A Soap Opera with Sweat, Soot, and Swords

In my very first entry on this blog, I wrote a review of the STARZ original series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. I am right at the moment in the middle of watching the 13-episode series for a second time, and it's now that I'm realizing my initial review did the show no justice at all. So, I've erased the original in order to write a completely new one, more in-depth with all the reasons why it was the best show on television and why I eagerly look forward to the second season, set to air January 21st.

             Spartacus

The story takes place during the 5th century BC when the Romans ran a Republic, four centuries before the dawning of the Empire under Caesar Augustus. Based on the real life of the Thracian slave Spartacus, the show plays out like a soap opera on maximum levels of testosterone. Before he was a slave to the Roman Republic, Spartacus' story is obscured from the ancient records. This gave the show's writers miles of wiggle room in the development of the character. They gave him a back story and gave him a reason to pine for the freedom he eventually attained. The only show, in my book, that rivals the appeal of Spartacus in FX's Sons of Anarchy. The drama, the violence (sometimes justified, sometimes not), and interweaving stories simply hooks you in and has you thinking about what you just saw for the next few hours. It has its few historical inaccuracies (the sort of things only historians really notice), but the story is so good that I can easily wave these aside. The writers sacrificed accuracy for spot on, intelligent, and poignant dialogue. And the show is all the better for it.

I have to be honest and say that the first episode was a major let down, similar to something you'd find in a Sci-Fi Channel version of a Roman-era historical. I was left wanting, but nonetheless looked forward to the next episode.

Good thing I stuck with it.

I'm not totally sure, but it seems like after the bad reviews of the first episode, STARZ fired the writers and brought in brand new ones. And whoever wrote episodes 2 through 13 should honestly be given some sort of award, as the dialogue, the relationships, and the foresight to write such intriguing storylines often leaves me in a state of awe. The characters are rich with their own stories, and as the first episode was a non-stop blood and sex fest, the rest is full of characters and relationships that develop slowly but neatly from week to week.

Legatus Claudius Glaber

A long-haired warrior and his Thracian mates are at war the Gaeta, a savage people from the same land, attempting to take all of it. They almost come off as more ragedy versions of the Immortals from 300, as the whole episode seemed to reflect far too much of the Zack Snyder-directed Spartan blockbuster. The Thracians form an alliance with the Legatus Claudius Glaber and the Romans, who have agreed to help the Thracians with their Gaeta problem. But Glaber has some issues of his own, and seeks to manipulate the Thracians into getting what he wants. The Romans end up falling short on their deal, and the Thracian and his comrades refuse Glaber's ulterior motives. Chaos ensues, Romans are killed, and the Thracians are either killed or taken into slavery. Our unnamed hero and his wife, Sura, both became slaves in the maniacal hands of the Romans.

Sura

But the couple become slaves in very different locations...the Thracian warrior to a gladitorial school in the Italian city of Capua, and Sura, to an unknown country, and to an unknown slave owner.

The Thracian is immediately thrown into a very prison-like environment where new recruits are taunted and the weak are beaten and raped. He's quickly forced to appease his Dominus, Quintus Batiatus, the owner of the gladitorial school, when he's placed in the arena against four gladiators belonging to Solonius, Batiatus' primary rival. At first it seems the Thracian is down and out, but further thoughts of attaining freedom and finding Sura fuel his will to survive, and fuel his bloodlust, as he takes out all four of Solonius' fighters in gory fashion. He thus earns the name Spartacus, given to him by Batiatus, as Spartacus was the name of a brave Thracian king who fought in the same fashion as the new slave.

                                                       Crixus, the undefeated Gaul

As Spartacus is given a hard time by the veterans of the school, the massive Carthaginian, Barca, and the Gallic Champion of Capua, Crixus, Spartacus finds an endearing friend in Varro (right), a husband and father who's sold himself into slavery in order to pay off his gambling debts. Their relationship buds and the two become great friends, encouraging one another when all is seemingly lost. We see more tenderness in the scenes in which Spartacus listens to the imagined vision of Sura whispering into his ear than the ones when he's actually together with her, seen in the first episodes and subsequent flashbacks. One one of those whispering sessions in the middle of a conversation with Varro, Spartacus' out loud answers to Sura's summons somewhat pertain to his and Varro's conversation, but mainly further confuses his blond friend. It's a touching scene for the three of them, as Sura and Varro are the two biggest loves in Spartacus' life.

