founders came up with a governing system of the balancing of powers that can each check the others, that they came to understand from having read Polybius, the Greek historian of the Roman Republic who outlined the basic system of power in the Roman Republic, the system we adopted. Without realizing that when we adopted the system, we adopted the social aspects that surrounded that system.

I would say that, right now, a story that begins in the weeks following the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. with Marc Antony and Octavian preparing to declare war on the Roman Senate and the republican assassins of Caesar, goes through the Civil War, and deals in detail with the founding of the Empire provides one with “food for thought” regarding the year 2024 Anno Domini.

Livia’s father, Livius Claudius, did not agree with the assassins, Brutus and Cassius, but when the civil war threatened, he knew he would have to fight with them against the would-be imperial enemies of the Republic. The Claudians had been powerful in Rome since they led the overthrow of the Rule of Kings and founded the Republic. Livius is among those who died at the Battle of Phillipi, in his case by his own hand in shame of the defeat.

Livia, married to Tiberius Nero - a man decidedly not her equal - at age 15 just at the outbreak of the Civil War, survives in exile until the Amnesty. She returns to Rome, prepared to get rid of Tiberius and find “a man my equal,” proposes a union to Gaius Caesar, using his own argument that the only reasons for marriage are to acquire and control riches and power, pointing out that as the adopted son of Caesar, he has no family ties to rely on, while she is the surviving member of the most powerful of the five families of Rome, and can bring all that to him as her dowry.

Unlike the portrait of the imperial family presented in “I Claudius,” Augustus is not presented as Livia’s tool. He was intelligent enough to realize she was the only “equal” he had ever met, and over the course of his rise and rule, he listens to her ideas of what to do, and adopts them.

For me, the best episode so far is EP3, when he follows her strategy to deal with the Senate’s desire that he step down and give up his wartime powers to restore the Republic, doing so in order to have the Senate demand that he remain in control - thus establishing the Emperor, though Augustus never used that term was always “First Tribune of the Republic” as she suggested he remain. It’s an episode where one can look at today and see history rhyming. (Though the real Augustus would hold our pretender in contempt.)

The series is on MGM+, Channel 558 for those who have yet to cut the cord. The second season downloaded Monday night, so I can dive right into those eight episodes after tonight.

And I guarantee I’ll be more politically savvy tomorrow morning for having watched this than the Kabuki theater playing on cable news tonight.

This has accurate history, excellent writing, good acting. I recommend it to you.

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