Review by C.M. Houghton
NOTE: This entire review will contain spoilers for major plot points and some twists I didn’t see coming. If you haven’t seen the series, please go watch it as soon as you can and come back when you’re done. I really love this show and wouldn’t want to spoil anyone that doesn’t want to be. Also, note: this review is long since I’m talking about the entire season, not just one episode, so get comfortable.
AUTHOR’S FOREWORD:
If you don’t know me, I will talk about myself a bit here as an introduction and to explain why I’m writing this to begin with (especially now since it’s been more than four months since the season ended).
I’ve been watching TV since I was a kid and I adore television when it’s good. I love it so much that I’ve been writing about TV for the past six years. Well, to be more honest (and more accurate), I’ve written about one particular television show for six years.
In my spare time I write online reviews of “Smallville” for KryptonSite.com, and I’m writing this review for the same reason I primarily started writing about “Smallville”: I love the show and want to express that in some way. I’m a writer, even if I don’t make a living doing it. Writing is what I do, so I sometimes write about things I like and I’m just lucky enough to have a venue share what I write.
Like “Smallville,” this show has a relatively small yet a devoted following. Also, like “Smallville,” the people who love the series, love it ardently (even fanatically) and people who haven’t seen it (or have only seen a few episodes) don’t seem to understand it or are dismissive of it. If writing about why I love the show helps others get a better understanding of it, or helps them be willing to try watching it, I will have succeeded.
I’m probably not like most fans. Most fans don’t write reviews, but I am also different in another way: I actually have some experience in film and theatre.
I was a film major in college, with an emphasis in writing and directing, and even acted a bit in high school and college. I also worked professionally in theatre for a time. I worked costuming crews more than a few times and even had built or painted scenery. In high school, I had hung lights and ran the light board during productions. Yet despite my schooling, aside from running a studio camera at a local ABC affiliate for a year, I have never worked in film or TV professionally. So, a lot of my understanding of where film and TV differ from theatre I got in college (or from what I’ve learned since) and is largely academic.
I’ve actually learned a lot from writing the reviews for “Smallville.” Yeah, I’m a huge fan and writing helps me express all the things I like about a show, but in taking things apart mentally and examining them helped me learn more about what makes a good story good.
Writing my reviews for “Smallville” has also helped my writing in general. Just like anything, practice make perfect. Putting down my thoughts on things I like and don’t like exercises my writing ‘muscles’ as much as it does my intellect. So, in writing about “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” I hope to get something out of it. I’m a volunteer: I don’t get paid for this, so part of the appeal of writing a review is that it will help my own writing get better but also give me a better intellectual understanding of the show. Although, I suppose to anyone not familiar with it this show might not appear to be the least bit intellectual.
On the face of it, in fact, my adoration of this show might seem superficial and self-indulgent. I mean, there is a TON of great eye candy in this show. And I’ll be honest: I adore the beefcake scenery almost as much as I love the writing and acting and everything else I’m going to talk about. The men are all very fit and look great.
I do find that appealing on a very basic, even a primal, level and there are times when I do swim in the shallow end of the pool, but it’s also refreshing. It’s about time men get objectified; I’m sick of seeing women in TV and film being treated as little more than nearly naked scenery. Yet, that base reaction doesn’t negate the fact that I’m a smart, college educated (if an under-employed) woman of a ‘certain age.’
A lot of people reading this, even knowing little about me, might think I should be above this show. Most traditional critics would probably agree since, in the rare instances when one actually admits in writing to liking the show, they usually label it as a ‘guilty pleasure’ and are otherwise dismissive of it.
If you feel the same way about “Spartacus” then you may not really see the beauty of it, much less see how intelligent a show it really is. If that’s the case, then reading this review is probably exactly what you need to be doing.
I think this show is one of the smartest on TV and I hope to show you why in this review.
Why I love “Spartacus: Blood and Sand”
The Writing:
I had been interested in this show when I’d first heard about it, but I didn’t have a Starz subscription so I thought I wasn’t going to be able to see it. That made me sorry. I was familiar with the work series creator Steven S. DeKnight had done with “Smallville” and a few other shows. So, I had wanted to see what he would do with Spartacus’ story, a historically well-known person, in a television series.
I didn’t know much about Spartacus, I’ve since learned more because of this show (score one for the proponents of TV as an educational tool), but I knew there probably wasn’t really much known about his early life. It just had been so long ago, so I was curious to see what Steven DeKnight was going to do with his story…
So, when I had gotten a Netflix account about half way into the season, just before episode 6 aired, I was very happy to see that Starz on Demand was included. As soon as I found that out, I gave “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” a try and I’m glad I did: I adore this show.
A lot of people, when I tell them I love “Spartacus: Blood and Sand,” look at me with a sly grin and a knowing twinkle in their eyes and then they ask why I like it. I have even gotten amused winks along with a response of ‘Yeah, right‘ when I tell them it’s because of the great characters and awesome storylines.
People just don’t believe me, so I guess one reason I’m writing this is because I want to press my case that there is more to this show than sex, violence and foul-language. Most people assume that fans of the show only watch for the sex and violence. And there are probably some who watch only for that. As for me, being a woman, I think the other person usually assumes I watch because of the sex. I like the action too, but to be honest: Yes, the sex is a factor. Yet, probably not for the same reason that most people think it is: I like how refreshingly honest the sex in the show is.
It’s not real sex, of course, it’s all simulated and I don’t think we ever see actual genitalia. Instead we see pubic wigs for the women and prosthetics for reportedly most of the men, but which men use them and which ones don’t no one has said. Apparently, the fakes are hard to tell from the real thing without getting a close look (which probably won’t happen on screen) so we may never know for sure.
