Spartacus [TV series]

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Chuckman
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Postby Chuckman » Mon Mar 30, 2015 12:00 am

Yesterday I power rushed Spartacus: Blood and Sand (i.e. the first season)

This show doesn't get anywhere near enough love. The first three episodes are plodding and clunky and then the show just fucking cuts loose. It has no weak points. Every actor on the show, no matter how minor their role, delivers their performance with such authenticity and gravitas that they all deserve fucking awards for it, especially since they were spouting these absurd lines in their underwear in a big green room for the most part.

Not only that, but every character is the hero of their own story and the supporting cast is brilliant, bringing in subtle and nuanced performances in a show full of outrageous tits and gore.

It's a terrible tragedy that Andy Whitfield died so young. His Spartacus is amazing. The show could have gone the lazy, conventional route and made Spartacus a hero out the door, spouting populist views to the audience. The Kubrick film is a little guilty of this, being based on a socialist political novel written by a blacklisted screenwriter.

Instead, Whitfield's Spartacus is a slow build. It isn't until the very last episode that he takes on a man of the people role and it is earned. The character's growth through the series is amazing.

I wish he'd been around for the second and third seasons because there are some scenes he deserved to perform that pay off the setup in the first season.

Also, this might be the most sexually progressive show I've ever seen. It treats gay couples equally in a way I've never seen a television program pull off.

Oh, and the series itself is gorgeous. When it came out it was attacked as 300 lite, a softcore porn series, but it's not. Some of the elements and effects are over the top and the CGI blood and gore effects already look dated, but even with that the show is beautiful, magnificently shot and with a strong sense of design that blends realism with fantastical costumery and designs in a way that does a far better job of capturing the 'heroic nude' aesthetic of Frank Miller's 300 far better than 300 did.

The writing is clever as hell, too. The production team brought on Latin experts to help write the dialogue to structure it as if it were translated from Latin and the wordplay is grand.

It's a weird, progressive, glorious fusion of Shakespeare, Greek drama and pornography that everyone should watch with an open mind.

I'm going into the prequel season, Gods of the Arena, now. I haven't seen it in a long time but I think it's the best work they did on the show, better than the second and third season.

The did what they could but Andy Whitfield carried the show. He plays Spartacus as a subtle, kind of trickster character, and with a kind of melancholic grandiosity that's far, far more interesting than the populist stereotype he easily could have been. It's a shame cancer got him.
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Postby Monk Ed » Wed Apr 15, 2015 2:06 am

*adds Spartacus to "must watch" list*

And you're not the first person to have talked up the show, but you were certainly the best at it.

(Note to all: I split this out, Chuckman didn't make it as a topic.)
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