17 thoughts on “Top Five Friday: All the Bitches, Part 3

  1. Livia [Sian Philips] from I Claudius. grrr-owl [I know scifi doesn’t count here, but the ultimate bad bitch was Servalan in Blake’s 7 [Jacqueline Pearce]]

    1. Thank you for mentioning Servalan. She was truly one boss bitch. And even though Blake’s 7 was sci-fi, I think Frock Flicks should take a look at their outfits. They were…remarkable.

      1. I will never forget Star One where Jenna and Callie beam down to save the guys’ bacon attired in long, narrow skirts and six inch heels.

  2. I have to agree Livia in I Claudius was totally badass. It’s hard to find a bigger badass than Sian Philip’s interpretation of a woman who will do literally everything to make her son emperor. Even killing his younger brother – having him killed. Poison was her method.

  3. The casting and acting of I Claudius is what spoiled part of the second season of Rome for me. The actor Rome had for their old version of Octavian and the petulant little girl they had for Livia could never have grown up to be Brian Blessed and Sian Phillips.
    Also, the actress playing Cleopaterer in Rome was awful … give me the Glorious Liz for that role every time.
    But, I agree that Atia is why you watch Rome … it is essentially the stories of Atia and Pullo.

  4. Polly Walker being bitchy is the reason why Rome is on the to-watch list for my mom and I (after we finish s2 of outlander).

  5. Harriet Walter as Fanny Dashwood in “Sense and Sensibility.” (Her bangs might deserve a stand-alone mention)
    Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone
    (And Olivia Coleman, why not?) as Lady Sarah, Abigail, and Queen Anne in “The Favourite.”

  6. i have the curse Lesley Duncan’s character recites outside Polly Walker’s house in “Rome”, I aspire to use it one day, although I’m not sure I want to kneel in the dust for 3 days in literal sack cloth and ashes and then kill myself!

    1. That character was a hoot, but she not really a boss bitch. she more like a parasite, and subject to the whims of others.

  7. The best part of the early seasons of Rome was watching the icy frenemy relationship between Atia, old money to be sure, but also bawdy and tacky, vs. the serenely composed and haughty Servilia, played by Lindsay Duncan, who was equally patrician, but just somehow more patrician.

    Atia is one of the best female characters ever created by television (her historical counterpart was nothing like her), and Polly Walker imbued the character with such warmth and humor you found yourself liking her even when she was doing horrible things, especially to her children.

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