Anyway, no real naughty-bits = this show not being porn. It’s also far more beautiful than porn is in any case, but it is still far more honest than how most shows deal with sex.
There are no hang-ups, no guilt and no complexity. People have sex in this show just because they want to have it, or because they can even if they have to force the other person to it, but sex also informs on their character. Which is the main reason why the sex in the show isn’t pornography: it is never gratuitous.
Far from it, every sex scene shows something important about the characters or helps advance the plot. That’s writing 101: every scene needs to either reveal character or advance the plot (better if it does both) or it’s a wasted scene and should be cut. Steven S. DeKnight is a genius when it comes to making sex and violence important to the story. More writers in Hollywood should take pages from his book, the way he weaves violence and sex into the story is brilliant.
If you haven’t seen the show, and only know its reputation as being a foul-mouthed gory show filled with more naked and semi-naked hard bodies than it is filled with gruesome deaths, you might think I’m being hyperbolic. If you would just watch the show, you’d see that there is so much more to this show than just foul language, sex and graphic gore. I think for me, in terms of storytelling and character development, other television dramas pale in comparison and I don’t think I’m exaggerating.
It is brilliant.
There are so many examples of this show doing smart things with Spartacus’ story, but one of the smartest Steven has done is weave in what little is known of Spartacus’ life before he led the revolt of gladiators. The show isn’t completely faithful to known facts about Spartacus, but the sparse information that seems to be available on his early life actually worked to the show’s advantage. They used a lot of that as a springboard to tell a compelling story, without worrying too much about staying completely accurate. Historians and history buffs probably don’t like that they’d done that, but I didn’t mind that at all.
It was known that he had been a member of the Thracian auxiliary to the Roman army, like in the show, but it is not clear where he had served. He may have served in Thrace, like in the show, or he could have even served in Rome itself.
Unlike how it’s portrayed in the show, Thracians were common as gladiators. It wasn’t accurate for Glaber to say that seeing Thracians die in the arena was unique, but it worked for the show so that inaccuracy didn’t bother me.
Spartacus’ real name wasn’t known, which is why we don’t hear it spoken in the show, but it is known that he had either deserted or had become a criminal after leaving the Roman auxiliary. He was later captured and sold into slavery for his crime, or crimes. One historian I read had said he had been wrongfully condemned to slavery, he was innocent. So that is an interesting parallel to the show. (In the show he had deserted because the Romans had betrayed his people and left their villages vulnerable to attack by the enemy.)
But in reading a few books and online data on him, probably one of the most interesting facts I’d learned about Spartacus was that his wife had been captured and sold into slavery with him. If the ancient historians had known her name, they hadn’t recorded it so no one knows what it was, but it’s fascinating she had been enslaved with her husband. I like how the show used that fact. It wasn’t exactly the same, she actually had lived in the ludus with him even though further details aren’t known, but I liked how the show had used that tidbit.
Historically, it had also been known that Spartacus’ wife was a seer or mystic of some kind. She saw things in her dreams about her husband and what he was going to do… I like that they had added just a touch of that to her story in the show. It makes Sura a far more interesting character.
In history she had escaped the ludus with her husband so she had not died before he left like in the show. However, despite them fudging with that part of known history I don’t actually mind it. Her being parted from him, her rescue being a goal for him to reach, makes sense. It gives him a huge goal to reach for. Her early death was a huge turning point for him and pushed him forward, so it was okay. (I’ll talk more about that later.)
Another major difference between history and the show was that Batiatus had survived the revolt in real life. The escaping gladiators didn’t ‘kill them all’ then, but given the way the season had progressed it makes sense to have Spartacus kill his master.
In history, it was known that Crixus and Spartacus had a contentious relationship after they gained their freedom. So the animosity the show added for the two men during the season was a fantastic choice.
One interesting choice was one which I’m not sure was an obvious one. In history apparently Spartacus had been a heavy-weight gladiator that was in the murmillo class like Crixus is in the show. Yet in the show he’s introduced as a thraex. Both of those gladiator classes (there were about a dozen different types) had been big men, but their fighting styles were different. The more lightly armed thraex was very mobile and copied the fighting style of Thrace with a smaller sword and shield. The shorter curved sword, a sica, was typical of Thracian weapons. The murmillo carried a gladius (a Roman legion sword that was longer than the sica) and used a larger shield so a murmillo weighed down by the heavier equipment would have been slower.
Because of these differences, thraex and murmillo fighters would have fought each other in the arena since the Romans had preferred to fight men against each other in the arena who had different arms and skills. So, if Spartacus had been a murmillo like Crixus, it would not have been likely they would have fought each other.
Making them have different fighting styles, and thus be potential combatants in the arena, added another facet to Spartacus’ and Crixus’ animosity. It was a change that was maybe unexpected, but it makes sense given how things played out. It also differentiated Spartacus from Crixus, his major rival, and it helped the action in the arena be far more dynamic and entertaining to watch.
As much as they changed the stories from known historical fact, there were times where they just plain made things up: If Batiatus and Glaber had wives, I didn’t see that they were mentioned in history. Not that I mind that at all, I adore both Lucretia and Ilythia. If they’re going to make up characters that didn’t exist, they can keep on doing it if they’re as wonderful as those two.
Also, Spartacus’ career as a gladiator isn’t mentioned in history at all, but given his remarkable performance as a commander in the field (his slave army held off more heavily armed and better supplied Roman forces for more than two years before it was defeated) it makes sense that he probably had been just as gifted in the arena. Being the ‘savior of Capua, the slayer of Theokoles and the bringer of rain’ fits the man’s legend, even if it isn’t historically accurate, so I loved that they’d done that.
All of those things aside, I think probably the main reason I think the show is smart is because it just seems more focused than others. There is even a type of elegance to the storytelling because of that.
