This is Madness!

This is Madness!

THIS IS SPARTACUS!

Okay, okay I know, the battle of Thermopylae- the root of the legendary Spartan 300 is Greek, and Spartacus is Roman and from the third servile wars. I'm a history nut, I know but the title had to be done...it's the internet people! Anywhoo, lets get this thing going. Starz has had the second season of Spartacus running for a few weeks now ( third season if you count the mini prequel ). It's by far one of my favorite shows out there today. It's even managed to calm my desire to jump up and down and scream about some of the historical flaws. THERE IS NO THUMBS UP OR DOWN IN THE ARENA!!!!! Thumb down: put your sword to earth- let him live...Thumb across the neck ( we all know this sign) : Kill him. DAMN YOU HOLLYWOOD!

 

Okay got that out of my system. The series as expected is very, very bloody and graphic. To that end I will say a little too bloody, even though the battle injuries shown are very realistic, the arena actually rarely saw a gladiators death, they were celebrities and very expensive so most fights were rarely fatal. But that wont make good TV. The amount of nudity and sex ( both male/female full frontal, and very romantic to very lude and over the top sex scenes, of all types both hetero and same sex related. This I seem to notice draws the most attention, and not really for why you may think.

 

While it's true some of the haters out there get miffed when a favorite gladiator takes to himself a fellow brother of the sands or another cries that Lucy Lawless needs more lesbian scenes the tone overall is VERY accurate to how life really was before the spread of a certain dogmatic mentality. There was no Gay, or straight- There was love, and there was lust. Who you took to your chambers was your thing and that is what mattered, Getting married as the series shown was to the common man purely of love, and to those in the higher tier of society it was a political move for power and wealth and nothing more in the end. I really felt it was important to bring this up and applaud Starz for working this aspect into the series without feeling the need to over hype or focus too heavily on the genders of people involved in the scenes, granted that era was very open and “ wild” when it came to the flesh- gladiators tease and have a brotherly laugh with another one whom was involved with another man in the same way they would any friend or brother involved with ANYONE and shows that once upon a time, we as a species were more advanced than we currently are.