Meanwhile, we're beginning to see Crixus in a different light, as we're introduced to his gentler side in the presence of slave girl Naevia (left, seen with Crixus), attendent to Batiatus' manipulating wife, Lucretia. Their mutual attraction grows with every episode. Crixus attempts to convey his true feelings for the Naevia while having to bow down to the on-the-side sexual desires of Lucretia. But by this time, Spartacus has already given in to Crixus when the two meet in the arena, and both men, as a reluctant team, later take down an undefeated monster of a man, Theokoles. As Crixus is critically injured in the arena fight, Spartacus tops the beast and becomes the new Champion of Capua. But only because Crixus, on the brink of life death, blinds Theokoles with the glint of the sun on his shield. In a sense, the Gaul helps Spartacus ascend to champion. The victory also comes with the rains that the people of Capua have been pining for, until then declining financially due to a massive drought. Spartacus' popularity rises to great heights because of his victory and because he's delivered the rains. Batiatus promises him that if he continues to win, the Dominus of the house will search for Sura in return.

Further intrigue is added to the story when Ilithyia, the spoiled, snobby wife of Claudius Glaber, moves to Capua in her husband's absence, forming a blossoming, gossiping relationship with Lucretia. Ilithyia's hate for Spartacus runs deep, as he very nearly ruined the career of Glaber, the man who was responsible for Sura's slavery. Her passive-agressive control over Spartacus' life proves detrimental not only to the Thracian gladiator but to Batiatus...who may or may not have had a hand in Spartacus' descent to complete and total indifference (due of course to the developing tragedies constantly mounting up in his life).                                     

 Ilithyia

                                                         Lucretia and Quintus Batiatus

The relationships and the writing that controls them are complex. One week, we're hating Crixus for his bullying and verbal abuse of Spartacus. The next, we're liking Crixus because of his tender heart with Naevia and not liking Spartacus for his continual gloating towards the former Champion of Capua. When a TV show can have that kind of affect on me, I have to deem that a powerful, powerful thing.

Spartacus has his pining for Sura and his friendship with Varro.

Crixus has his painful recovery and his budding hush-hush love affair with Naevia.

Lucretia and Batiatus have their bloodthirsty societal and political ambitions.

And Ashur, an injured Syrian gladiator who's now the freest slave residing in the House of Batiatus, is always found sneaking and prying, whispering and fashioning deals with whoever can give him the most in return.

Ashur and Ilithyia are the show's go-to villians, but more surely develop as the season progresses, leading into the story of the real Spartacus. The costumes are great, the dialogue is phenomenal, and the score, composed by Brotherhood of the Wolf composer Joseph LoDuca, rivals any full-length film in the ancient historical drama genre.

Season 2 was initially supposed to turn out a lot different, but Spartacus himself, actor Andy Whitfield, was diagnosed with lymphoma non-Hodgkins cancer. After the first season, he took all the proper treatments but would definitely be out for a Season 2. Instead of a continuing the story of Spartacus the Thracian, we'll instead be watching a prequel to the first season, entitled Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. The trailers are already out, and so is the list of characters, including Batiatus, Lucretia, Doctore, Crixus, Naevia, Barca, Ashur, and even Spartacus in the two episodes Andy Whitfield was able to complete. He's now in remission, and hopefully, we'll get to see more of him in Season 3. Gods of the Arena focuses on the House of Batiatus when Quintus' father, Titus, ran the gladitorial school. The protagonist of the story is Gannicus, played by Dustin Clare, who becomes the first Champion of Capua. Doctore, who plays the gladiators' head trainer in Blood and Sand, plays one of the recruits in the prequel, along with Barca, Ashur, and Crixus (and we already know he's the Champion of Capua at the beginning of Blood and Sand). That simple fact will make for some drama in itself, as he surely takes the title from the main man.

Doctore

While it was on, Spartacus: Blood and Sand had me hooked from week 2 to week 13. From what I've heard, the prequel is only a 6 part series, but if it has the same writers, it will surely have the same affect in the end. There are so many aspects of Blood and Sand that absolutely love, and this blog review only skims the surface, as there are so many noteworthy elements to it that remembering them all is utterly impossible. I have all the episodes on DVR, and I have no plans of erasing them. Blood and Sand is an even finer show than Rome, and we all know what sort of rave reviews that received. Suffice it to say, as a historian and a avid television watcher, I'm forever hooked on Spartacus: Blood and Sand, a soap opera with sweat, soot, and swords.