Spartacus

I watched the whole Spartacus series back when it first came up and now I'm revisiting it. Still, it does stand it's ground. I had no recollection of Jai Courteney being in the series and I don't like him as an actor but as Varro he is just great. All the acting is great, even when it's over the top, it all just fits together so nicely. Yeah, the GCI is a bit funny now and then but after just a few episodes, I really started to enjoy it. This show is sad, exciting and just pure fun to watch. To Andy: you made such an impression on younger me and you still do. You are a legend.

This series rocks! It is full of action packed historical fiction plots. As well as plenty of gratuitous nudity! Hehe

The complete series is an absolute masterpiece. As a former Australia producer I am so proud of the most sincere work not only from the cast but also the crew. Based in New Zealand it brings a complete smorgasbord of the great talents from director, producers, cinematography to a unique editing style and I must impress upon the casting just perfect. To all involved you do yourselves proud and you bring credit to our industry. Job well done!

I can't stand much of whats on TV. What I love about this show is the amount of sensuality and poetry it brings to the table, while not being sensory with respect to sexuality, violence, and ethics. I usually hate romance, but the romance in this movie is genuine, there are several forms of love and lust that are identified in the episodes. The fact that they have homosexuality in it despite possible conflicting interest--what would seem to attract small target audience--does suggest a good portrayal of sexuality at that time (Although i doubt that only a couple of them would be subject to homosexual lust because many of the mentors and mentees mated at that time).

As a previous rater stated, the characters have shades of evil and good. Their ethics seems to match what values were imbedded in the roman civilization. The reason there is so much blood and it over indulges is because the show not only explicitly includes sensual dialogue, but the way it is directed and the tactics of capturing violence and glory are not 2D and speak to its sensuality. Bottom line: if you are a passionate person, you will enjoy the dramatic dialogue and poetry, the sexuality, and the brutality.

If you want a series about Roman history, one can watch HBO's Rome (a very fine TV show). If you want to see a trashy and outrageously entertaining TV show with nonstop gore and nudity (both male and female) as well as graphic sex, Spartacus (very loosely based on the history of Ancient Rome's slave gladiator turned rebel leader) should be the choice.

Supposedly, TV shows are by necessity tamer than movies, yet I haven't seen any movie as consistently graphic about sex and violence as Spartacus. Suffice to say that almost everybody in the large cast of mostly muscular men and gorgeous women, gets naked in the series at some point. Episode 9 in particular – subtly called "Whore" – is a highlight in that regard.

A bit slow to start (I struggled with episode 1, but get hooked after episode 2), this admittedly not for all tastes series, was filmed in New Zealand with a mostly Australian and Kiwi cast. Its striking visual style can be compared with 300 (the gladiator's trainer, the great Peter Mensah, had a small role in that movie). The show is finely led in the titular role by Andy Whitfield (unfortunately he died of cancer after the first season, and was replaced by another actor in the following season). Yet, even if most of the cast is great, the best performance to me is by John Hannah as the devious Batiatus, the owner of the Gladiator's school. Hannah, whose background has been mostly on British comedies, excels here. While he initially seems to lack the toughness one supposes a master of a gladiator's school should have, he is eventually seen as a charming yet also very cruel and cunning man. Also remarkable are the performances of Manu Bennett as the knucklehead (but eventually noble) gladiator Crixus, Viva Bianca as the gorgeous but scheming Ilythia, and Nick Tarabay as Batiatus slimy aide, Ashur.