While most modern American TV shows look good and are pretty much like mini-movies, they tend to vary (some more than a bit) in the quality of the storytelling. A lot of them tend to tell more than show, a common failing in TV, but for the most part major American dramatic shows are pretty much on par with each other: they are almost equally effective at telling a compelling story. Well, at least I would have said they’re all pretty much the same until I saw “Spartacus: Blood and Sand.”
Not all shows deal well with the limits of their medium. There are rules of a sort to follow, restrictive story structures and formatting rules. Some writers I know dislike those limitations, yet I think a gifted writer can rise above the limits of the form, even embrace those limits, and tell a remarkably well-told story. In some ways, I think TV is better than film, if only for one reason: it can tell stories film can’t. A good television series can even rise above the rest and rival the best movies in the power of their storytelling.
How? Well, they tell stories that are impossible to tell in film because there are no 13 hour long (or longer) films. TV is like a novel, compared to a film’s short story structure.
Yet even looking at each episode individually, you can get beautifully written TV. Solidly-written episodes have an ebb and flow and each part hinges on others and things are all connected. A strong story structure (the scene order, the rising stakes, how things twist and turn) helps a writer craft a compelling story. However, when a series can do that over an entire season, when the season itself has a structure that is strong and cohesive, that’s when it becomes great TV and this show has done that.
There’s something different about how these stories are told and it’s not just the look of the show or the sex, violence, and coarse language. This show has such an incredibly strong focus on the characters and their story arcs (the changes they go through) as the season progresses. There is no filler and I’m not sure that other shows really can compete with it because of that. Everything that happened in the show had happened for a reason: no episode existed only as a bridge to get you from one episode to the next.
Series creator Steven S. DeKnight took that limit of only having 13 episodes to tell this story and used every single minute to tell the best story he could. Maybe that was the secret: he treated the season as if it was only ever going to be the only one. The season itself had a structure, a life of its own without the almost routine aimlessness that usually bogs down episodes about two-thirds of the way into a show’s season. It was free of the anxious worry that seems to creep into a show’s storylines as they wait to hear whether they’re going to be renewed for the next season.
In an interview Steven S. DeKnight said he wanted a cliff-hanger ending and that he loves writing them, but not the kind most shows usually have. He wanted to have an ending that would work even if he produced only one season of the show, but having planned for an ending that could also work as a launching point for another season worked very well. With the freedom from that worry that hits most shows he was able to give the season itself a solid structure. So, kudos go to him for achieving that goal and then some.
Even if they hadn’t even gotten to shoot a single additional frame of film after a blood-spattered Spartacus had walked out of the ludus (gladiator training school) a free man, I would have been satisfied with that as an ending for a series. I think that shot of Spartacus standing in front of the gates of the ludus that had been his prison holding two swords, ready for more action, was the perfect way to end this part of Spartacus’ story. It was a satisfying and perfect ending to a nearly perfect season.
Yet, to be honest, the word ‘perfect’ was actually the last word to come in my mind going from how the first episode, ‘The Red Serpent,’ started. Although I liked it a lot better on subsequent screenings, I hated the first scene initially so much I almost stopped watching within seconds of the episode starting.
The episode began how I hate TV shows and movies to start: with the character in the present and then they show a ton of back-story scenes which come in as flashbacks to let us know how he got there. Usually the device is used to create anticipation when there really isn’t a real reason in the story to have any. Then the writers spend most of the episode building back up to that moment. It’s a trite story telling technique which, when used badly, usually masks a lack of any real suspense in an episode. I know this very well having suffered through some heinous examples in the past. So, when I saw Spartacus sitting alone in a cell waiting for what seemed to be his execution ad gladium (via gladiator) I almost immediately hit the ‘Back to Browsing’ button in the Netflix window.
It is that major of a pet peeve of mine.
It’s something I abhor mostly because starting an episode with a flash-forward is tired and it is almost always used poorly, but I should have had more faith in DeKnight’s storytelling ability. He has no use for trite storytelling crutches. He obviously doesn’t need them since he handled this normally banal device as anything but.
After that first scene cut to the flashback, I’m glad I was a bit optimistic and kept on watching. The way the rest of the episode revealed the story behind how Spartacus had gotten to be sitting alone in that cell was amazing.
I loved the visuals. The comic book style, so similar to “300,” was terrific. Yet, I had also had come to care about Spartacus the man. The character was so well-realized. A passionate hothead and brawler, like Thracians were historically reputed to have been, he still had been a loving and tender husband to his wife. A barbarian to the Romans, Spartacus was still honorable in his own way. He definitely had more honor than the duplicitous and scheming Glaber who went back on his word and betrayed the Thracians.
It was an excellent introduction to the man. By the time the bottom had fallen out of Spartacus’ world and the story had caught up to his miserable introspection as he sat alone in that cell waiting to die, I had wanted to see how exactly the rest of the story was going to play out.
The climactic battle for his life on the floor of the arena was amazing to see. Not only did it carry on the visual style of the earlier battles in the episode, blood and gore spewing forth in slow motion as if from the pages of a graphic novel, but it played out so perfectly. The fight was dramatic and well-choreographed and not over in minutes. They took their time to show that part, giving the time needed to let it show how good Spartacus really was yet they didn’t make it too easy for him either. Added to that, the drama unfolding in the pulvinus (the VIP viewing box in the arena) was intriguing.
It wasn’t the best series Pilot episode I’ve ever seen, there was pacing problems (I got bored with Ilythia’s scheming and her Lady Macbeth-like manipulations of her husband, although that stood up better to repeat viewing) and some of the acting was ham-handed, but the ending more than made up for it. It was perfect. The way it wrapped up the events that had unfolded and yet left the show so many other places to go, was the exact right way to end the first episode.
