Why We'll Miss Spartacus
April 10, 2013
With the rebel Thracian making his final stand in this Friday's War of the Damned finale, here's why Starz' Spartacus was one of a kind.
Batiatus: What would you do to hold your wife again, to feel the warmth of her skin, to taste her lips, would you kill?
Spartacus: Whoever stood between us.
Batiatus: How many men? A hundred, A thousand?
Spartacus: I would kill them all.
This Friday, Spartacus's legendary, harried journey comes to an end with the War of the Damned episode, "Victory" - written by creator Steven S. DeKnight and directed by Rick Jacobson (the man behind the arena carnage in "Libertus").
Andy Whitfield as Spartacus.
It's been a brilliant and tragic journey for both character and show, having lost original star Andy Whitfield to cancer back in September of 2011. In an attempt to keep the story moving during Whitfield's recovery, we were given a prequel series, Gods of the Arena, which introduced us to a younger Batiatus and Lucretia - the villains from Blood and Sand - as well as a cocksure two-sworded champion of the arena named Gannicus.
Liam McIntyre as Spartacus.
Liam McIntyre would replace Whitfield in the lead role of Spartacus for the first official sequel season, Vengeance, amidst global cries of Whitfield being irreplaceable. But McIntyre kept his sword up and his head down and won the world over with his tender fury as Spartacus forged a small army of slaves and cleverly defeated Gaius Claudius Glaber at a memorable, fiery battle on the steps of Mount Vesuvius.
In War of the Damned, Spartacus continued to thrive and survive, even when hunted by the iron will, and unrivaled fortune, of Marcus Licinius Crassus. But the weight of all who have fallen in the name of freedom ("For Varro and Mira. For Sura") has become too much to carry and the time has come for Spartacus, Gannicus and all who remain to either win their freedom or die gloriously in battle.
Four cable seasons might not seem like much time to tell a tale such at this one, and it certainly came as a blow last June when DeKnight announced that War of the Damned would mark the official end of of the rebellion, but within the 39 episodes lives all you could ever want in a TV series. We would now have you turn thought from uncertain future and embrace fleeting moment. Here's why Spartacus will be missed:
The Look
The first two items on this love letter-y list seemed as though, at the outset of the series, they'd be this show's Achilles Heel, to throw a Greek mythology metaphor into the Roman mix. The excessive CGI backdrops were criticized back at the beginnings of Blood and Sand for giving the show a cheap and schlocky feeling, with some critics writing that Spartacus was merely trying to capitalize on the stylized graphic novel-look of 300.
The latest craze sweeping the nation? Mass death!
But notice how soon all of this became a non-issue. In fact, looking back at reviews and articles written about the show reads like a story of haters being won over by a great, non-traditional series which presented them with a visual style that they unfortunately associated with a shoddy product. The CGI blood and the green-screen backdrops, used for budgetary reasons primarily, have come to simply be the world of this show, inviting us into a story that's both harsh and warm - and unlike anything else on TV.
The Language
Admittedly, I was one of those viewers who wasn't sucked right into the series on day one. I'd say it took me a good four episodes - at "The Thing in the Pit" mark, I think - before I was fully invested. And, yes, some of it had to do with the visuals, but I'd have to say that most of it had to do with the language.
Not that I'm prudish about the words "c***" and/or "c***" (I'll let you decide which is which), but the way the characters spoke on Spartacus felt like a combination of Shakespeare, Bukowski and Andrew Dice Clay. And it took a while to absorb. Not just the beautiful profanity of it, but the heart and intelligence behind it. It took time to notice that there was an actual language here and that a phrase like "Once again the gods spread the cheeks and ram c*** in f***ing ass!" deserved to be crocheted on a pillow. And I'll say this too: I think John Hannah, as Batiatus, was a big part in getting us to appreciate the awesome vulgarity of it all. It was the summer right after Blood and Sand that I was asking him, at Comic-Con, to bellow "Jupiter's C***!" for me.
So yes, the language of Spartacus, while obsessively obscene, had an addictive quality to it. It had it's own lexicon, idioms and structure. And I would soon sever c*** from body than tolerate anyone disparaging it.
The Lust
Ahem. Spartacus features a lot of naked people. A lot of beautiful naked people. And since there was no HBO GO back in 70 BC, the denizens of Rome and its surrounding burgs did the next best thing - they had sexy sex.
"Imma put it in you."
So here was this show that had massive amounts of swearing, violence and sex and it somehow wanted to convince us that it was more than just T & A & E (the "E" stands for evisceration). In fact, I remember thinking how funny it was that Spartacus, back in the pilot episode, essentially got to have "goodbye sex" with his wife twice before tragedy struck.
But it wasn't long before we all realized that there was more to the sex than just the thrusting. There was often meaning behind the copulation, be it love or deception. And it wasn't always a glorious affair and we quickly learned that when two people (or more) got together there was a 50/50 chance that it could turn out either sensually rewarding or horrifically traumatizing. In fact, I did up a small humor piece, after Gods of the Arena, about Spartacus' Most Disturbing Sex Scenes, showcasing all the ways sex had gone wrong up to that point.
