Spartacus: God's of the Arena

'Twas a good reminder of exactly how much I miss Jaime Murray being in Hu$tle these days.  New bird is well fit, but she's no Jaime.

Nice start. For all their problems they don't seem to have missed a beat.

Take that apostrophe out of the Gods in the title before I slap your mouth.

 

That being said, I love how they're framing it, and I am enjoying it. We needed more Spartacus, and it really is John Hannah and Lucy Lawless' show. Wondering if the end will have us being introduced to the new actor for Spartacus, and I really like that they still listed Andy Whitfield in the credits.

 

That street fight was all sorts of awesome. Everything that I loved in the first season was there. Sex. Blood. Intrigue. More Blood!

 

It's a shame that it's only got five more episodes but this is going to be fun ride while it lasts.

This is such a fucking soap opera. I love it. I knew Gannicus and Oenomaus' ridiculously hot wife would end up fucking. The manner of said fucking was a nice surprise though.

If anything, this mini-series has shown me that whilst I can probably live without the excellent Whitfield, I'm going to have a hard time without John Hannah. His ruthless, power-hungry Batiatus is what makes this show for me.

Man, bad night for Oenomaus all round, really.

Damn, Gaia is Lila the British titty vampire from Dexter? I knew I knew her from somewhere.

You REALLY need to get onto the first few seasons of Hustle.  Her opening scene in the first episode alone is jaw-dropping.  They trashed her up real good in Dexter, but when she's playing an intelligent, classy, impeccably-dressed woman, she's damn near impossible to beat.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcv7pKlw31s&feature=related

 

Enjoying season two much more than one. It's more down to earth without (thus far at least) the obnoxious fantasy elements, and now that the grim Whitfield has moved on, John Hannah has more than stepped up and raised his game. He's a good lead, and even though it's still not even a seventh as good as Rome, I am at least finding this better than the previous season

 

EDIT: Also, I know it's a show about Spartacus so to some degree it's necessary to establish how these slaves could have possibly joined his illegal uprising, but I am kind of sick of every episode  featuring slaves griping and moping about their lot in life. These people won the slave lottery, essentially. Well fed, working in a respected home doing domestic service. As a JCL member, I feel like it's asking alot of me to expect empathize with them as people beyond  a certain point. Some may disagree here, but it needs to be said. ROME had the right attitude with regards to this subject, and didn't ask it's audience to render judgment on the characters based on a modern christian morality 

What the fuck?

Again, they're not MEANT to be comparable, Kate.  Watchmen and Power Pack are both comics about superhero teams, but that doesn't mean they are open to comparison in any way, shape or form.  They're completely different.  I love Rome as much as the next guy, but just give it a rest, PLEASE?!

Spartacus is more comparable to WWE than it is to Rome, really. 

Forget it boys, it's Kate-town.

Cover thine eyes~

 

So the show is still as fun and classy as ever. Could have done without the cock silhouette and full-on pee shot though.. who's been asking to see that?

 

I don't get those people bemoaning the lack of Batiatus in the coming second season. If that show can just make a nobody like Batiatus into a great character to watch what are they going to make if hey have someone like fucking Crassus to start with? Google a bit about Marcus Licinius Crassus and you'll see what I'm talking about. In almost every respect people like Batiatus were less than gnats compared to the charisma, scheming ability and naked brutality of people like Crassus.

 

If the writers do a good job, they have a chance of creating one the best TV villains ever. Although there is a chance they'll keep him for an eventual third season.

The first episode of Spartacus since the first four that I didn't at least find fun. The fights were bad, the sex wasn't good, the nonsense twist came out of fucking nowhere. It's a shame since the previous one was one of the best in the entire series.

But the fight was a work, so how could it ever be great?  The sex is MEANT to be good?  I thought it was just meant to be sex?  And the twist (I'm assuming you meant the kill)?  Well, that HAD to happen.  There's a simple cautionary tale in the way Gaia lived her life that had to come to it's logical conclusion.  Makes perfect sense it be at the hands of the main antagonist.  To me, at least.

Spartacus for me works when it either tries to excite or titilate. Neither happened in this episode.

I'm having loads of fun with it. It's interesting that for every "new" character in the prequel, you pretty much know they're going to die horribly, but at times that actually works in the show's favor since any time they're put in danger, you're wondering "is this it?" 

 

Plus, there's the incredible array of easy-on-the-eyes ladies. There are some scenes where there's so much beautiful naked woman on screen that my eyes don't even know where to look.

 

Gannicus is so damned likable, you just know his death is going to be brutal. That line about how he'd kill them both if he ever caught his friend with his wife was not a good omen.

 

It is obvious that Xena is poisoning her father-in-law's wine, right?

About Gannicus. Oenomaus finding out and killing them both has been telegraphed so hard that I'm starting to believe they won't do it. It would be cool if this plot ended with the mother of all "bros before hos." But considering they're both missing later on, it probably won't happen.

 

If the writers are following history (which they are for the most part), then Gannicus will likely survive as the real-life Gannicus was one of Spartacus's lieutenants during the slave uprising. Here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Servile_War

 

What did everybody think of last night's episode? I thought the ending was brutal and

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

 

. Judging by the previews, the season finale looks like it's going to be epic.

 

Glad to hear Gannicus comes back at some point. Is it just me or is CGI blood getting better? Or is that even CGI? I want to say it's still not anywhere as corporeal as real fake blood, but it's definitely looking better these days. Man, this show's gonna be odd without Andy Whitfield. We've already lost half the cast from season 1.

I dug this prequel sooo much. It's rare for a prequel to work at all, yet this one managed to actually feel like it was planned this way from the beginning. GotR works both as added backstory to Spartacus season 1, and as a story in its own right. Other than the bookend scenes that would spoil the end of season 1, I could easily see it working as a season 0 watched before 1.

Knowing that there was a real Gannacus that served under Spartacus post-escape spoiled the ending a bit, but they still managed to have me guessing if they'd stick to the history or just kill him off. Hopefully Gannacus will have resumed whoring and boozing by the time Spartacus finds him.

It's unfortunate that Whitfield was unable to continue in the lead role, but I'm still very much anticipating season 2 already.

Oh, and even for this show, that final kill got an audible, "DAAAAAAAMN!" out of me.

Definitely, knowing about the history puts the show in a weird spot for me.

 

But a satisfying final episode. And that had to be one of the best if not the best head destruction on TV ever. Really nice gore.

If there was ever a finishing move that deserved the "Jawbreaker" moniker that would be it.

LOVED this miniseries but wait for the next season is going to suck.

Epic finale to a great show.  They should do another mini about the travels of Gannicus.