And from that first episode, Spartacus’ journey throughout the season was a tortuous one. Rising stakes like he had to face keeps an audience engaged, but they made the journey he went through hell. Yet, it was the torments he had suffered through that had forged Spartacus into the man that would come to lead a slave revolt later.
I’m not sure I would have bought the somewhat naïve guy in the first episode being that man, but with the way his character was changed by the things that had happened it all made perfect sense. I adore the elegance of Spartacus’ character arc. The hero, in a good drama, suffers in order to achieve his goals. If his journey is too easy, the story would be boring.
DeKnight obviously knows this since he takes the hero suffering to a whole new level: Spartacus suffers a lot in the first season, but it made for a far more satisfying story in the end. There were no light switch moments, where the character does something just because he needed to. Sometimes the characters would do things that were unexpected, there tons of twists that came out of the blue, but they were never out-of-character. And the best part was that the complications that Spartacus was forced to deal with had a real impact on him.
The choice of killing loved characters like his wife and best friend because the affect their deaths would have on Spartacus was a bold choice for the producers and writers. It was awesome that Starz and the producers allowed Steven to take the characters where he thought they needed to be taken.
I think with other shows they’re too worried about losing viewership if a beloved character is killed off, other shows don’t dare risk doing anything close to that drastic. They don’t want to lose either viewers or advertisers. Yet, taking such a drastic step like killing a beloved character can often serve the show better than if they’d lived as it did here. Both Sura’s and Varro’s deaths were at first hard to accept. Spartacus’ beloved wife and best friend were both terrific characters, but maybe their deaths were not that big a surprise in retrospect.
Even though it was initially shocking, I wasn’t all that surprised about Sura’s death. In history Spartacus’ wife had survived to escape the ludus with her husband. Her death before he leads the revolt goes against historical fact, so it was a bold choice.
Before her death in episode 6, ‘Delicate Things,’ her enslavement and suffering and being in need of rescue had given Spartacus something concrete to strive for as I’ve said. It was probably the best motivation for him to willingly do battle in the arena: to save his wife from the brutality of her enslavement.
It was a cold calculation for Batiatus to blackmail Spartacus and use his wife against him. Killing her later may have seemed unexpected, given that. He could have used her against Spartacus for months, or even years. Maybe that was partly the reason wives were in captivity with their gladiator husbands back then: they were held to keep their husbands in line. Who knows, but it was a great tactical move on his part. Her husband had grown too important to him: Batiatus ordering Sura’s death makes sense because it removed a threat to Spartacus’ willing cooperation in his enslavement. Batiatus needed her husband’s fighting to continue, so Sura had to die.
In a literary sense, she had needed to be killed to not only further Batiatus’ goals, but to hinder Spartacus’. It was a smart move for them to end her life the way they did. It was a huge turning point for Spartacus’ character and it revealed loads about Batiatus. By the end of the next episode after her death, Spartacus had come to think of it as a sign from the gods that he needed to accept his fate. He had not only accepted his fate, he embraced it with that declaration that ‘I am Spartacus’ at the end of ‘Great and Unfortunate Things.’ The dramatic irony was, of course, that we all knew that Batiatus had never intended for Sura to live, that the gods had nothing to do with her death, but what a great moment.
As for Varro’s death, that hit me hard, probably harder than Sura’s had. Not only did I not see that coming, but it was an astonishing development. I completely adored Varro as a character, and Jai Courtney as an actor, so I was devastated that he was killed off. But how extraordinarily shocking was it to have Spartacus actually be the one to kill his best friend?
Wow.
What a bold choice. It showed a bravery and fearlessness of the writing team, producers and actors. That whole scene was so well done by everyone. It was well motivated too. Despite the fact that it was Spartacus who killed Varro, it made perfect sense that he did. He really didn’t have a choice, it was a brilliant twist.
What I liked about it most was how fitting it was. Ilythia had grown to hate Spartacus so much that she was willing to bed and manipulate a teenager to order Spartacus to kill his own best friend in order to get her revenge. That was so cold of Ilythia, even more than Batiatus ordering Aulus to kill Sura.
Also his friend’s death affected Spartacus far more deeply than had Sura’s, it was devastating. Probably more so because he was forced to do it or die, but in the aftermath (the epiphany about Aulus’ lack of injury he gained thanks to the feverish dreams he had in ‘Old Wounds’) he learned Batiatus was really to blame for Sura’s death. It also made him see that the system he was in was twisted away from its original intent: blood sport meant to honor the dead.
Of course Spartacus had no idea that Ilythia was to blame for Numerius’ order for him to end Varro’s life, but what system is healthy that has people’s lives lost solely for entertainment? It brought him out of the denial he’d gone through since Sura’s death. It was a much needed wake-up call and helped him finish becoming the man he needed to be in order to make that leap up to the balcony and lead a revolt in the final episode.
Spartacus went through such hell that it was almost like he was forged into the man he had become by the end of the season. Like a sword-smith beating steel to make it into a weapon: Steven S. DeKnight had beaten Spartacus into the shape of a man who would believably lead men to revolt.
The well-defined character arc Spartacus went through was probably the most profound of any on the show. He is the titular character after all, so that makes sense. However a strong story arc wasn’t unique to Spartacus. All of the characters had them. No matter how important the character, they all changed to some extent from their first introduction through to the end of the season.
Crixus, for example, started out as little more than a thug. He bullied the men not as competent at being a gladiator as he was. He belittled them and even tried to kill them. A hothead, Doctore at times had to hold him back from doing real physical harm to others outside of the arena. He would have brained Spartacus at several points if he’d not been held back. At the start of the season, the Gaul was little more than a brutish bully who had been incapable of empathy. Yet even he changed a lot from the start of the season.
