Spartacus: Blood and Naughty Bits?

[dangermousie]

Came across this Spartacus vid (I cannot stress enough how DEEPLY UNWORKSAFE this is).

You are kidding! I didn't know you were allowed to show that on TV! In a movie-theater it would be NC-17.

Now I am interested.

Comments

[arathesane.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I heard about how racy it was and now I am interested, well, that and I just found out that John Hannah was on it. I adore him!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

80% of my interest was Lucy Lawless and John Hannah being married conspirators and he's totally cool with her boytoys.

[arathesane.livejournal.com]

Dude, that sounds awesome. I love Lucy too. I may have to check it out. I watch so much already but I really love both of those actors!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The video really turned me off, though. Totally not that into watching fictional people having tons of graphic sex. Particularly if I'm not attached to the characters and pairing, and I doubt that I'll love a lot of the characters here.

[arathesane.livejournal.com]

I didn't actually watch the vid. I don't have an interest in vids of shows I've never seen, I only commented as I had just really heard about the show a few days ago!

[thelana.livejournal.com]

There are actually some really nice characters in there too. There is a (so far) pretty sweet secondary love story where a clumsy big gladiator dorkily woos a house slave girl. And I think Spartacus BBF (some blond guy named Varro) is kinda the one taking care (so far) of the entire "really nice guy, smiles a lot, is a real friend, really lights up the dark place" angle.

That said, Spartacus spends a lot of time, especially in the beginning, being (in my eyes) an obnoxious tool. He does change and it is part of his development but it's still kind of annoying to sit through.

It's interesting, there are a lot of shows where you often wish that characters would get less holy and honorable and less obsessed with sacrificing all and everything. But here you have somebody who actually is all "I don't give a damn about honor or anybody, I will screw over anybody and have no interests other than grabbing my OTP and running off to elsewhere" and rather than appreciating the difference... I really just wanna smack him the head for it constantly. Maybe there are characters who can pull it off but him I just want to slap and yell "Stop thinking about poon and become a heroic leader already!".

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

And she is cool with his ladies. And he is cool with her ladies.

And the sex broke my poor pink brain...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

John Hannah? OMG YES PLEASE.

[arathesane.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction! I had never even heard of the show(don't have the channel) but eeriewhisper posted about it the other day and I was intrigued!

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

Rome and 300 had a baby and that baby was raised by Logo and late night Cinemax.

also starring Xena.

[morwen_peredhil]

Yes. This.

And it is just as much fun as it sounds!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I think I know what I am doing tomorrow.

[thelana.livejournal.com]

Just don't get scared off by the first episode which is (1) really bad and (2) really "out of character" for the show. It's reallly just the backstory/origin story and it takes place mostly in Thrace on the battlefield while all other episodes so far take place in the ludus where the gladiators are trained and in the arena where they fight.

And the show just did not have the money to pull off those Thrace scenes believably. A lot of the CGI there is so cringeworthy bad, argh... Better just skip to episode 2 or 3 I say ;)

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

Yes! Just as much fun as it sounds and even MORE PEEN than it sounds. NO RLY. I'm usually more icked out by gore, but the blood is so video game/cartoonish that it doesn't bother me so much.

As for the NC-17 thing, the delightful thing about pay cable is that they're not constrained by petty R/NC-17 questions. :) I remember an interview w/ True Blood's Alan Ball where he's all :D :D :D about not having to even consider where the line between R and NC-17 are.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha, I love that description.

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

I think I know that vid (am on iPod & can't watch), but yeah. I didn't think so, either, but it is on a premium channel. I've only watched the 1st ep b/c it was awful, but I'm told it gets better and so is on my list for later viewing.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I am not going to watch it for the quality :)

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

Hee. Well, that's what I thought too when I watched the first episode, but then it was really, really, horrifically bad (for me). I can only put up with so much for the NSFW-ness of it. :-D Hopefully the rest of it really does improve so I can enjoy it.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

It's on Starz, which is a premium channel. This is NOT broadcast TV.

And it is worth it. Very sexy, very violent and Lucy Lawless naked.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you could show it on premium channels either (I meant ones which didn't start with 'Playboy')

That little clip had more straight and gay sex of every variety in it than I've seen in about 100 hours of anything else that wasn't porn :)

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

You never see an erect penis. You never see penetration or the money shot. So it's not porn. I've seen that much on Cinemax and HBO. It's about as much as Queer as Folk or Deadwood, honestly.

You see a lot of tits, a lot of ass and some flaccid penis. Along with a lot of humping. And yes, there is serious gay sex in it. The kid even has the pained smile of "I love it. it hurts but I love it" that always goes with realistic anal.

Take my advice with a grain of salt. I write erotica for a side income.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

That's still more than you see in most any non-porn movie though (I think if it's erect it gets into porn category automatically? I think? I am not an expert). I was pretty shocked - certainly higher than R-rating where you can have a woman's full frontal but God forbid if you do one on a man.

[katranna.livejournal.com]

it hurts but I love it" that always goes with realistic anal.

ORLY?

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

YARLY. Maybe I should have said "willing and wanted anal"

Anal is almost always a little uncomfortable. And it's nice to see acknowledgement that real people (male and female) don't actually have back passages the size of a woman's front (as they often do in porn)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Wow. I think that just killed my interest in the show.

