Recently, I watched the premiere episode of Spartacus: Blood and Sand. If you enjoy senseless highly stylized violence, mixed in with copious amounts of tits and ass, you will definitely want to catch this new series!

Despite the liberal use of English accents and being set in the well-familiar Roman time period, this show should not in any way be compared to HBO’s Rome, which was a much more historically accurate and cerebral experience that what Spartacus could hope to offer.

A Blatant Copy of Past Films?

Instead, after watching a few minutes of Spartacus: Blood and Sand you will immediately see its similarity to such movies as The Gladiator and 300. In fact, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to call this mini series a blatant rip off of either. More specifically, it mirrors The Gladiator’s plot and largely copies 300’s art direction and fight choreography. What the show evidently boils down to is graphic scenes of hand-to-hand combat interrupted by graphic scenes of sex and random nudity.

But I’m not going to harp on the presentation and substance of Spartacus. It offers exactly the kind of mindless testosterone fueled action that certain people enjoy. And that’s what this show is all about – simple entertainment.

You already know the plot, the cast of good and evil characters and the much romanticized time period that his story takes place in. So really, what you’re experiencing is a re-enactment of something many people can’t get enough of – the brave hero who bangs an impossibly hot wife, who has his town destroyed, who must now battle in the arena of death for his life, freedom and honor!

An Adolescent Boy’s Dream

Filled with a cast of hot models, chiseled warriors and teeth gnashing villains, Spartacus is as superficial and contrived as it sounds. There is nothing innovative in its presentation or surprising in its plot (thus far), but that’s fine when you just want to catch some blood letting action and see the entire female cast nude. And there are some very hot women in this show, including Viva Bianca and Erin Cummings.

Conclusion

I could barely watch the first half of the premiere episode knowing exactly what would happen and the premise that was being set, but I did manage to finish it and I’ll probably tune in for the next episode. To its credit, the production values are quite high and the action isn’t half-bad; I just wish they’d invest in an original plot and used less slow-motion in the action scenes. But who knows, perhaps they’ve left a surprise or two in the coming episodes and things will improve. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Have you seen Spartacus: Blood and Sand yet? What are your thoughts?

Occasionally, I’ll catch an episode of NBC’s Chuck, a comedic spy thriller about a man who lives with a supercomputer stuck inside his head. Chuck, the show, is both funny and smart, yet never takes itself too seriously. Much of the show’s success stems from its solid cast, which includes the beautiful blonde, Yvonne Strahovski.

Yvonne Strahovski plays the character Sarah Walker, an undercover CIA operative who is in charge of protecting the man with the supercomputer in his head, Chuck Bartowski.

As any fan of the show surely knows by now, the writers of Chuck will occasionally pen in a scene where Yvonne Strahovski must forgo wearing some of her clothes! It’s pretty obvious that such scenes do little to push the plot development and are merely presented for the appeasement of the mostly male demographic that tunes in each week. I’m not criticizing the use of sex to garner more viewers, but I think they could be more creative in how they insert these scenes.

Australian native Yvonne Strahovski has a killer body, and fortunately, I found some screen caps of her latest panty-walk. These shots come from the same episode where Chuck finally makes his move on Sarah, which results in some tongue-locked, ass-grabbing, Mongolian bed wrestling. But don’t get your hopes up too high – the whole sex scene is cut short when Chuck realizes he doesn’t have a condom! I guess when you have an unparalleled amount of knowledge stuffed into your head, you know your exact chances of catching an STD from the CIA’s hottest agent!

Get a look at Yvonne Strahovski’s almost-nude, almost-sex scene. God I love a blonde in panties!

I wouldn’t call myself much of a fan of the televised series Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, but I have faithfully watched most of the episodes spanning its last two seasons, including the latest finale, which aired just recently. The problem with the show is that its producers decided to switch the brilliant cliff-hanger saga format of the first season, for a more episodic, standalone product for the second. I found much of latter’s content boring and non-crucial to the main story arc, which greatly lowered my expectations for the show.