He was antagonistic toward Spartacus from the first time he saw him. Crixus belittled and insulted him; he seemed about as unlovable a man as could be. At the beginning, there would have been no way Crixus would have willingly joined Spartacus’ rebellion. Yet, through the love he grew to have for Naevia, Crixus had changed over the course of the season. He had never totally gotten past his hatred for Spartacus, but his contempt for him at the start of the season had grown into a grudging respect for the Thracian by ‘Kill Them All.’
In the season finale, not only had he believably supported Spartacus’ rebellion, he helped lead his men into the fight. It was a wonderful character arc for Crixus. Their still present animosity, despite Crixus supporting Spartacus in the end, also sets up perfectly what is known historically of the sometimes contentious relationship between Crixus and Spartacus during the course of the Third Servile War.
With all the character arcs being nearly this beautiful, from the supporting regular cast to the recurring players who were only in a few episodes, I think it really added something special to the show. This show may be about a brutal time where men died or lives were ruined at the whims of a Roman, but the characters were all fully fleshed-out. Added to that the changes they go through are well-motivated and believable given the circumstances they find themselves in. It’s the stories and characters that have made me hooked on this show.
One thing I think Steven S. DeKnight has always excelled at is crafting a well-told story. The episodes he’d written of other shows had all been (with perhaps one or two rare exceptions) excellent installments for the series. He likes to push his characters to their limits to see what happens. This show is no different.
The characters are all pushed to act in extraordinary circumstances and yet do it while staying in character. Even in otherwise well-written shows, that is sadly not always the case.
I’m not just talking “Smallville,” although they’ve had more than their fair share of this sort of problem, but too many times even strong, well-defined characters in other shows act well out-of-character to serve the story. It’s annoying because it should be the other way around: the story should always serve the character.
So many times I scratch my head and try to figure out what the hell the writers were thinking in terms of character motivation. Like when House does something nice without any benefit to himself or Clark acts selfishly, hurting others with an oddly out-of-character (and a completely unmotivated and out-of-the-blue) cavalier attitude, or some such other nonsense. The only discernable reason for a lot of the characters not acting like themselves is the simple reason that the story the writers were trying to tell would not have been possible without the plot-point. Not so in this show. I cannot foresee a time when that would ever happen with these characters, not as long as Steven S. DeKnight is running this show.
Another thing that I think is really important to this show’s cohesiveness and focus is the fact that, once a plot-point had been introduced, it never goes by the way-side. There are no loose strings left to be tied. So many times in other shows, promising characters or storylines get introduced and then get dropped for some reason and it never gets explained why.
Maybe they had a sudden change of storyline halfway through the season that takes the show away from a previously introduced plotline or character… Or maybe there was some dictate from the Network that requires a storyline to be jettisoned. (“Lost” was especially bad at this, as was “Heroes,” which is why I stopped watching those shows long before they ended their runs last season.)
For some shows, maybe it’s a budgetary decision or maybe some focus group doesn’t like the direction that storyline was headed or maybe it was something else that wasn’t even directly related to show in question… Who the hell knows? Not me, but somehow I don’t think that will ever happen to this show. Steven S. DeKnight has apparently kept a tight rein on the storylines for this show and I wouldn’t expect any story he’s in charge of telling to ever founder.
Probably the only few things left unaddressed in the course of the first season were some of the biggest things that had happened, like Ilythia’s scheming with Numerius to have Varro killed (she needs to pay for that) and Crixus stabbing Lucretia in the stomach in that gladiatorial attempt at an abortion, among others. Yet, I have a feeling those things will be addressed later in season 2 and will be satisfactorily dealt with, given how well plot-points like that had been handled in the first season.
One of the things that I haven’t yet addressed, and probably should have addressed earlier, is the language. It is one of the first things I noticed, aside from the graphic style.
The syntax and vocabulary is different than other shows and movies that had been set in ancient Rome. It was a little hard to get used to at first, but now I like it. The show uses a less complex syntax and a vocabulary that isn’t as rich, or as varied, as modern English. So, the language used by the show is unusual and distinctive, simpler, than modern languages. The unusual syntax and dialogue just seems to work.
It helps that the actors all deliver the lines without being self-conscious or obvious about it. They speak the unusual dialogue without sounding like arrogant blowhards, which is usually how actors with fake English accents usually sound in period dramas or Shakespearean plays.
The language is hard for a lot of people to warm up to, but then there is there is the language.
This is probably the most foulmouthed piece of media I have ever seen. Even if you ignored the sex and violence, the language keeps this show for adults only. The show definitely is not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure.
It was quite appropriate that the first line of dialogue included the f-word, by the way. It set the tone for the language of the show and let the viewer know what they were in for.
I may be a suburban soccer mom (or former soccer mom since the kids don’t play sports anymore), but the language doesn’t really bother me. It’s definitely affected me, however. I find myself throwing f-bombs around more than I used to. I probably haven’t sworn this much since college or when I was working a theatrical tour (no one swears like cranky theatre crew members). While it doesn’t really bother me, even though it’s affected my own word choices in stressed moments, I think the level of bad language in this show probably takes things to a whole new level.
I’m no prude, but the extreme nature of the swearing goes beyond the pale. The ease with which even patrician characters throw around the C- and F-words was a bit shocking at first, but I guess it’s fitting to the time and place. Apparently, Romans were just as foul-mouthed as some parts of our modern culture, if not more so. (I know that because I looked it up online, but DeKnight talked about it an interview or two as well.) Also, it’s telling when characters use foul language and when they don’t. Ilythia, for example, uttered few vulgarities until the final episode. Pressed and cornered by Lucretia, she had used the f-word for the first time when not talking about sex.
