HBO has launched yet another quirky, viral marketing campaign - this time to promote the return of Rome on January 14th. From January 10th through the 13th, 100 Italian eateries in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago will be offering complimentary bottles of Rome wine, a cabernet sauvingnon bottled in California and labelled for maximum ad appeal. Rather than have servers push the wine on customers, a card will be placed on each table offering diners "a taste of Rome."

The brainchild behind the promo is Lime Public Relations & Promotions who feel that the campaign is "innovative but tasteful." Lime president Claudia Strauss reported to AdAge that, "The show is all about indulgence, and we just felt this was a great way to bring to life one of the key aspects of the story line." In keeping with the show's over-the-top sex and gore, participating restaurants will also allow diners to drink the blood of Christian martyrs, sodomize select servers and retire to a vomitorium following their meal.

From the "Look, We're Really Not Surprised" department ...

It turns out that the last eight episodes of HBO's The Sopranos will not be premiering in January as originally reported. Blame star James Gandolfini's knee surgery for mucking up the works. Since the surgery has set filming back, HBO Chairman Chris Albrecht decided to push the final episodes back to March of 2007. In its place the premium cable network will air the second season of Rome.

Television critic Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle speaks of this scheduling change in his blog. He talks about Deadwood, The Wire, and Curb Your Enthusiasm as well.

Writers for My Name is Earl, The Office, and Grey's Anatomy are getting some accolades for their good work on their successful new shows. The writing teams for those programs were nominated for Writers Guild of America awards. Earl writers received three different nominations, while Office and Anatomy writers were both nominated for two awards including best new series. Don't worry, shows like Lost and Arrested Development also were nominated. The awards will be handed out February 4 in LA and NY.

More categories and nominations are listed after the jump:

First off, I'm extremely sorry for the tardiness of this post, I'm sure there's a joke somewhere out there about kidney stones, but I'm at a loss for it. Rome was one of the biggest and grandest shows I've ever seen on TV. It wasn't an "epic-miniseries" or "multi-night event", this was a complete television series, and on the largest scale. The finale certainly upheld the high standard that the foregoing shows set, even if the Egypt episodes slowed the pace a little for me. I'm sorry to speak of it in past tense, but there are many rumors that production on the second season has been halted and if it comes back at all, they will show the few filmed episodes as a mini-series. You know me, I hope it's not true, but it doesn't sound good. So while we still can-- On with the show!

The war is over, Egypt is unified, and the men are returning home. Everything should be peaceful, right? Come now, this is ancient Rome and the show is aired on HBO, of course it's not gonna be peaceful. For those that complained that the ladies of the show have been in the background for the past couple of episodes, well, this was the week was for you then. Attia and Servilia were at their prime in their machiavellian cat-fight in this episode. This conflict could end up spelling the end of Rome as we know it as the respective men in their lives have to choose a side.

"It's only hubris if I fail," Caesar says after Mark Antony accuses him of hubris, and decides to stay behind in Egypt and play Cleopatra and her brother/husband Ptolemy 13th. For me, this quote pretty much sums up all of Rome's "leaders" to this point. Everyone sees themselves in the right, even though they know they are wrong. Rome's true downfall was their cockiness. On with the show.

This episode of Rome seems to be based completely around faith and the destruction of it. Faith is the downfall and faith is the saviour of so many players in this episode. Pompey has his faith that he will not lose, then, that he still has his colleagues trust, then that he will make it safely to his stronghold. Caesar's faith lies in his soldier's prowess and his friends' forgiveness. Titus' resides in the belief that he's not meant to die in some ridiculous manner. Lucius' in his idea of what a government should be.

We've just about reached the halfway point in this season and you can feel things are starting to heat up. It's like the tangible tension that is present in every episode of Deadwood. You know the s**t is gonna hit the fan, you're just not sure how or when. Last week Antony was left in charge of a Rome in dismay, the streets are chaotic and the government in shambles. What could possibly go wrong here?? On with the show!

So last week we learned that even the great Gaius Julius Caesar has a chink or two in his armor. The love of his best friend's mother and apparently a form of epilepsy. Neither of these could ever come back to bite him in the ass right? Nah... On with the show.

So this week with the arrival of Caesar in Rome, we finally get our first real taste of him as a character and we get to see Ciaran Hinds finally show us why he was chosen for this role. Many of you will probably recognize Ciaran from his roles in Phantom of the Opera or The Sum of all Fears. I've thought he was the perfect fit for Caesar since the moment. I started seeing the ads for the show. He's a great actor and although we've seen him in some subtle moments in the show already, no one would have guessed that a show called Rome wouldn't have a Julius Caesar-centric episode until the 4th episode in. Now on with the show!

Yea, yea, yea I know it was really Niobe's baby, I was just playing the devil's advocate last week. I mean,  someone has to look for the good in all people, so why not me? Rome continues to enthrall me and it sucked that this episode was only a little over 40 minutes long. Hopefully this won't become a trend, because I need me my ancient italian fix. Last night's episode was another exciting foray into the dramas and politics of a burgeoning empire.

Last week I said that this show was just too immense that I was having trouble covering everything. My favorite parts of the episode last week may have been the (mis)adventures of Titus (Pullo) and Lucious (Vorenus).  Like a buddy cop flick set in ancient Rome, they evoked Mel Gibson and Danny Glover perfectly. Titus, the spiraling out of control roughneck and Lucious, the ever faithful family man soldier. I think they will be fan-favorites in the show, bringing a bickering humor in a very dark and serious hour. Luckily this week the story weighed heavily on their sholders and it was an immense treat.

In the Rome "Pre-Show" that they had on last night before Rome actually debuted there were two quotes from two of the actors about the show that really resonated with me, especially after watching the firs episode: "There's nothing small about it" and "You'll have to put in a little work at the begining, but in the end, it'll be worth it." And in the immortal words of Bill, "Baby, you ain't kiddin". This show defines epic, everything is sweeping, grand and larger than you can imagine. The first episode was almost too much to take in in one sitting, there is so much going on and they're trying to introduce us to so many characters, grudges and backstory that it perfectly walks the edge of leaving us wanting for more instead of flooding us with too much.