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[fenrif]

I've been watching this since it started airing, and in my opinion it's by far the best thing on TV at the moment. For those that haven't heard of it, it airs on some channel called starz, which i think is an American movie network, and Sam Rami has something to do with it, creator or producer, cant recall. It's got a few people you'll recognize in it, with Lucy Lawless probobly being the most obvious.

It's well written, acted, and shot. They do an awesome job of conveying what roman life was like, and reminds me of deadwood in a big way with their use of archaic language. Though i dont think its as thick as deadwood was (miss a line of dialogue in that and you could be confused for 20 minutes). The CG effects can be a bit cheesy, but the show is so immersive you can get past that easily enough.

It's definatly not for kids though, theres graphic violence, and tons of nudity. Pretty much every episode has someone being stabbed, disembowled, beheaded, or otherwise gruesomely killed, and theres not been an episode yet that hasnt had someone strip down naked. If you're at all offended by nudity or violence, then you should probobly give this a wide berth.

But the more graphic elements of it aren't the main draw, its the excellent pacing and narrative. While the first episode was a bit lacklustre (mostly because of cheesy CGI sets since it isn't set in the same locations as the rest of the series), since then its been building up and getting better and better. The characters develop convincingly, the twists aren't always blindingly obvious like many other shows, and the writers have obviously planned out the plot beforehand.

Thought I'd post anyway, and see if anyone else watches this. As I said, I'm really diggin it, but haven't heard much buzz about it anywhere, and everyone i speak to has no idea what it is. I guess starz isn't a big network in the USA, and maybe that's why this isn't getting any attention? Or maybe it is and I'm just completely oblivious?

Mandatory linkage:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacus_blood_and_sand

http://www.starz.com/originals/spartacus

[Enzo]

I caught 5 minutes of this the other night... My immediate thought was that they had mastered the chainmail bikini trope...for men.

I can't seem find an image of it goddamn it, it was hilariously impractical. His body was covered in armour, everywhere except his head, neck and torso. Clearly no one would dare stab him in his beautifully toned abs.

[fenrif]

As far as i know thats how the gladiators armoured themselves back in the day. Well some of them anyway, since alot of gladiators were from conquered peoples and probobly had their own style of armour.

Got this from wikipedia, most of them are rockin the arm-armour only look.

[Ampersand]

Er, well, there is the whole thing that Gladiatorial matches were mostly faked. Akin to professional wrestling.

Of course they didn't need to be heavily armored, they weren't really going to actually hurt each other. Slaves are expensive, training them to be gladiators is even more expensive. They're commodities and can't be thrown away all wily nily.

I say mostly, because there was plenty of real bloodsport that happened in the same context as the gladiatorial matches. Execution of prisoners, slaying of exotic beasts, gladiatorial matches that actually did end in death.

Mainly, the idea that the Romans pitted gladiators to fight to the death every single time is ridiculous.

[Enzo]

Well...at least those guys have helmets.

I thought this style of armour was so they could put one armoured arm between their body and their opponent, and be otherwise unarmoured to maintain high mobility. I wish I could find a picture of the outfit I'm talking about...he had like 25 pounds of shit on each arm.

Anyway, the show looked like it might be entertaining, based on the sheer over-the-topness.

[fenrif]

Er, well, there is the whole thing that Gladiatorial matches were mostly faked. Akin to professional wrestling.

Of course they didn't need to be heavily armored, they weren't really going to actually hurt each other. Slaves are expensive, training them to be gladiators is even more expensive. They're commodities and can't be thrown away all wily nily.

I say mostly, because there was plenty of real bloodsport that happened in the same context as the gladiatorial matches. Execution of prisoners, slaying of exotic beasts, gladiatorial matches that actually did end in death.

Mainly, the idea that the Romans pitted gladiators to fight to the death every single time is ridiculous.

I have heard that there weren't huge mortality rates in gladiator matches, at least at one point in time, though it differed in different places and times of history.

I've not heard anything about it being faked though, at least not as a matter of course, is there a website or documentary about it or something? Love learning more about this kind of stuff.

And yeah, the show has a level of over the topness, especially in the fights, but it works well within the show. You could argue that the nudity and sexuality in it is over the top too, but i think thats pretty representative of how the romans rolled.

[Ampersand]

Well, when the gladiatorial custom first began, it was mostly a ceremonial practice to commemorate important events or people, in which someone was expected to die as a sacrifice. As the gladiatorial custom evolved into a spectator sport, although people still wanted to see death in the Arena, the people who put the shows on were more pragmatic about it.

The record shows that later, some matches were advertised to the public as being special because one of the fighters would actually die. However there were really several varieties of gladiatorial matches. Ones were criminals condemned to death were pitted against each other, ones were career gladiators fought each other which were fairly uncommon, ones that were put on purely for the sake of showmanship such as recreating a Roman military victory, and so on.

Later, under Emperor Augustus, (Roughly 50 years after the Spartacus revolt), Gladiatorial matches where someone was certain to die were banned. When later Emperors overturned this by having popular gladiators who were defeated in the Arena killed, their popularity was severely impacted (see Caligula).

What I mean by faked is not that the shows did not have real violence in them, they certainly did, but in some occasions there were Gladiators who "died" in one match in one city who were then shuffled around to other cities to put on shows there, only to return for a rematch some time later. The faking was not in the potentially serious injury some of the men faced, but in the claim that some of them died when they didn't.

According to wikipedia a Roman source claimed that the death rate among all those who entered the Arena was about 19 out of every 100 between 1-100 AD. Not too bad considering what the job is, and it's not clear if this includes only professional gladiators rather a mixing both gladiators with the truly condemned.

Also, there was another sort of faking in some games. The Emperor Commodus famously fought in the Arena (see the movie Gladiator), but his opponents invariably fought with wooden training weapons. He was not killed in the Arena.

[fenrif]

Ah yeah, that makes sense. When you said it was fake like wrestling I thought you meant that the victors were predetermined. Though that probobly happened too, beacuse if theres one thing i know about romans, its that they did whatever the hell they wanted if they could get away with it.