I suppose it also fits the segment of society that the gladiators and their owners had held at the time. The owners of gladiators, the lanista, were one of the lowest classes of society and were considered little better than pimps and their gladiators were little better than prostitutes. So, I think the coarse language makes sense, given the characters’ place in society.
It was hard to get used to at first, even more so than the stiffness and unusual vocabulary, but now I don’t want them to do a single thing differently with that. It just sounds right. As extreme as it is, the foul language just seems to fit somehow. It’s another bold choice that has worked well.
Probably another thing I absolutely adore about the stories in this show is that when a character dies, he or she is unequivocally and undeniably dead. They get wounds that are just not survivable in 73 or 72 BC. Yeah, sometimes it borders on going too far, like when Ilythia beat Licinia’s head into the marble steps (the eyeball dangling from her eye socket, as her blood flowed down the steps, was probably over-the-top). Yet, it’s gore like that which shows when someone is dead, they’re dead. There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that they’ve passed into the underworld.
I think probably the only time there was any doubt was when, at the very end of the season finale, Lucretia lay bloody and nearly lifeless next to her husband on the blood soaked floor of their home. Her eyes were open and she was moving, if only twitching a little, but if Crixus’ sword thrust had gone deeply enough, it would have been an unlikely wound to survive.
I was glad that it turned out she wasn’t dead after all. Even though Spartacus undeniably killed Batiatus, a slit throat is clearly a fatal wound, Lucretia will be back for season 2 and I’m very glad of it. She’s a very complicated character and Lucy plays her flawlessly.
To sum up: Yeah, the show’s harsh and hard to watch if you’re even the least bit squeamish. The scenery (all those nearly-naked men fighting each other) and the photographic style probably got my attention, but probably the biggest part of the show that appeals to me is the satisfying, well-motivated character development and the intense storylines that never leave loose threads hanging. The focus the story has gives it a sort of elegance that I really admire. When TV tells a good story, it’s very good and it’s thanks to the beautifully structured stories and well-motivated characters that had made the series extremely satisfying and makes me impatient for the prequel and season 2 to start.
I don’t know what, exactly, is different about this show but I wish Steven S. DeKnight could bottle it and give it to his colleagues on other shows. To me it’s primarily the writing that has made this my new favorite show. Given how ardently I still love “Smallville,” I think that’s saying a lot.
If there is such a thing as writing to the death, sine missione (no quarter given, no mercy shown), then this is it. Steven has delivered what is possibly the best TV show I’ve ever seen and has shown me what TV really could be. A writer should be willing to do anything in order to tell the most effective story he or she can and this is exactly how this show is written: show no fear and take no prisoners and write like it is a battle fought to the death.
I would love this show for that alone, the fearlessness of the writing. Yet there is more to love, especially in the person who plays Spartacus, star Andy Whitfield…
The Acting:
I’m not sure what made Andy Whitfield decide to give up his previous profession (he had been an engineer) to take up acting, but I’m glad he did. Aside from the solid and satisfying writing, Andy Whitfield’s performance is probably my favorite part of watching this show.
I’m not sure what I had expected from the guy playing the part, probably some brutish, overly muscled gym devotee, but Spartacus, the way that Andy plays him, is so complex and multilayered that it took me by surprise. He’s playing him with so much heart and passion that I think it’s just what this show needed. Spartacus is alone in a world filled with his enemies, as he had said in the episode following Varro’s death, and truer words had never been said.
Not only are the people around all working against him for various reasons, but they don’t have the same sense of compassion that Spartacus has. It’s ironic that the most humane person in the show is the barbarian who also kills efficiently when needed, but I think it helped in developing the character and his relationship with everyone else in Capua.
Roman society considered human life nearly worthless if the person wasn’t a Roman citizen. There’d been talk through the entire season about a person’s worth and how it’s measured. The issue has caused Spartacus some problems. If he had killed Glaber when the man was laid out cold at his feet like his countryman had wanted back in the first episode, he wouldn’t have ended up losing his freedom and his wife wouldn’t have lost her life. His humanity has been a flaw, but it’s also been what has driven him to action and Andy has played both sides of Spartacus’ duality perfectly.
The way that Andy has played that part of Spartacus has been spot on: he convincingly portrays Spartacus as unafraid of using his skills to kill when necessary. Yet, thanks to Andy’s portrayal, it’s also clear he’s also a man of compassion.
A show this brutal needed a man at the center of it who could show us a gladiator could also have a lot of heart and passion. Andy has given us that and then some. I nearly stopped watching at the beginning of the first episode when I saw that broken, tired, miserable man sitting there waiting for a flashback to begin, but part of the reason I kept watching was the intensity Andy gave Spartacus in even such a passive moment.
His eyes intently looked around that cell, and at the chains that bound him, as his hands clenched in impotent fury at the injustices he was suffering. Conveying that kind of emotion just sitting isn’t easy, and I don’t know how anyone can portray such an intense physicality just sitting there, but Andy sure did whatever it was that he needed to do that. It gave me some hope for the rest of the show and it was good thing it did, I’m not sure I would have kept watching otherwise.
Despite that strong start for Andy, there have been a few off moments here and there for me, places where something he did hadn’t felt quite right. Yet, as the season progressed I didn’t feel like that was not a problem at all any time after about episodes 3 or 4.
I think despite the sometimes passive parts of the season for Spartacus, a slave at the mercy of others for majority of the season, Andy somehow still managed to imbue his performance with tension. His face and body were tense, perhaps ready for action, even as Spartacus stood being pawed by spoiled rotten heiresses at parties. When he was alone with Batiatus or others he would have his fingers constantly moving, almost as if he longed to hold a sword and take action. Andy was simply fascinating to watch, even when he wasn’t the one doing the talking, and Spartacus isn’t really much a talker…
I know from being an actor earlier in my life that silent scenes can be terrifying. It’s far easier to give breath to a performance if it’s framed by words. Actions are far harder to motivate well if there isn’t dialogue to go along with it. I think Andy particularly succeeded at moments when Spartacus didn’t say a word and I know that’s a very hard thing to do well.
