Here is the second part of the list of great TV shows I wrote about earlier.

Rome is a dirty history lesson. Even with enough sex and violence to satisfy the most debauched mind, the show convincingly recreates the lost civilization with all its glorious battles and senate debates. This is a unique way of looking at history – through the eyes of a handful of richly created complex characters rather than a series of events between great battles. It’s very down to earth, like an episode of The Sopranos and is also full of human drama, an element normally missing from most history textbooks. There can be no more entertaining a way to learn history. The show’s production is singularly impressive, as can be expected from any HBO production. The detailed and intricate costumes and the exceptional acting free of the usual costume-drama pompousness is simply wonderful. Rome is smart, bold and stunning. History lessons have never been more sexy. Read more »

It’s been two years since I graduated from IIT Madras. I don’t remember much of what was taught in the classroom. I do remember fragments of concepts and names of theories that I still throw around to impress people. I was good at the workshops. At the lathe machine, I fashioned a cylindrical lump of iron into a work of art. In the physics department I learned the mathematics of the motions of planets and molecules. I wrote a computer program to predict tsunamis; it’s still somewhere on my hard-drive. At the humanities department, I learned French and took to watching foreign films. I learned about industry and commerce and how to optimize everything from portfolios to the weight of a ship’s girder. All this i learned and forgot. Read more »

Mad Men
One word comes to my mind when I think of Mad Men – style. Mad Men is so stylish that you almost forget that all of its substance doesn’t really add up to a conventional story arc.

The show, in its second season seems to be going nowhere, and you couldn’t care less.
The show painstakingly recreates the American workplace of the 60′s, with all the political incorrectness and the sexual innuendos and the reckless smoking. The show’s central character is Don Draper, an advertising executive in Madison Avenue (mad men?), New York – a mysterious man with a dark past. The acting on the show is superlative and you could keep drooling at the beautifully recreated period details such as the interiors, the clothing and the mannerisms. The show’s atmosphere is almost film noir despite the color and everybody smokes like there is no tomorrow. Don Draper would say “I’m living like there’s no tomorrow, because there isn’t one.” Read more »