TV Review: Spartacus: Blood and Sand Season One
No spoilers.
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Spartacus: Blood and Sand is Starz Channel's first big hit, getting ratings of over a million on their own channel, and with their Netflix deal, letting people stream it after it airs, millions more have watched. But is it any good?
Surprisingly, yes.
Some scenes, especially battle scenes, are ridiculous, mind you. My favorite is from episode one, where Spartacus, leaping around like he’s doing wirework for the latest Matrix sequel, kills four men after being badly wounded. He performs the amazing feat of cutting off a man’s legs with one stroke of his sword, and very obviously CGI blood splatters the screen. For several seconds. After which the man tries to crawl away-and his legs aren’t bleeding. I can just see the special effects guys:
Special Effect Guy 1: We’re out of money for blood!
Special Effect Guy 2: Paint the guy’s legs red. Maybe no one will notice.
This is roughly the type of quality to be found in most of the action scenes. The sex is roughly the same. It’s true that this was a time of great lechery, but the full-on sex scenes with lines like, “I need your cock in me now!” and regular nudity from people with lots of previous experience as underwear models and wrestlers doesn’t for a minute fool me into thinking that they were cast for any artistic reason. Though there’s a disclaimer before every episode reminding us that the writing strives to be true to the time period the show is based in. That must be why hard rock blares in the background while gladiators fight.
Nevertheless, the show is addicting (granted, I’m sure that the sex and violence are WHY it’s addicting to much of the audience). It’s very much a soap opera. In roughly 100 BC, Spartacus and his fellow Thracians agree to fight for the Roman army, but then defect when the Romans betray them. Most die, but Spartacus is put in the arena with the promise that if he makes money for his masters Lentulus and Lucretia (played by Lucy Lawless-Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert are two of the creators), his beloved wife Sura and he will be freed from slavery. He makes friends and foes in the arena, and to the credit of the show, those friends and foes have their own stories rather than just being Spartacus’s friends and foes. Lentulus and Lucretia are masters of a great house that has fallen into debt, and Spartacus is their big chance to regain their former glory and wealth. But because they need patronage and support, they’re stuck trying to keep the interest of a young, spoiled couple of a powerful family in the meantime, leaving them humiliated and fuming for revenge.
I'm impressed by the way every character was fleshed out; each has their own motivations, their own dreams and ideals, and their moments of darkness and kindness. As the show goes on, and the plot thickens, things I genuinely did not expect happened, and characters I didn't expect to like grew on me thanks to some very skillful character writing.
Spartacus: Blood and Sand is politics, romance, blood, sex, and CGI, which actually works pretty well for the backgrounds as it gives the show a dream-like, mythic quality. It’s an interesting plot padded with a lot of depravity, some of which helps the story, some of which is obviously there for you to enjoy in less intellectual ways. I loved every minute of it.
In particular, I recommend this to fans of the old HBO prison drama OZ, as Spartacus and his buddies are basically in a prison where they have to try and kill each other, and there's very similar dynamics going on (and loads of naked men, some of whom are sweet on each other). True Blood fans might like it too, because it's so soap-opera-ish, and features plenty of romance, drama, blood, and silliness.
In January a prequel, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena will air, with Season Two to follow later in 2011. I'm a happy fan.