The book that this is supposed to be based on is really good. It gives the story of Masada through the narrative of 4 different women. This miniseries, however, is crap. Several major characters are left out, and those that are depicted aren't even developed well. The casting is mediocre. They could have done a lot better.Some reviewers don't like the "morals" of the story. If they had actually followed the book, these uptight people wouldn't have been as offended at least. In the book, Eleazar and Shirah are secretly married. Shirah is called the Witch of Moab, yet she is really nothing more than an herbalist. Yael and Ben-Simon's relationship is an example of how women were pretty powerless at that time. So cool your jets! I am a Christian and I found this story (in the book) moving. Some people just take themselves too seriously.Maybe someday a studio will give this story the treatment it deserves!

Really the only good thing about this film was the visuals. Everything else about it was just terrible. This movie was in essence a women's romance novel set during biblical times. The film hardly hold up to Judea/Christian values though. The two main women in the movie sleep with every man they meet. This is unacceptable in our time, but in this time in history they would have been killed for it. To add insult to injury they also practice witchcraft. No one ever seems to question any of this behavior though, and everyone acts like this is perfectly normal. I never did watch the second night. It was so terrible I could not bear another night of this trash. The characters are empty, and wooden. The men are all hunky (right off the cover of a romance novel). Do yourself a favor and skip this. Your brain will thank you for it.

This is an exceptional piece of work actually. Its structure will undoubtedly not be received well by many as it is quite a daring "avant guard" method against the usual prime TV drama format. The filmmakers managed to tell a story through an interview, making the story easier to analyze and probably more cost efficiently had it been a full dramatic narrative which I am guessing would have been too cost prohibitive, relegating this story to just a book. There is lots in the book that is not in the series, but I don't expect the series to replace the book. The series manages to bring out the humane story of these women as they struggled to survive and as they showed their love in an era of horrible prosecution by Romans who were only hungry for power and ego. These are people who only wanted to live in peace but were disallowed to have a normal life. I love the fact that the filmmakers didn't overdo the violence and action and focused more on the characters, and well yes on the love-making scenes.

I wish we could offer a -10 on the rating. Don't waste your time if you're looking for something even mildly close to what we know from history. There were so many mistakes. The authors failed to research anything. People from this time period not only wanted freedom, they were devout Jews following a very conservative lifestyle and belief. Infidelity would have never happened. Sex with slaves would never have happened. They lived communally and shared almost everything. When they met their end, there wasn't a shouts or screams, they understood what they faced if the Romans took them alive. Crucifixion. Every man, woman and child would die on a cross. Besides a few names, the Roman 10th, and the fact that this happened at Masada, they didn't get much right. It's an insult and CBS should be forced to apologias to the entire Jewish community for this insult.