The third episode of Starz’ swords-and-sandals spectacle, Spartacus: Blood and Sand, aired last Friday. I decided to check out this show because I knew its executive producers included Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert, and Joshua Donen — the team that produced Legend of the Seeker. Three hours into the series, I’m considering whether or not to continue watching. You’ll have to help me decide.
Spartacus is similar to 300 in many ways (e.g., the computer-generated ancient world, the muscle men in barely-there costumes, the stylized violence). In fact, the show appears to be a blatant attempt to recreate the success of 300. If you hated that film, you will probably hate Spartacus as well. I watched 300 for the first time last month, and I thought it was all right. One of the things I liked best about 300 was it’s brevity (less than 2 hours). It ended before I could become bored. I’m not sure I want to see a whole season’s worth of the same stuff.
Let me briefly discuss what I like and dislike about Spartacus so far.
First, I like the cast, which includes a mix of familiar stars and hot newcomers. Lucy Lawless and John Hannah play the Roman couple that owns the ludus (the gladiator school), where Spartacus (Andy Whitfield) trains to fight in the arena. Craig Parker (Darken Rahl from Legend of the Seeker) plays Gaius Claudius Glaber, the Roman legate who sold Spartacus into slavery. Parker once again makes a great villain. In addition to Whitfield, the very attractive cast includes Erin Cummings as Spartacus’s wife, Peter Mensah as the gladiators’ trainer Doctore, and Manu Bennett as Crixus, the top dog at gladiator school. The only cast member that I don’t care for is Viva Bianca, who plays Glaber’s aristocratic wife (her voice grates on my nerves).
Second, I like some of the story lines. “Story lines! What story lines?” you scoff. But it’s true that they exist. They’re simple and sandwiched somewhere between the graphic violence and gratuitous sex — but simple stories are often the most powerful. “Wife gets kidnapped/raped by the villain” worked for Stargate SG-1 and for Rob Roy, and it works here as well. I really want to see Spartacus find Sura and make Glaber suffer for what he did. Another classic plot line is the rivalry between the alpha dog and the underdog, and again, it works well here. The antagonism between Spartacus and Crixus adds some interest to this show.
Third, I like the style of the show. What do I mean by style? The language, the music, the look and feel of it. I’m the type of person who enjoys toga tales and ethnic music. Visually, the CG stuff works well enough, although some scenes from the premiere looked very unreal (borrowing the graphic novel look from 300). What I have really enjoyed, surprisingly enough, is the dialogue, which has an archaic, almost Shakespearean flavor to it.
As for what I don’t like — well, depending on your taste, you may see these as positives and not negatives, but I personally don’t like the excessive violence, sex, nudity, and profanity. Of course, the violence is to be expected in a show about gladiators, and it’s so stylized that it looks fake. After only three hours, I’ve been completely desensitized to slow-motion blood baths. The sex scenes and nudity are gratuitous, meant to appeal to your inner voyeur, but some of the scenes are revolting. I can understand the need to show how decadent ancient Rome was, but let me ask this: if you saw Episode 3, “Legends,” did you think that scene with Varro and the slave girl and the audience of Roman aristocrats was necessary? I don’t. As far as the profanity goes, all I can say is that Spartacus is less profane than Deadwood. So don’t watch this show with your mother unless she’s a foul-mouthed, bloodthirsty voyeur.
Is Spartacus worth your time or mine? I’ve shared my thoughts, and now I’d like to read your opinions of the first three episodes. Leave a comment, and let me know whether you will continue watching and why or why not.
Clacked by Ruby T.
on Feb 09, 2010 @ 16:00 EST5EDT
I’ve also watched the first 3 eps, and am waiting to be hooked. The stories just haven’t become compelling yet, to me. I’ll probably watch one or two more and fade away if they don’t start connecting.
Nope, I ditched it, there is nothing to it and the look of it feels very cheap and too comic bookish.
I’m not terribly impressed, but I’m still watching. Why you ask? Two words. Craig Parker.
I’ve been watching and have been lukewarm to it thus far. The first episode was a bit of a bore until Lawless and Hannah finally showed up, so I hope they remain prominent players. The gladiator school is interesting and the battles are exciting, however I am really bugged by the overuse of the CGI blood, especially when an image will freeze while blood flies out from behind the still characters. Some of the CGI scenery is really bad (such as the overhead shot of the city and the coliseum) and takes you out of the whole story, but my biggest complaint is the profanity. Not that I’m a prude, I’m just put off by so many “modern” words that begin with F and C (and there are a few C words) that I don’t think were in use during this time and it really seems out of place. Just because you’re on cable doesn’t mean you have to use every profane word in the book because sometimes it just doesn’t work. But, for now, Lawless, Hannah, Whitfield and Bennett will keep me tuning in.
Out of the three episodes that have aired so far, I think the show has promise. I really liked the second episode.
Arthor/Critic:
I agree 100% with your critique of the show. I believe the profanity and blatant nudity is unnecessary. Nevertheless, looking at today’s ideals of what is acceptable and not acceptable on the tele’, I’d have to say I’ve seen worse unfortunately. Alas, as I too, enjoy the old tales I will continue watching the show, if not only to see the storylines come to their respective conclusions, as you pointed out above.
I have not been hooked. The violence and nudity and bad CGI could be overcome with a good story. I just don’t buy the main character and the wife’s abduction seemed like a really lame reason to give Spartacus the motivation required to presumably create an uprising against his captors. A rather poor take on the historical figure.
I know I’m late to the party, but thought this should be here for posterity…
From an interview with DeKnight about the show:
In an interesting side note, there were quite a few denizens of the internet and professional reviewers that decried our lack of historical accuracy based solely on the use of profanity that they erroneously identified as anachronistic. Absolutely not true. Early on I asked Aaron and Jeff about profanity in ancient Rome, and they sent me a delightful rundown on all the vulgarities that have been cited either in recorded documents or ancient graffiti. They were surprisingly the same as we use today. I believe the confusion comes largely from the fact that the infamous f-bomb originated in the 15th century, some 1500 years after our story takes place. While this is true regarding the specific rendering of the expletive, what the critics didn’t take into account is that the pre-Christian Romans definitely had their Latin equivalent, “FUTUERE”, which means, quite simply, to f***. (My historical gurus point out that the primary Latin dictionaries bowdlerize all Latin curse words because of the Victorian sensibilities of the time that they were written, so that if someone were to look up “futuere” in the big Lewis and Short Latin dictionary, the definition would say “to have connection with a female”. This is a very polite way of saying “to f***”.) Since our show is presented in English, the word is translated into the closest modern equivalent. The same holds true for all other basic obscenities presented on the show.
https://community.starz.com/t5/Spartacus-Blood-and-Sand/10-Questions-For-Steven-S-DeKnight/ba-p/33860
Yes, this is quite true. If you are very interested in Latin swear words, you can find a whole article on “Latin profanity” in Wikipedia. Those Romans could get quite colorful.
Since I studied Latin back in high school and college, I enjoy the way the language in Spartacus does seem to reflect the Latin (as far as I can tell with my rusty skills). For example, when they want to thank someone, they say, “Gratitude,” which is like the casual Latin “Gratias.”