Just a personal aside: I adore Andy Whitfield, he’s not only talented, handsome, sexy and remarkably fit, but he’s also smart, gracious and seems like a genuinely nice guy. I was so worried about him with the recent health scare that he had. I’ll freely admit that was in part because I had wanted this show to continue, but it was mostly because I think the world is a better place with him in it. I’m so glad he’s made a full recovery and plans on being around for a long, long time.
I really want to see what he does after Spartacus is over, but I’m also happy we’re going to see more of him playing this character. I really appreciate that the producers and Starz were willing to give Andy time to heal so that he could come back. It shows they aren’t only about the money they could make off of his portrayal. I’m not sure a regular broadcast network would have willing pushed back production of a successful property given similar tragic events. Had this show aired on any other network, the part would have been recast, or the show canceled, instead of waiting like Starz did. They will have my gratitude forever for that.
Spartacus is a complex hero: flawed, quick to anger, at times brutally violent, but also loving and empathetic even in a time in history when compassion was in very short supply. Andy Whitfield plays Spartacus to perfection and I am so happy we’ll get to see where he’ll take the character next.
Other actors have also turned in good performances, sometimes surprisingly good.
I loved John Hannah in the Mummy movies as the bumbling and sarcastic Jonathan, but here he has given a completely different performance. To be honest, I’m not sure I would have thought he would have been up to this kind of part based on the few things of his that I’d previously seen. Maybe there was something else he’d done in his career before that had led the producers to hire John as a villain, but it was surprising to me. I’m very glad they did hire him, John is amazing as Batiatus.
At times he had Batiatus be truly gentle and loving to his wife and at other times John used his stellar comic timing to give us some humor. Yet, when Batiatus needed to be, John also believably played him as a vengeful and conniving and a cold-blooded killer. I am so glad that I don’t do spoilers in general. I never saw the major twists of his coming: both with him killing Sura and what he did to Solonius, framing him for Calavius’ murder.
Brilliant twists, great writing, but also completely believable because of the complexity of the character that John has so fantastically brought to life. I am so happy that the delay in filming the second season due to Andy’s health problems (although terrible) has allowed the show to bring us the upcoming prequel which will feature Batiatus and Lucretia. It seems like it will be a bit of an origin-tale for Batiatus, show us what he was like before he ran the ludus. He’s truly an awesome villain and I look forward to seeing what John will do with those six episodes.
Lucy Lawless is almost pure perfection as Lucretia. Again, probably part of the credit goes to the terrific writing. She is probably one of the most complicated villains on TV: loving and lustful, tender and cruel, generous and spitefully selfish. I have no doubt with the way that Lucy plays her that Lucretia is in love with her husband, even while also being deeply in love with Crixus. I’m not sure just anyone could have sold that. Crixus gives her back her youth, I suppose. Making love to him is fun and lusty, but it also seemed to satisfy some deeper need for Lucretia I’m not sure I can articulate, but Lucy still managed to portray.
Thing is, I’m not sure how much of that was on the page of the scripts, it’s impossible to find Spartacus scripts online, but I would sure love to read them to see whether it was. Some things I think come to a writer sitting alone in front of his or her computer, while others are only truly realized once an actor breathes the words into life.
I think it’s more of the latter than it is the former for Lucy. Maybe the actions they put on paper told her what to do, but she had to internalize and make it believable and she did a great job with that. She completely sold all of Lucretia’s complicated reactions and I’m not sure just anyone could have. She’s made Lucretia, despite her flaws, be one of the most intriguing villains on TV. I’m so glad Steven DeKnight figured out a way to make sure Lucretia will have lived through that blood bath at the end of ‘Kill Them All.’ I can’t wait to see what she does in the aftermath of the events at the end of season one.
I’ve already taken far more time than I had planned to pen this review, so I won’t talk about other actors in detail, but there were so many wonderful performances I’ll just have to say a few things about each of them.
I’m not sure I would have thought that the big bully Crixus at the start of the season could have believably turned around and supported Spartacus if anyone other than Manu Bennett had played him, but he pulled that off. It also broke my heart to see Crixus’ pain when Naevia was taken away at the end of ‘Revelations.’ He did a remarkable job.
Jai Courtney was perfect as the big teddy bear of a gladiator: the jovial, yet troubled at times, Varro. He’s gorgeous and beefy, like a Roman statue come to life, yet he made Varro be complicated too. I’m going to miss him.
Peter Mensah played the stoic Oenomaus/Doctore flawlessly, yet also gave him some needed compassion in more intimate moments too. I’m glad we’ll see more of him in the prequel.
Lesley-Ann Brandt I think had a few rough spots where I didn’t quite get where Naevia was coming from, but as the season progressed she had improved enormously. She did an awesome job when Naevia was taken away from the ludus and Crixus to be sold, for example.
I absolutely adore Viva Bianca as Ilythia and Craig Parker as her husband, Claudius Glaber. They’re both perfect for the parts, and are a delight to watch. Viva is so gorgeous, another living Roman statue, yet so scheming and spoiled too. Viva plays Ilythia as being like an ancient Paris Hilton. Craig played Glaber as conniving, yet insecure in his position. He didn’t get much screen time, maybe being in only four episodes, but he played him as more complicated than I would have expected. I hope we get to see lots more of both of them in the second season.
