Basically
Peen = silly word for penis. After the first I was kinda miffed at the double standard, lot of porn, nudity, but it's kinda silly do do all that and then skirt around the penis. And then, lo and behold, in the second episode there was some random gladiator goodies in the background. One of those scenes where the gladiators from the ludus face off with main guy.
Speaking of which:
(1) I'm really disappointed that they have to go through the whole silly: "He's a man of peace! He's doing it all only for his wife!" spiel. Because lo and behold somebody from that era would do it out of bloodlust, for money or because life simply doesn't matter to them too much. Storywise, him starting out bad and then wisening up would have been much more interesting. I read that historically there were some theories that Spartacus was educated, so him being very politician like and having some aspirations of powers would also have been interesting. But for him to be that perfect and saintly from the beginning is a bit clicheed.
(2) That said, cheesy as it might be, I do like how they are doing the dance and not revealing his true name to us.
(3) I was so glad that they cut off his long hair in the second episode. That way he's actually pretty good looking (and he stopped giving me "Oh look, it's killer Jesus!" vibes). He might not be a great character but he certainly does something for the shallow parts of me.
I think what's disappointing to me is that on one hand it seems to try hard to outdo Rome when it comes to sex and gore but at the same time doesn't draw the consequences the way Rome did, namely by having the characters behave in a way that would actually befitting of the time they life in, in regards to morality, sexuality and violence wise.
I get the romance angle but I kept thinking if it wouldn't be more in character for a man from his time to show disappointment in his wife being soiled now or just write her off as dead when the Legatus suggested she'd been gangraped?
I also wish that for once a show would acknowledge that the various people there spoke different languages. Even if we assume that English = Latin here and everybody spoke some Latin, it would be a nice change of pace if all the non Roman leads actually had an accent. But I guess a main character with a foreign accent (even though it would probably make the reactions that Romans might have been to him more recreatable) would be too daring.
I squeed a bit when I realized that Darken Rahl from Legend of The Seeker is in this. He is deliciously evil again. His voice just drips with slimy evil. It's almost kinda amusing how all characters either curse all the time or speak like they are in some sort of epic play. Though overall this is probably the closest thing to cheesy melodramatic pornographic fanfiction in tv show form that I've ever seen.
Sigh. But looking at the list from the behind the scenes people I figure it must get better, right?
IMO the biggest difference to Rome seems to be that this is a more personal story while Rome cared about the political. Plus, Rome always seemed to have many different stories and layers of stories going on. This feels like it's just one single story strand.
I do really like John Hannah. Always had a soft spot for him.
Does anybody know how many episodes of this there are supposed to be?
I really wish they'd do away with the terrible blood spurting effects. The actual battle effects with all the 300 style slow motion flying through the air actually isn't half badly executed, but the fake looking blood makes the whole thing look cheap. Maybe the special effects will look more polished in the final version?
I have to say, I'm a but puzzled who their target audience is supposed to be. It seems like there is almost too much muscular male nudity to work for a straight male audience. Then again, that didn't stop 300...
Edited by LolaRuns, Dec 18, 2009 @ 9:50 AM.
Television Without Pity • © 2013 Bravo Media LLC • A Division of NBCUniversal •