Apparently, the sex scene in the second episode of Eight Days: Mystery of Jeong Jo Assassination is as graphic as I go. Admittedly, I didn't know they could show that on Korean TV.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I crave understatement and quality. And sometimes just the opposite - Spartacus will satisfy that nicely :)

OK, I don't mean to sound like a perv but I can't imagine what they'd show in 8 days. The most 'graphic' (and I use this term incredibly loosely) sex scene in a kdrama I've ever seen was in IRIS and all it involved was some horizontal kissing covered under a sheet (and later some vertical kissing under the sam sheet - the horrors!) :)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The sheet was only sometimes involved, and we learn just how many layer gisaengs wore, anyway. (Mind you, it was considerably more tasteful than most milder sex scenes Hollywood puts out.)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I've only seen the first 5 minutes of 8 Days (the ones which involved Prince Sado in a ricebox - yikes) so I have no idea which characters would be getting it on, but I live in hope it would involve this guy:

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It was him and the gisaeng he's in love with. (He gets involved in the main plot because he's promised enough money to buy her freedom so they can get married.) It's a flashback, though, and he doesn't have his Angst Hair (TM) yet.

I'm on ep 3. I like it, but it's really dense, and assumes a familiarity with the historical figures and events involved. (Much like a US miniseries about Abraham Lincoln's assassination would assume the viewers had a passing familiarity with what happened, and not need it explained.) There's a higher percentage of Bearded Men Politicking than usual (keeping in mind that it's a standard) but also Women Politicking (and being better at it than the men) and it's pretty well acted and made.

The Prince Sado stuff isn't pretty in any version, but is kinda essential to the period.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

He gets involved in the main plot because he's promised enough money to buy her freedom so they can get married

Oh, that's going to end well!

I really want to watch 8 Days (short, highly regarded etc) but the denseness is putting me off a bit since all the history of the period I have is from Yi San and Conspiracy in the Court (and I didn't even finish the latter or the former).

I'll see how it goes - I gave up on CitC because all the politics made it impenetrable for a newbie like me (also heroine was a posioner and I have an unreasoning freakout thing about poisoners as opposed to other ways of killing people).

Re: Prince Sado. Yes, but I tried watching Yi San and 8 Days back to back. That was fun :)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I can see how watching 2 versions of a little kid begging his grandfather not to publicly starve his father to death in a rice box would be a bit much.

I expect the romance to end in tears. But then, I think they're both fictional, and most of the other characters historical personages, so maybe enough real people are destined awful deaths that they'll escape.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I can see how watching 2 versions of a little kid begging his grandfather not to publicly starve his father to death in a rice box would be a bit much.

I didn't really look into them so I didn't realize that they were basically 2 versions of the same story (only 8 Days involved one particular event and Yi San was basically a chronicle of his entire life) so imagine my shock. Fun!

Btw, did you ever watch Yi San? I haven't finished it (it's crazy long) but what I saw I really loved. And the politics is a lot more understandable for a non-Korean because it's not as heavy on it.

But then, I think they're both fictional, and most of the other characters historical personages, so maybe enough real people are destined awful deaths that they'll escape.

That way lies hoping for a happy ending and then weeping horribly when they die anyway. All the Chuno mains are fictional but I am already preparing myself for a mass wake. It's a period drama. Unless it's Daemang, it never ends well.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Most Dae Jang Geum protagonists lived! And some villains. Hwang Jin Yi had a pretty high survival rate, too.

Also, Emperor of the Sea gets flak for killing off so many characters, but most of them actually did die similarly to what happens in the show, whereas most of the survivors were fictional inserts they didn't have to kill.

(Mind you, they'll probably still die, but there's logic and precedent involved, here!)

I've seen and enjoyed the first ep of Yi San, but I didn't want to start a long sageuk while I was watching one. Right now, I'm hoping netflix gets it, or DVD prices drop, because I don't think I can watch that much streaming, and don't want to DL something that's licensed.

[bae-mac.livejournal.com]

OH SHIT!
I felt like *Peeping Tom* while watching the vid.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heeee. My pleasure :)

[grace-om.livejournal.com]

I saw a couple of eps they made available on Comcast's "On Demand." Total trash -- in a good way ;->

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, just want I crave :)

[thelana.livejournal.com]

Well it is HBO.

Oddly enough they didn't even include the biggest sex scene so far (a gladiator and a society woman have sex while wearing the masks of Appollo and Aphrodite (I think) while covered in gold paint), nor one of the nicest (Spartacus' future second in command Crixus who has a secret forbidden love with a house slave).

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

I always thought HBO showed good TV series .... my brain just broke, I have seen so many Japanese and Korean series, that stuff like that (and Frozen Flower) somehow shock me.
It feels like Gladiator and Rome have married and Rome has an illicit affair with 300 and their love child is THIS. And while I appreciate Lucy Lawless having regained her figure after having her babies, that were more boobs than I wanted to see of her (or any other female) that involves John Hannah or that guy from ... LOST(???).
Good thing I don't like sandal movies and series (I only sat half-way through Gladiator and that was already a pain), so this one won't be on my TV to watch list.

[astrothsknot.livejournal.com]

I'm used to UK tv's output on free channels, so I'm very rarely shocked by TV, but I do love Spartacus. I love how EVIL LL and JH's characters are.

It feels so strange to comment in here about actors with only two initials.

[village.livejournal.com]

Well, that's quite something. LOL. The idea of it intrigues me but it appears a touch too trashtastic for me. A bunch of people I know enjoy it though, so I may catch an episode or two and see if I would care for it.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I loooove trash so this is right up my alley.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm always a little put off (no! really put off) by trashy scenes. I mean: what is the point of showing it? Penis or breats, I personaly doesn't want to see that. The same goes for graphic violence.

Plus, what I saw of the depiction of the scociety and life of that time is eally, really NOT realistic. And that is also a no, no... Will just spend time rolling my eyes...

Emma

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heh - I like trashy stuff sometimes, I confess.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, it's not to us you need to confess, then... LOL

Emma

[shinystory.livejournal.com]

Woh! That on TV?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yup :)

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

That... actually makes me want to watch that. Hrm.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heh. I am not alone!