I felt skeptical about the upcoming series when I first saw the trailers but thought; maybe it will be better ... the voice-overs did promise greater things. However, from the first episode I felt real disappointment. Rather than being more realistic it's more Hollywood. Yes, it does offer graphic violence - more on that later - and full frontal nudity but it falls short in a number of other areas. But first let me digress to some of the other points: By far the best performance I've enjoyed in this offering is that of John Hannah as Batiatus. His consummate skill as an actor leaves me feeling he deserves more success. His significant other is Lucy Lawless as Lucretia. She is well cast and certainly entertains and keeps up with Hannah. She's beautiful and shows it and comes through feeling like there's a nice bit of underlying intelligence I'd like to know better. One of the most fun characters is Viva Bianca as Ilithyia. She plays the part with a kind of delicious wickedness that's absent malice. She is also quite something special to look at, especially disrobed; which brings us to the male flesh offerings. Andy Whitfield as the title character Spartacus does a credible job but I can't overcome the idea he's in the part because someone in Hollywood thought he'd just look good. His antagonist in much of the episodes I saw is Manu Bennett as the gladiator Crixus and Peter Mensah as Doctore; a sort of gladiator teacher/overseer. Whitfield and Bennett snarl at each other appropriately and put up with full body depilation as their major sacrifice for their art.
The costumes, makeup, sets, and other production are rendered with quality if not historic accuracy. Without researching the issue, I find it hard to swallow the prevalence of depilation. It just doesn't ring true to what I recall from studying ancient history. The ancients were rather proud of their body hair as proof of their maturity and not even females shaved anywhere; none of that is evident here. But I suppose it's a minor point but I just felt that it flew in the face of the claims that they were striving for more historic accuracy. That gets us to the gritty parts, the violence, nudity and sex. The violence depicted here is over-the-top Hollywood all the way. The copious amounts of arterial blood that appear at the slightest wounds just smacks of sensationalist violence rather than accuracy. That - the violence - is a subject I know all too much about. Even severing an artery doesn't produce that much blood that fast. The sort of violence in the real world also produces a good deal more gore; not to mention that none of the film makers can ever hope to duplicate the accompanying odors. Worse, to me, by far is the fact that the bloodiest parts seem to be uniformly rendered in slow motion; thereby seeming to emphasize the bloodiest violence as the most important part of the offering. This aspect disappointed me the most.
The nudity and sex are more realistic than likely anything that has been presented by the modern media thus far, but it still falls far short of the reality of those times. Nudity then was a lot more prevalent, a lot more common and a lot more matter-of-fact.
I found it curious that the violence is far more emphasized that any other part of the equation; even the nudity and sex. I had the certain thought that if the sex were given an emphasis equal to that of the violence then we'd be treated to full screen sized vaginas opening in slow motion. It all left me feeling that the sad fact is that violence - even the most brutal types of depictions - are still far more socially acceptable than the relatively calm and peaceful pursuits involving nudity and sex. That still feels like an indictment against modern society. At least the ancients were more-or-less uniformly and honestly depraved. If I watch the remainder of the series it will more than likely be to enjoy the non-violent performances of Hannah, Lawless and Bianca. They are the best of it.
The costumes, makeup, sets, and other production are rendered with quality if not historic accuracy. Without researching the issue, I find it hard to swallow the prevalence of depilation. It just doesn't ring true to what I recall from studying ancient history. The ancients were rather proud of their body hair as proof of their maturity and not even females shaved anywhere; none of that is evident here. But I suppose it's a minor point but I just felt that it flew in the face of the claims that they were striving for more historic accuracy. That gets us to the gritty parts, the violence, nudity and sex. The violence depicted here is over-the-top Hollywood all the way. The copious amounts of arterial blood that appear at the slightest wounds just smacks of sensationalist violence rather than accuracy. That - the violence - is a subject I know all too much about. Even severing an artery doesn't produce that much blood that fast. The sort of violence in the real world also produces a good deal more gore; not to mention that none of the film makers can ever hope to duplicate the accompanying odors. Worse, to me, by far is the fact that the bloodiest parts seem to be uniformly rendered in slow motion; thereby seeming to emphasize the bloodiest violence as the most important part of the offering. This aspect disappointed me the most.
The nudity and sex are more realistic than likely anything that has been presented by the modern media thus far, but it still falls far short of the reality of those times. Nudity then was a lot more prevalent, a lot more common and a lot more matter-of-fact.
I found it curious that the violence is far more emphasized that any other part of the equation; even the nudity and sex. I had the certain thought that if the sex were given an emphasis equal to that of the violence then we'd be treated to full screen sized vaginas opening in slow motion. It all left me feeling that the sad fact is that violence - even the most brutal types of depictions - are still far more socially acceptable than the relatively calm and peaceful pursuits involving nudity and sex. That still feels like an indictment against modern society. At least the ancients were more-or-less uniformly and honestly depraved. If I watch the remainder of the series it will more than likely be to enjoy the non-violent performances of Hannah, Lawless and Bianca. They are the best of it.