Holy Crap – My Spartacus: Blood and Sand afterthoughts
Seriously, this isn't like Playboy; there's substance here.
Once you get past the gratuitous and crazy sex, absurdly fantastic violence, colorful and incessant foul language, and the fact that you see practically ALL the stars naked at some point, there are a few things to be said about Spartacus: Blood and Sand:
1. I never expected to enjoy the show so much.
2. There’s a pretty good story there.
3. I have been totally fucking spoiled and nothing this show does now will ever make me like the next season as much as I did the first.
(minor spoilers ahead, so finish the season if you haven’t. PLEASE.)
I watched Spartacus’ pilot episode because in the promotions it looked like a poor man’s 300, serialized and ready to leech profits from the hit film. I kept watching after the pilot simply, because I wasn’t bored to tears and I honestly didn’t think it was so bad.
I’m so glad I kept watching.
The gladiator fight sequences were a lot of fun. There wasn’t any recycling of scenes and every battle felt fresh – the highlight of them all probably being Crixus and (mostly) Spartacus taking down Theokoles, the Shadow of Death. While it is true that the special effects were not really the top of the line, it was forgivable when you considered that there were times were people had swords puncturing the back of their heads. Definitely cool.
Don't piss off Doctore; you'll regret it.
Yes, I admit part of the viewing fun was seeing some beautiful women naked and getting it on, but I will admit it wasn’t all fun – there were a few moments of sausage-fest worth that made me cringe and say “aw, come on man”. The men folk who suffered through this understand this sentiment. In Spartacus-watching, the bitter comes with the sweet.
The story lines in Spartacus definitely had a Mickey Mantle-esque feel, with a struggling slow start that ended pretty damn strongly. Spartacus, who survives his execution by his sheer will to live, also begins his goal to win his freedom and see his wife again… well, at least that’s the main story. Anchored to Spartacus’ dreams of freedom are his dominus and domina – his respective slave masters who are so broke and low in stature that they are willing to take on any risk if it promises a rise in fame.
What surrounds and strengthens the main story are the many sub-plots that are affected by Spartacus’ rise (in the aforementioned Theokoles fight). It really is that big turning point in the story and really put everything together for me; his good luck causes major changes, and they’re not all good for everyone… not good at all. The decadence and sheer Dionysian spiral really precipitates the final episodes of the show.
And talk about season finales… jesus, this one could only be described as ballsy. Any other network – take HBO for example – could have milked this for another season and I wouldn’t blame them for doing so. The performances by some of the deeper characters (Lucy Lawless and John Hannah in particular) were absolutely brilliant, and really were the parts that made this season so, so… goddamn delicious.
Honestly, these two made this season what it was.
Now my thoughts dwell on Season 2, Season 2… Damn. The big one that no one has any answer to is where the hell this show is going to go for certain next year. If you’ve seen the finale, you know the entire dynamic of the show is changed now, and the format is going to be something completely new… this isn’t like Prison Break, where you get out of one prison, and eventually end up in another one.
The news that Spartacus (Andy Whitfield) has non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma has also really thrown the status of the next year into disarray. One rumor floating around is that next season will be a 6-month prequel while Whitfield battles cancer, while the creator of the show himself says that the next season is still on; it’s merely delayed while Whitfield receives treatment. Hell, who really knows for sure; all I know is that whatever is on the horizon for Spartacus‘ future, I will be checking it out.
