Spartacus: Blood and Sand - Season 1 ****

For Starters,’ Spartacus; Blood and Sand’ can be loosely termed as a cross between “Gladiator” and “300”, claimed by the producers to be ‘the boldest and bloodiest series’ to ever hit the TV screens, and lives true to the claims.

The plot of this tv series revolves around a thracian warrior who commits with Rome to fight against Getae (who used to strike their homes, rape women etc etc), later he goes against the Romans and is captured and is sent to Rome as a slave to be slaughtered by Gladiators in Blood Games. In a series of events, all other thracians fall yet one remains, killing all the gladiators in the arena & earning the title of “The one who defies death” and is given the name Spartacus.

The second major character enters in this point of series; He is Lentalus Baitiatus, the head of Ludus of Baitiatus, a school of gladiators. He sees Spartacus as a good investment and purchases him. The story moves ahead and Spartacus’s fame grew and he becomes the champion of Capua. The rest of the plot moves around the walls of Ludus of Baitiatus where friendships are made, Champions fall, nobles slaughtered, gladiators murdered. Infact one finds everything there; love, sex, jealousy,slaughter, treason, friendship, slavery, respect and death.

Generally the storyline of this series seems to be a bit weak and quite predictable, but here is where the cast and characters step up and do their part. The acting by the major characters is no less than fantastic and all of them do full justice with their characters. The major characters that stand out are Spartacus (The Thracian warrior turned Gladiator turned Champion of Cupua), Lentalus Baitiatus (Head of Ludus of Baitiatus, trying to make ends meet and entering the senate), Lucretia (Wife of Baitiatus, admires Crixus (another gladiator) and longs for a child), Crixus (Champion of Campua who lost his title, extends favor to lady of the ludas, loves Lucretia’s house slave), Ilithya (Wife of Glaber, who captured Spartacus and sold off his wife Sura) and Ashur (once a Gladiator, crippled by Crixus in the Arena, now handles accounts for the ludus)

With high volumes of blood rich action sequences and heavy dosage of soft porn within the series, one feels to be engrossed in these two but that’s not the case. With all the blood flowing on sand, gore curses and naked bodies making love constantly, the message shown is the roman way of life and roman thought process.

The series comprises of 13 episodes, the earlier episodes a bit difficult to digest, but once you have seen 3 episodes you are glued to this show. As for the next season, the shooting was scheduled to start months back was delayed by the news that the main lead Andy Whitfield (Spartacus) has contracted cancer. What a cliché, the person nicknamed as ‘The one who defies Death has cancer’. However, the producers taking advantage of time in hand and public demand have shot a 6 episode prequel to season 1, which doesn’t make sense to me at all but looking forward to it when it is aired.

A good series to have in the midst of non realistic gossip girls, entourages and other uptown crap. Great Sets, Beautiful woman, blood bathing warriors, Simply Awesome!

P.S. Viewers are kindly reminded to watch this series at their own risk and we further request not to get carried away and try any of the horrendous stuff showed in Spartacus Blood and Sand