Spartacus: Blood and Sand

Last month was a bit boring for me, mainly because most of the serials I watch were on break and it was becoming a matter of national security more and more irritating not having anything to pass time with. I ventured on tv.com trying to find some good new serials to watch. It was then when I stumbled across Spartacus. Reviews looked mostly good, produced by Sam Raimi was another positive, the theme of the serial looked good as well – gladiators, blood, war and a bit of roman style sizzle

So, I decided to watch Spartacus. I downloaded rented all the episodes of Spartacus and gave it a go. After watching all the episodes broadcast to date, I now have a totally different perspective on this serial than what I had initially. First I had thought of the serial as something which converts the movie Gladiator into a long series with more attention to details. More battles, development of a character, the training, treachery, hopes of freedom, ambitions to rule the arena and a bit of romance to go along nicely. The concept looked good and solid as well. In reality though I couldn’t be further away from the truth.

Instead, Spartacus is, in one word, hilarious. It starts of with a Roman legates, Caludius Glabber, asking a Thracian horde to help the Romans overthrow the rebel Getae and help save their own houses from getting burned, children from getting murdered and women from being raped. Sounds interesting eh? The Thracians finally agree to help Rome and see them destroy the Getae once in for all. The Romans, however, have other plans of their own. Our hero, Spartacus (Andy Whitfield) – a Thracian, wants to finish Getae as promised. When the legates refuses to do so, he picks a fight against them, hits the legates, kills his guards and runs to save his wife, Sura (Erin Cummings), from the Getae. Still sounds interesting…

Then, he saves his wife, the town is destroyed, he goes into exile with her, where he is captured by the legates for killing his men and plotting against Rome. His wife is taken away from him and he is thrown into a gladiator arena against 4 men. There he sees something his wife mentioned and that thing gives him the energy to defeat all 4 gladiators. He kills them all. Legates is furious now and wants Spartacus dead, however the crowd wants him alive. As an easy way out, Spartacus is transferred to the ludus (gladiator training center) of Batiatus where he won’t live long with all the hectic training. I was getting more excited to see the training now. Yay!

Now the series starts to fall apart. Endless boring dialogs, repetition of the same lines, nudity where it is not required and most importantly, the story stays at this point for quite some time. The glorified violence with blood flowing everywhere was good to see at first, but it’s overdone. The sex scenes are glorified for no reason. The dialogs are not only boring but they are tacky. It starts to look like a B grade serial.

Don’t turn away just yet, the performances by Batiatus (John Hannah) as a fierce and treacherous dominus (master of the ludus) is the best in the series. His wife, Lucretia, played by the ever classy Lucy Lawless is also very good. Ilithia (Viva Bianca), wife of legates Claudius also plays her part quite well. The one I liked the most was Peter Mensah, working as the doctore (trainer of gladiators). He looks strict, he looks professional – he looks real. Performances of the supporting cast however are not up to the mark which is a disappointment.

It still has its moments though. The story does creep forward – slowly. Will Spartacus reunite with his wife? Will he stay alive in the ludus? What about the other characters? Watch the series to know. To sum it up, Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times wrote that John Hannah as Batiatus “keeps the show grounded with a persuasive portrait of a man engaged in a stressful daily business” with Barry Garron of the Hollywood Reporter suggesting that with “such thin stories…it’s small wonder that sex and violence are used to take up the slack.”

My Rating? 2.5/5

Aditya Shevade

Aditya I am, a Linux fanatic, a nature photographer, a music fiend… I spend most of my time these days listening to Music while browsing the Internet about various topics of my interest ranging from Electronics to coffee recipes. Learn more about me here.