Hate sex, degrading sex, forced sex, murder sex...yeah, this wasn't Emmanuelle in Paradise.
3...2...1...ORGY!
Years later, the sex and the violence of Spartacus are afterthoughts and it's the story that resonates the loudest.
Spartacus would do anything for love (even that), plus some amazing evil-doers, on page 2...
The Love
Spartacus' historic slave rebellion may be filled with bloodshed both triumphant and tragic, but let's not forget that it started out as a love story. And that everything that led Spartacus on his journey into immortality began with the loss of his wife, Sura, and his desire to see her death avenged.
Glaucoma Theater presents...
Now, with one episode to go, it's the love stories that keep this world tethered together. Spartacus with Sura, or Mira or Laeta. Crixus and Naevia. Gannicus and Sibyl. Agron and Nasir.
Both: "Imma put it in you."
And by the way, how refreshing is it to have a show that treats homosexuality as a complete non-issue? Ancient Rome may have been a harsh realm of violence, slavery and misfortune, but it sure was fertile ground for (what we'd consider now to be) a progressive love story.
We know how this story ends. There's been a shadow of doom over this series from the start. No one (likely) gets out of this alive, so it's the love they share with one another that winds up shining through, aiding us in getting through such a brutal journey with a bitter end. If all our heroes truly believe that they'll be reunited with their loved ones in the afterlife, and meet death with a willing smile, then we can take comfort in their sacrifice and truly see honor in their demise.
"I forgot to DVR Storage Wars."
The Life-Taking
Speaking of everyone's demise, four seasons in and this show still hasn't run out of ways to creatively kill people.
Whether someone's having their jaw ripped apart, face sliced in half, head caved in, arms ripped off, throat slit or being forced to swallow a sword...
Open buffet.
...Spartacus has always gone above and beyond when it comes to gore. I mean, above and beyond when it comes to "showing us the cold, unflinching reality of war." Again, this was one of the things that the show initially took some heat for, but now it's just a savage treat to enjoy on top of the spectacular story. Deaths can be quick or they can be agonizing and part of the fun of this show became, over time, trying to guess how certain characters would meet their end. Especially with DeKnight having said that he deliberately tries not to repeat anything when it comes to people getting mauled and cut down. So each death becomes its own perverse piece of art.
"Now you're Leg-O-Less! Haha, I'm awesome!"
The Lowlifes
I previously mentioned John Hannah's performance as Batiatus as being one of the main reasons we were so captivated with this show back in Blood and Sand and let's face it, Spartacus does villains right. On his quest to free himself from his shackles, and then take the battle to Rome itself, Spartacus has come up against a rogues gallery of fiends and scoundrels. Which is to say, we, as an audience, have gotten to spend a lot of time with the flip-side of the Spartacus universe: the greedy, nefarious Romans. This series splits its time between heroes and villains equally, often giving the bad guys some serious due; filling them out as complete, and sometimes sympathetic, characters.
U mad, bro?
Batiatus and Lucy Lawless' Lucretia were so great that they anchored their own six-episode prequel season as anti-heroes where they faced off with even more grotesque villains than themselves. They became a fan-favorite power couple, despite the fact that, out of all the other scoundrels, Batiatus was the one who actually killed Spartacus' wife! And we still loved him.
Moving past them, with the notion of not repeating themes or traits, Vengeance's Glaber was more cut from the cloth of a traditional villain. Someone you longed to see put to the sword. A true heel. And yet, you could still understand his mind and motives because the bad guys on Spartacus spend about as much time warring with themselves as they do with the outlaw Thracian who's supposed to be Public Enemy #1.
*gloats internally*
So from Glaber and Illythia and Ashur to now Crassus, Tiberius and Caesar, the writers have never shied away from bringing the villains into focus like no other show on TV; to the point where we, as viewers, even wind up rooting for one villain to topple another! In fact, one wonders if Spartacus managed to make it as far as he did because there was so much political maneuvering and dastardly in-fighting on the opposing side.
The Leadership
Aside from remaining admirably reverent to the legendary characters themselves (Spartacus, Oenomaus, Crixus, etc) this show has also never felt the need to paint any of them as saints. To that point, one of the themes the show has addressed is that of collateral damage, starting first with the thousands of people who died during the arena fire in "Libertus."
"You do not, in fact, see that every day."
Yes, there was in-fighting on the rebel side too; namely over who deserves to die. Spartacus was able to live with the deaths of the spectators as he probably saw them as willing participants in slave brutality, but the greys got progressively greyer and soon Spartacus was the one holding the unpopular opinion of "Hey, maybe we shouldn't slaughter women and children unless it's absolutely necessary." Again, he wasn't whole-heartedly against the mindless killing of Romans, but he did see that there was a faint, fading line between freedom fighter and madman.
It's complexities such as these, along with the ongoing dialogue about the truisms of war, that kept this show from traveling down a straight and narrow path and gave the rebel cause more depth than just the obvious goal of wanting freedom.
Dust. Wind. Dude.
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