''Domina'' is a British-Italian

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romance film, romances, adventure f ...

television series created and written by Simon Burke for

Sky Atlantic (Italy) Sky Atlantic is an Italian-language pay-TV station owned by Sky Italia. It started broadcasting on 9 April 2014. Programming The channel relies heavily on screenings of US television programmes from HBO and Showtime. Original programming Current ...

and

Sky Atlantic Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group Limited broadcast in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is primarily dedicated to imported programmes from the United States, and holds the domestic rights to HBO ...

(UK). Starring

Kasia Smutniak Katarzyna Anna "Kasia" Smutniak (; born 13 August 1979) is a Polish-Italian actress and model. Personal life Smutniak was born in Piła, Poland. Her father, Brigadier General Zenon Smutniak, is a military pilot and served in the Polish Air F ...

Livia Drusilla Livia Drusilla (30 January 59 BC – 28 September AD 29) was a Roman empress from 27 BC to AD 14 as the wife of Emperor Augustus Caesar. She was known as Julia Augusta after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14. Livia was the ...

, it examines the power struggles of

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

from a female perspective. The series premiered on 14 May 2021. ''Domina'' has been renewed for a second series.

Premise

The series charts the life and rise of

, the powerful wife of the Roman emperor

Augustus Caesar Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

Cast

Main

Recurring

Guests

Episodes

Production

Written by Simon Burke, the lead director is Australian filmmaker

Claire McCarthy Claire McCarthy is an Australian screenwriter, Film director, director, Film producer, producer, and Visual arts, visual artist. Early life Claire was born in Sydney, the daughter of Christine, an author and concert pianist, and John McCarthy ...

. Filming for ''Domina'' resumed at the

Cinecittà Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City Studios), is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios we ...

studios in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in July 2020 following delays from the initial start in 2019 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The show's title comes from the female version of 'Dominus', the Ancient Roman title for sovereignty, and from which the word 'dominate' originates. As pointed out by Nicola Maccanico (executive vp programming of Sky Italia), Domina is an international production with strong Italian roots. Ancient Rome is brought back to life, bringing together at Cinecittà the great international artistic values and the best Italian talents in the sector: the costumes will be designed by the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

winning

Gabriella Pescucci Gabriella Pescucci (; born 17 January 1943) is an Italian costume designer. She has worked with directors Pier Paolo Pasolini, Federico Fellini, Sergio Leone, Terry Gilliam, Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton and Neil Jordan. In 1994, she won the Osc ...

(The Age of Innocence, Once Upon A Time in America, etc.), and production design by the ADG award winner, Luca Tranchino (Prison Break, etc.) In February 2022, Epix renewed the show for a second series.

Broadcast

The series was released in its entirety on 14 May 2021 on

Sky Box Sets Sky Box Sets is a television channel owned and operated by New Zealand's Sky. It was launched on 1 August 2017 on Sky Channel 9 in 1080i high-definition. The channel screens an entire season of a television series at 7:30pm every night. The ch ...

and

NOW Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Now ...

in Italy and the UK. It premiered on television the same day on

and

(UK). In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, the series premiered on 6 June 2021 on

Epix Epix (pronounced ''epics'' and stylized as P) is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by the Epix Entertainment LLC subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), a subsidiary of Amazon's MGM Holdings, Inc. The channel's pr ...

Reception

The series has received mostly positive reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series holds an approval rating of 78% based on 9 reviews, with an average score of 6.3/10. Suzi Feay in ''

The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikk ...

'' dubbed the series “Game of Romans”. Historian

Tom Holland Thomas Stanley Holland (born 1 June 1996) is an English actor. His accolades include a British Academy Film Award, three Saturn Awards, a Guinness World Record and an appearance on the ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 Europe list. Some publications h ...

in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' agreed that “The echoes of ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...

'' in the first two episodes are strong, and surely deliberate...the rest of the series approximates more closely to a political thriller”. Holland praised the show “the meat of the show is so enjoyably done that the odd anachronism hardly matters. The 20s BC, sandwiched between the suicides of Antony and Cleopatra and the maturity of Augustus, have never before been the subject of popular drama, but Domina demonstrates to brilliant effect how unjustly neglected they have been... Part of the fun of the series is seeing characters who became significant players in the later decades of Augustus’s life as teenagers”.

References

External links

* {{Sky Atlantic 2021 Italian television series debuts 2021 British television series debuts Television dramas set in ancient Rome 2020s Italian drama television series 2020s British drama television series Italian drama television series British drama television series Television series by Endemol Television shows filmed in Italy Cultural depictions of Livia Depictions of Augustus on television Sky Atlantic (Italy) television programmes Italia 1 original programming