Posted: 09/29/2010 |
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 Spartacus: Blood And Sand - The Complete First Seasonby Michael J. Nicholas | |
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Oh man. Talk about a cable mini-series that has it all: great acting, awesome effects, drama, dark comedy, violence, sex with meaning and politics- not neccasarily in that order, but definitely lots and lots of it all. Sparticus: Blood And Sand - The Complete First Season, is a Starz original series brought to DVD and Blu-ray by Anchor Bay Entertainment. The set contains all original 13 episodes on 4 discs, including a host of special features and featurettes. Andy Whitfield plays a Threshan nomad who is tricked into helping the Romans fight a battle in exchange for protection from barbarians that threaten his people. After the Romans default on their deal, Whitfield’s character(you never find out his real name) and his fellow soldiers are outraged and attack their one-time allies. The battle is futile and Whitfield, along with his wife Sura(Erin Cummings), are taken prisoner. Sura’s fate is to be shipped off as a slave and her husband is to to die in the gladiator arena for his crimes against Rome. Whitfield is pitted against four other gladiators and wins, stunning the crowd and Batiatus(John Hannah), who runs the gladiator ludus and appoints him the new name, Spartacus, after a former legend of the arena. Basically, the gladiators are treated like prison inmates and are forced to train from sun up to sun down, with little food and no contact with the outside world. They all must pass the ‘trials’ to become part of the brotherhood and are made promises of earning their freedom. Crixus, played by Manu Bennett, is the reigning champion of the ludus and has a big problem with Spartacus right from the beginning- mainly because he doesn’t care for his Threshan heritage. Lucy Lawless plays Lucretia, the wife of Batiatus and secret lover of Crixus. Time has treated Ms. Lawless well and her acting chops have increased tenfold since the days of Xena: Warrior Princess; but then again, this script is pretty damn good. The main premise is that Spartacus is forced to train, fight and win in order to be reunited with his wife once again. He will kill however many men he has to in order to achieve this. Besides the fighting and training amongst the gladiators, there are also political misdealings going on between Batiatus, other ludus owners and politicians due to Batiatus’ wanting to be part of the counsel. A lot of these moves affect Spartacus in one way or another. Executive producers Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi, Joshua Donen and Steven S. DeKnight have really gone above and beyond to make this series happen. New technology has been invinted for filming a lot of the action sequences and green screen backgrounds. There is also a ton of worthwhile bonus features that are very entertaining. This is a series that doesn’t come along often and is definitely a must watch. Special features include: *Audio Commentary Michael J. Nicholas - a.k.a. Nicky The Note - reviews, opinions & life lessons. Got a problem? E-mail us at filmmonthly@gmail.com |