SPARTACUS - UP WITH THE SLAVES (and nudity)

[dangermousie]

Flist, you are all on notice!



How come nobody informed me of the upcoming Spartacus 13-ep TV series, which has also been renewed for a second season already.

Seriously.

PEOPLE.

Come on!

There is no trope I love more in fiction than a slave uprising. It might be my Communist upbringing, or my contrariness, or maybe the fact that Rafaello Giovagnoli's novel Spartacus was not only one of my earliest book loves but also produced my first ever crush (yes - I wrote a love letter to Spartacus when I was 8. My mother still has it somewhere to blackmail me with). But there is nothing in fiction world I love more than slaves revolting against their masters and showing them what for. And if the slave in question is Spartacus? SIGN ME UP NOW.

This will probably suck and I DO NOT CARE.

RAWR

Comments

[fivil.livejournal.com]

It's one a network called STARZ.

I think it's the Z that makes sure we know this is quality stuff.

Happy watching! I'm staying far away, despite nudity. ;)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

the Z is a sign of quality!

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I have, um, actually seen the first two episodes. And it is terrible. But gloriously, beautifully terrible. Plus they appear determined to get an orgy on screen at least twice an episode. It's amazing the Romans conquered anything what with spending all their time on sex.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

This sounds wonderful. Now all they need is Nazi werewolves and maybe a mansquito.

[popaddict.livejournal.com]

It looks terrible.
The Lord be with you.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Too much nudity for me to handle straight up. I will have to watch this one on dvd so I can fastforward.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I, otoh, shall lovingly dwell on it (or not but this seems to promise little but...)

I don't think that you'll like it

[thelana.livejournal.com]

but I for one looooove it. It's so my kind of thing. But yeah, probably too focused on the gore and violence over everything else. The main couple is totally over the top with the entire "I'll slay the Gods to get back to you" except to me they totally don't pull it off. There are tiny hints of a secondary couple that could be cute and I kinda like the interaction between the dominus and his wife (Lucy Lawless of Xena fame and John Hannah from The Mummy and others). They are totally screwed up and amoral but still almost cute in certain moments. But yeah, I'm gonna stick with my "so not your thing" prediction (even though, though I first thought that pretty much everything about the show was laughably made up, I was shocked to find out that they actually seemed to be following at least the wikipedia biography of Spartacus very closely; still doesn't change that Spartacus is mostly a selfish, unlikable and pretty insane twat in this version).

Re: I don't think that you'll like it

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heh - I'll check it out at some point anyway

Re: I don't think that you'll like it

[thelana.livejournal.com]

Pretty good picspam for episodes 2-4 (same as linked in my journal)

I'd be curious if you ever watch it what you'd think of the relationship between Spartacus and his wife here. They obviously try to make it deep and epic, especially in the beginning, but she's hardly ever on. She exists really mostly in his weird ass dreams that are either gory or about sex. It just doesn't seem very satisfying to me. I get more mileage out of the one big loaf gladiator being in love with the slave girl while being forced into being the owner's wife's bed warmer.

Re: I don't think that you'll like it

[granamyr.livejournal.com]

The writers completely missed the boat with Sura. She's too lovey-dovey and softcore to be a convincing Thracian priestess or even an interesting person. I would have been happy had the writers cut out some of the cussing, bloody nonsense in episode 1 and given her more to do or feel.

For example, she's supposed to be a priestess of the Dionysiac order. Do the writers even know what that means? It means she dances around in an ecstatic frenzy, rips apart small animals, and smears her man with the blood, THEN jumps his bones and orders him to "Kill them all." Sura's too busy applying mascara and lipstick to do priestess stuff like that.

She gets all teary-eyed and wibbly the morning Spartacus leaves, and tells him she's had a bad dream. I'd have gladly sacrificed a few seconds of that unconvincing softcore sex scene to actually SEE her having that nightmare of him bowing to the red serpent, and the great, unfortunate things to come. Suppose, as a prophetess, she sees herself being captured and raped? Suppose, terrified as she is, she sends Spartacus to battle anyway? That would have given her extra dimension. That would have made her interesting. Instead, she's little more than Spartacus's imaginary wet dream playmate.