Recently, I watched the premiere episode of Spartacus: Blood and Sand. If you enjoy senseless highly stylized violence, mixed with copious amounts of tits and ass, you will definitely want to catch this new series!
BTW – Season One of Spartacus: Blood and Sand is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.
A Blatant Copy of Past Works?
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 past works.
More specifically, the show 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 demographics enjoy. And that’s what this show is all about – simple R-rated entertainment.
Believe me, you already know the setup, the polarized cast good and evil characters and the much romanticized time period of the Roman era. So really, what you’re experiencing is a massive rehash of something many people can’t seem to get enough of – the brave hero who bangs an impossibly hot wife, who has his town destroyed and his woman kidnapped/killed, who then must battle in the arena of death for revenge and justice!
An Adolescent Boy’s Wet 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 plot (thus far), but that’s fine if you just want to catch some blood-letting action on a Sunday night — and see the entire female cast nude. Indeed, there are some very hot women on the show, including Viva Bianca and Erin Cummings.
Review Wrap-up
I could barely sit through the first half of the premiere episode knowing exactly what would happen and the premise that was being set. But I did watch the entire episode, due largely to a shameful habit of finishing anything that I’ve started watching. (I need help for that.)
And I’ll probably tune in again next week.
To its credit, the production values are noticeably high and the action isn’t half-bad; I just wish they’d invest in an original plot and use less slow-motion in the action scenes. I also feel that they’ve got a few plot twists up their sleeve that I’m sure we’ll see if the series continues.
I’m cautiously optimistic about Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
Have you seen the show yet? Share us your thoughts.
*UPDATE*
Season One of Spartacus: Blood and Sand is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.
youre hella gay this is one of the best shows on tv.yeah i think everyone knows its like gladiator and 300 but did you ever think thats what they were going for??lucy lawless was interviewed and thats exactly what she said its like gladiator and 300. i hate people like you who say oh its a copy of this movie and just because you dont like how they copied something you wont like the rest of the show.t
@ Wtf?, I totally agree with you
@wtf?
I totally agree, Spartacus is awesome!
And I loved ‘Rome’, but calling it historically accurate is just laughable.
Yeah did you ever stop think that maybe the reason all of these movies are alike is because they are all in the same time period? How different did you expect it to be? That’s how things were then.
We’ve only just received this in the UK and I love all these types of Movies/TV series … BUT I hate all the different accents. why don’t they all at least pretend to be Roman or Greek?? You’ve got English, Scottish, American and NZ(which didn’t even exist back in the day
AND really, I’m not a prude, but swearing SO much, I’m not sure who invented the ‘f’ word apart from our Gordon of course. I’ll continue to watch though, I think it’s brilliantly shot.
Wow…. your review its so descriptive that now I’d love to see the series !
this show rocks! it’s a next gen show, and obviously is inspired by 300…who matters? this is so brilliant, full of action and the costumes are well represented. this is absolutly the best show of this year- you must be gay- ONCE AGAIN THE GODS SPREAD THE CHEEKS TO RAM COCK IN FUCKING ASS!
Spartacus Blood and Sand is based on a true story and can’t be compared to Gladiator which is pure fiction.
I hate that you wrote this after seeing only ONE episode I
was a bit taken back by the similarities to 300 at first …. I
think there was way too much slow motion and blue screen
backgrounds and fake blood … the action to me was a huge
appointment at first but they seemed to have pulled away from that
quite a bit in later episodes and when you get more into the story
lines and see the gladiators in their training there is actually
alot of real martial arts in this show. Its also clear despite the
crap look of the show and seemingly pointless violence the show
grew on me … the characters are well written and acted,
especially the villains – and there is a lot of character
development and plot twists … you just can’t judge a whole series
on one episode…. I think all the critics did that with this
show
Hahahahaha!
In light of the many twists and turns of the first season and looking back on this review, I wonder if the writer now feels like a complete tool.
This whole series is streaming on netflix, very good so far.
Came for the tits, stayed for the plot. Thats a good summary for this program. And its not a rip off of Gladiator, its a rip off of the famous story of a slave named Spatacus, only the demographic that enjoy this show must not have studied very hard in their history class.
Dude!! This is one the best male-oriented shows around! After having to grind through all those crappy chick shows which are ALL rip-offs of some movie that is a rip-off of a rip-off of yet another chick flick. Do you hear them complaining about it?
Some of the so-called greatest movies of our time (Avatar for example) is a rip-off with some crappy special effects.
This show simply rocks! It gives us all that the gladiators gave the public back then! I love to watch this show with my friends and we just burst out into roar whenever there’s an epic finishing kill. This is a lot better than the 50 shows we have around where the male and female character are obviously in love but take at least 3 seasons to give in to it…