Concerning season two’s finale, one point of interest that the show’s creators finally give some attention to is the obvious sexual tension between teenage John Connor and his fembot bodyguard. Although often referred to as siblings in the storyline (to disguise their identities from outsiders) many implicit hints are dropped that either or both characters have feelings for each other. This moment is captured in a preposterous scene where the android Cameron asks John to climb on top of her, while she’s half-naked on a bed, to inspect some of her hardware. Uh-huh. The scene ends with John failing to get his disk into her floppy drive, or something like that.

Filling the cast’s roster with Lena Headey, Shirley Manson, Stephanie Jacobsen and other sexy actresses reveals the producers’ ostensible approach to attract a bigger audience – sex appeal. In fact, I bet many followers of the show simply tune in just to catch another glimpse of Summer Glau in her underwear. And hey, I’m all for seeing Summer Glau in her panties, but it’s a shame that they’re now ignoring the story’s original draw: badass sci-fi action.

Oh, and they’ve somehow outlawed the great comedic moments of the first season. Does anyone remember Cameron being called a bitch-whore in the girl’s washroom in high school? These hilarious terminator moments have seemingly disappeared.

So back to season two’s finale – without giving away any spoilers, I’ll just say that it ends with a sudden shift of events, no doubt fueling anticipation for a third season. But I won’t empathize if the show eventually gets shit-canned. In my opinion, they simply lost what good they had in the series, with the exception of maintaining a sexy cast. But even then, these one-dimensional characters do little more than just play out their simple roles, teasing us with sex, presumably because the show’s ammo and SFX budget got slashed with the rest of economy.

Is it fair to the Terminator legacy to let the show continue?

I’ve been a big fan of Showtime’s Dexter since a friend recommended the series to me during the summer months. After getting hooked on the pilot episode, I quickly ate up seasons one, two and three, relishing every episode for its amazing cast, beautiful photography, and its, erm, killer script. I’m going to share with you some of my thoughts, covering a bit from each season, but I’ll leave out the specifics so as not to offer any spoilers.

Season 1

The first season does a great job of introducing the star of the show, the world he inhabits and the secret he keeps. The show uses a saga format, blending each episode into the next, giving the viewers a personal and engrossing experience throughout. The parts of the first season that I enjoyed the most were the little moments where Dexter tries to blend in as an ordinary, quiet forensic specialist amidst a group of overzealous cops trying to find killers who are just like him. There’s also quite a few comedic moments, which helps to lighten the otherwise dark and grizzly nature of the show.

Season 2

Season two starts with a bang that’s so loud you’re basically guaranteed to watch all 13 episodes after the opening scene! In stark contrast to the first season, Dexter’s sophomore outing begins at a much faster pace. With the kid gloves off, the reserved, careful plodding of the first season’s storyline is completely abandoned for a much faster velocity. A host of new characters are swiftly introduced and many interesting interactions take place.

Some people have remarked that season two loses some of the first season’s purity, but others protest that the quicker pace is simply a natural progression if you view both seasons as one continuous storyline. Seen in this way, the first season does a great job of setting things up, with the second season allowing the fireworks to really light up. Opinions aside, season two is a wild ride with Dexter being attacked from all angles. Often it feels like he’s juggling chainsaws on top of a house of cards; you really begin to feel that at any moment his web of lies, cover ups and murders will come crashing down upon him.

Season 3

Season three has just completed, and I can say that they’ve returned the series to a style and pace more reminiscent of season one. Because of this, I initially felt that the writers had burnt themselves out, as not much was happening and some segments were – dare I say – boring. But as the pieces were being set and the story began to unfold, I realized that they were simply focusing on a cleaner storyline with less subplots and characters to muddle things up. In doing so, they’ve created a highly polished product that I think is unparalleled on television today. The level of acting, directing, and script writing is nothing short of phenomenal.

In retrospect, season three seems to assume that you’re already a fan of the show; they don’t compromise their method of storytelling by forcing cheesy moments and injecting meaningless action. The result is a deeper and more believable world for Dexter to inhabit. Sometimes I stop and think about how every character, relationship and setting is geared towards creating this reality. Eventually, you really begin to feel as if Dexter’s secret is your secret.

Are you a fan of Dexter? What’s been your favorite season or moment so far?