Television series
I, Claudius
Told by a stuttering, sidelined historian who somehow survives everyone around him, I, Claudius turns imperial Rome into a family dinner from hell. The sets wobble, the toga budget is visibly finite, and none of it matters, because the performances — especially Siân Phillips's poisoner-matriarch Livia — are so ferociously good you forget you're watching people plot murder in a studio.
If you liked this
Rome2005
Same city, same century, same appetite for betrayal, but shot with blood, mud and sex left in rather than implied. Gives you the streets Claudius only describes from his palace.
But Trades I, Claudius's arch wit and interiority for grit and spectacle — a different kind of pleasure, less talky and cerebral.

Wolf Hall2015
Another survivor navigating a court of butchers, this time Tudor England, with Mark Rylance's Cromwell as quiet and calculating as anyone in Claudius's family. Gorgeous, patient, merciless.
But Far slower and more restrained — no scenery-chewing villains here, just whispers and long silences. Ask if that's what you actually want.

Succession2018
Swap togas for private jets and you've got the same engine: a monstrous family destroying each other over who inherits the throne. Vicious, hilarious, and just as tragic underneath.
But Modern-day boardrooms lack the visceral stakes of actual executions — the cruelty here is professional, not mortal.

People
Cast
Recommended by
Game of Thrones, Rome, Wolf Hall, Gladiator, Billions, The Crown, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Ben-Hur, Foundation, The Great, The Favourite, House of Cards, Richard III, Spartacus, Dallas, Spartacus, Elizabeth R, The First Churchills, The Forsyte Saga, Scandal, House of the Dragon, The Apothecary Diaries, Empresses in the Palace, Barbaren, Gladiator II