[The promo image for this is Spartacus with his helmet on, which is really the only other safe image. Any other images (such as images from the ACTUAL show would be strictly NSFW...this is a GRAPHIC show).]
Pre-Ramble: Found this by randomly browsing the internet and seeing the announcement that the first season is coming to DVD soon. “Spartacus Blood and Sand”? It’s about a gladiator. That, and blood and sand. This show couldn’t possibly fail to interest me. I only vaguely know the story of Spartacus, the whole “I am Spartacus!” “No, I am Spartacus!” etc, etc. After a quick wiki search I found out a little more here. I’d recommend it if you’re as OCDly weird as I am, but honestly you don’t need it to enjoy the show. Watched the first ep and got hooked, not because it’s truly THAT interesting, but I had nothing else to watch and since it didn’t immediately disgust me, I decided to give it a go. It is INCREDIBLY graphic in pretty much every possible way. Yet, if you can manage to get beyond that and actually see the characters and their storylines, I have to say it’s written a helluva lot better than much of the trash out there.
First Glimpse: I decided to continue with my self-imposed rule of “4 episodes before judging.” Mostly because I’ve been recently VERY bored and also because I do enjoy the whole tournament style of plot that is inevitable in a gladiator story. Fighting with swords of any era is pretty damn cool to me, so I was committed the instant I saw they’d be hacking each other to pieces with swords. The first 4 episodes weren’t really all that ground-breaking in terms of a TV show. Honestly, there’s a lot of nudity and a lot of CGI blood and gore. You really do get a sense of the depravity and debauchery from that period that the history books tend to gloss over and soften up. There’s a lot of criticism, in fact, over how the show seems to try to gain ratings from using the explicit scenes rather than a traditional approach of winning us over with just the plot. I have to take issue with this, since it’s far better than True Blood, which was just awful in plot and the explicit scenes weren’t even that explicit. Beneath the full frontal nudity of both genders (presented almost casually, as though a backdrop), the very-nearly-comical CGI gore, and swear-filled, yet attempted authentic dialogue, there is an actually intriguing storyline that unfolds.
The show is presented in a way that’s very much through the eyes of Spartacus – there is black and white and a simplistic view of events. As the audience we start to see things the way Spartacus does, since you can’t help but relate and empathize with his character. The reason why I mention this is because generally I’m spending my time guessing what happens next and seeing through much of the “surprises” that the script writers try to (poorly) throw at the audience. I’m unsure if I’m just tired mentally and watch this because it’s mindless or if I’m so engrossed with the show because I’ve come to relate to Spartacus. At any rate, the plot twists surprised me and took me completely off-guard. I’m going to attribute that to good writing because I’m too egotistical to imagine that it’s just because I’ve gotten dumber. Yeah, that sounds right.
Without spoiling too much, the cast of characters fulfill their roles extremely well, with only a few familiar faces. It seems they’re not afraid to kill off main cast members as well, so don’t fall into the trap of “Well, he’s in the opening credits so he’ll live!” It’s like that line from Family Guy in “Something Something Dark Side” – “Let’s see, we’ve got 4 of the 5 main characters on this ship. I think we’ll be fine.” Seeing all the political intrigue and the underhandedness of every character as they all strive to carry out their own personal agendas is captivating. Watching their tangled web unfold and seeing the framework they lay down is deceptively intriguing. Honestly, I thought I’d be sick to death of seeing plots within plots within plots DEUX EX MACHINA. Yes, I’ve been watching a lot of Korean dramas. But, the writers are responsible writers here and actually bring much of the action to fruition. It is intensely satisfying to watch a show that builds up and builds up and then delivers in a way that isn’t cheap or anticlimatic.
Just when you get comfortable, there’s another plot twist, another knife in the dark. Spartacus himself doesn’t give such a thrilling performance, but I’ve come to see that main characters that are so bland are designed as such to give the audience a chance to not only relate to them, but also to in a sense live vicariously through them. If Spartacus is bland enough, everyone can empathize with his actions and see through his eyes. In contrast, all the other characters have such vivid story lines and hidden agendas, making them stand out against his rather static and bland performance.
Final Glimpse: The action isn’t too terrible, there’s a lot of eye candy for both genders. Again, though, there’s definitely substance beneath all the “blood and sand,” if you’ll excuse the expression. Casting is done well, I have a hard time thinking of the characters as anyone else. Overall production values are fairly high, there’s clearly a lot of money sunken into this project. It doesn’t feel cheap or amateurish, like many shows that strive for shock value rather than solid plot. I’m uncertain if the show would have as much pizazz if there wasn’t the occasional brazen nudity or explosion of gore. It seems they took a fairly solid show without much eye-catching appeal and sprinkled a little bit of “crazy” over it to turn up the ratings a notch or two.
It just goes to show, however, that a show can be explicit and still maintain good quality story telling. Which is why I have such low tolerance for shows that aren’t plot-driven. Ostensibly, the purpose of a show/movie/book is to tell a story. If the story sucks, then the production is an epic fail and they should burn it to the ground. I’m looking at you, True Blood. Yeah, you. the premise is intriguing but your execution is just dreadful. Yeesh. Take a cue from Spartacus here.
This one’s just a short one, there’s only 13 episodes in the first season, we’ll see how long they go. I’m giving this show a 7.5/10. There’s a strong plot here and a balanced cast that works well together. The gore is hardly as explicit as the nudity – I mean it’s almost all CGI. Not like “Kill Bill” bad, but still, does corn syrup and red food dye cost that much? I feel like CGI probably costs more and in this case, was less effective. So that’s a whole point right there. The depravity of the Romans has been properly portrayed and they’ve eased off using boobies to sell the series (but seriously that first episode was like “whoa!”). Still, -0.5 for being sensationalist rather than trusting their plot. I’m taking another point off because the fight choreography is rather lame. It’s rather reminiscent of the original Star Wars lightsaber fights. Swing, hack-hack…swing, hack-hack….oops, your guard slipped, I win! I mean, if gladiators truly fought by just smacking each others shields and waiting to see who dropped first…lame. Super lame. These guys are HUGE and rippling, but they just bash each other senseless and see who runs out of steam first. Hardly ideal.
All in all, if you can get past the explicit nature, it’s definitely worth a watch. There is genuine effort here to keep us entertained beyond the blood and guts and eyecandy.
I used explicit like 20000 times in this post. How...explicit.
