Am I the only fan of the TV series "Spartacus"?

[Jeebo]

I think it's the BEST television series EVER. At the end of every episode, I would do a fist-pump and yell, "GOD-fucking-DAMN, that is the best TV series EVER!" I have all four seasons on DVD and have watched the whole series five times through. Those Starz cable channels just finished re-broadcasting the whole series -- one episode at a time, every Saturday night. And yet, I know of only one person who was into the series as much as I was. A couple other people who watched it a little, but never really got into it as much as I did.

I think it's interesting the way the Romans in the series -- almost all of them -- were sneaks, cheats, connivers, con artists, murderers, liars, manipulators, not an ounce of honor among them -- but among the gladiators, there was some honor. That sounds odd when you watch the gladiators hacking away at each other in the arena, but the arena was a role that was forced on them by the Romans.

It's also interesting that in violent conflicts, the Romans almost always were no match for the gladiators. The gladiators would cut through them like the proverbial hot knife through butter, even in the face of much greater numbers. If the TV series is to be believed, the only reason the slave revolt was eventually put down was ultimately because of vastly superior numbers.

I think Crixus and Naevia were the two most interesting characters in the series. Crixus was the only character who was in all four seasons and played by the same actor through all four seasons. Naevia was in all four seasons, but she was played by two different actresses. I could actually argue that the central character of the whole series was not its title character, but Crixus.

The relationship between Batiatus and his wife Lucretia (Lucy Lawless) was also very interesting. I said earlier that there was no honor among the Romans, but one rare exception to that was the relationship between Batiatus and Lucretia. They really did love each other and were unquestionably devoted to each other, but in all their dealings with anybody else, they were the same kind of snakes and connivers and murderers that almost all the Romans were.

As I said, I have all four seasons on DVD, but if Starz shows the series again, I will watch it again.

There are differences between the TV series and the 1960 film, but despite the differences, I love that movie too, I think it should have won Best Picture.

-- Ron

[SinisterPants]

1. Ummm, it was kinda cool?

The premise was great, Lucy Lawless and a few others were really good, photography was at times magnificent.
But at the end it boiled down to blood-sex-porn.

Good quality blood sex porn, but nevertheless.

[Jeebo]

3. It wasn't a prime-time network series, that's for sure.

As you said, blood, sex, porn, and you forgot to mention, strong language. But I could actually argue with you about whether it was porn, because the sex was not there for the purpose of sexually stimulating the viewer, which is what porn is for, but it was just part of the background and the attempt to make that background realistic.

But the people, the characters, their relationships, were fascinating, as well as the history, to whatever extent the history is accurate, and I think it's impossible to know that now. I read a Wikipedia article about the history of the slave rebellion, and it was almost scene-by-scene identical to the TV series. That Wikipedia article almost could have served as a script for the TV series.

I think very little is actually known about the historical Spartacus and the slave rebellion, because the Romans tried really hard to scrub the historical record clean about those events after the rebellion was put down.

So when they make movies and TV shows about it now, they have to start with the very sketchy history and fill it in with stuff they just make up. And that, I am sure, is why the Wikipedia article I read sounds so much like the TV series. It was being presented as a historical record but was actually a synopsis of the historical fiction that was the TV series.

-- Ron

[Pisces]

2. I also liked the the series. I wish they would have started a

Julius Caesar series with the same actor.

[SinisterPants]

4. TV: Rome...

The TV series Rome is Phenomenal. While not directly focused on Caesar and Antony, they are woven through the series. It's one of the best historic fictions ever done on the small screen. It lasted only three seasons, but is an epic spanning at least four generations.

Anyone who likes both smart and entertaining historical fiction will be glad they watched this.

[Pisces]

5. Ive watched it and agree. Loved it

[Jeebo]

6. The Rome TV series didn't really end, it just stopped.

I heard the reason was that they were spending too much money on it, and couldn't afford to keep making episodes. I wonder how much longer it would have gone on if the money hadn't run out? I've got the first season on DVD, but didn't watch any more of it. For some reason it just didn't grab me like the Spartacus TV series did. Maybe I should watch those DVDs again, give the Rome series another chance to grab me. I've sure got the time for it now. Some people are saying the stay-at-home might last as much as another couple of years.

-- Ron