I also love Katrina Law as Mira. She gave Mira some believable street-smart vibes when needed, but also able to make her vulnerable at times too. The sex scene with Spartacus showed just how vulnerable Mira could be; it was terrific scene for Katrina.
Nick E. Tarabay as Ashur was brilliant. Nick played him believably without compassion at times, like when he was snacking during Sura’s funeral. Yet I loved how insecure he really turned out to be in the end, so hurt at being patronized and held in contempt by men he seemed to have admired. Nick played that side of Ashur perfectly.
As strong as I think most of the cast was, I think there were a few points when the show descended to more soap opera-like acting, it got so overblown and trite. The official from Pompeii (perhaps he was the Magistrate) who oversaw the arena battles in ‘Old Wounds,’ for example, was a caricature, not a character. The actor who played him did nothing to make him less of a stereotypical character, he played him too broadly. Some of the other bit players were wooden and stiff so the acting wasn’t always a joy to watch, but probably my biggest disappointment with the acting was the few times that Pietros and Barca kissed.
This show is so in your face about everything else, they seem fully committed to delivering the most visceral storytelling on TV. Yet when Barca and Pietros (Antonio Te Maioha and Eka Darville) kissed I wasn’t convinced I was watching two men kiss that ardently loved each other.
Maybe the actors needed more rehearsal, or more takes, or even to take a stiff drink to calm their nerves beforehand, but I didn’t at all buy those two men being passionately in love. Their kisses seemed tepid and hesitant, like kissing the other guy was the last thing in the world they wanted to be doing. Apparently Barca is getting a different lover in the prequel, a gladiator who is an equal to him in size and standing, so I hope this improves for their scenes.
The Style:
I guess one the reasons I like this show so much is that it doesn’t look like anything else on TV. It’s probably something that most people noticed almost immediately. What it comes closest to in style is the very distinctive look of the film “300,” which had been based on the very dark and distinctive look of the graphic novel by artist Frank Miller. The film was directed by Zack Snyder and had a blood bath for a storyline.
While I think this series is similar in style, with the gushing blood and the slow-motion tableaus that are reminiscent of graphic novel panels, this show looks far grittier and less romantic than that film had. That film also didn’t shy away from showing very graphic sex and violence, yet I think this show goes further. In “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” the graphic style had evolved a bit as the season wore on, growing less similar to “300” as time went by.
Even with the graphic and exaggerated gory depictions of death, there are scenes in the show that are setup to achieve a beautiful picture. Still reminiscent of a graphic novel, the scenes can often be breathtaking.
For example, the scene in the ninth episode where Spartacus was painted in gold before he bedded a Roman lady incognito was probably one of the most gorgeously shot and edited sex scenes I think I have ever seen. Yet, others seem to be a bit more ironic: a beautiful image paired with grisly death. In fact that beautiful sex scene in episode 9 ended with possibly the most gruesome death in a show filled with blood and gore: Ilythia braining Licinia on marble steps. That came completely out of the blue, by the way.
It was startling that something so graphic and gory would follow a sex scene so beautiful and sexy, but it’s fitting to the show as a whole. The show is full of similar dichotomies: expansive and breathtaking vistas and shit-filled holes in the ground, beautiful bodies wearing gorgeous costumes and then dying gruesome and bloody deaths.
The show was beautifully photographed by Aaron Morton. Even the green screen work is awesome, the visual effects artists setting up vast panoramas and giving us beautiful sunsets, but it’s helped by how well Aaron has lit the sets.
The sets are all indoors, which no doubt makes doing green screens easier, but I think it must be hard to light in order to make it look like real sunshine when the scenes are outside. I know it must be hard because so many times other shows completely fail at doing it, so kudos to him.
The only thing I don’t like about the show’s design is that the graphic elements that come with the deaths can get a bit cheesy. It’s not the amount of gore or even how people are killed in the show, it’s what the effects look like that bothers me.
Andy said in an interview that the cartoonish look to some of the effects was on purpose, meant to simulate what it would look like in a graphic novel in an attempt to blunt the shock from the more gruesome injuries, but I don’t like it. In an otherwise realistic looking show, anything that is THAT obviously computer generated seems out of place.
It isn’t just about this show, I’ve always hated when they do things like this in any show or movie.
They went for an obviously computer generated style with the flight effects the first Harry Potter movie, which made the quidditch scenes almost unwatchable for me. And they did something similar with the first Spider-Man movie when Spider-Man was crawling up walls or web-slinging between buildings. I hated that about both movies with a passion, even though I otherwise loved the films themselves.
I feel the same way about the effects in this show. I hated those parts. I think unless you got Roger Rabbit interacting with Bob Hoskins, you probably should go for something less cartoonish-looking when everything else is so realistic.
Even with that said, the way the fights and stunts are staged is fantastic. The fights are never over in a few moments like some other shows. The show lingers on them, giving them the screen-time a much-awaited-for-confrontation deserves.
Sadly, that’s not always the case. Some shows build up to final confrontations between adversaries and for whatever reason, whether it’s due to budget or time constraints, they’re over far too quickly. It’s not at all satisfying. The importance of the conflict becomes completely invalidated by the brevity of its climax.
Not so here. If there is an important fight, the show gives the time it deserves to unfold. The final fight between Crixus and Spartacus, fought sine missione, which they’d been basically building up to all season, was so important in the final episode that it had unfolded over first two-thirds of episode. Used as a flash-forward, that fight framed the first two-thirds of the episode as bits and pieces of it were shown throughout until the episode finally caught up and Spartacus took that leap up to the balcony.
As I’ve said, I don’t usually like flash forwards (or flashbacks) as a device, but I actually really liked how it was used in the final episode, ‘Kill Them All.’ I liked how it was used there because all the flash-forwards to the fight gave the final battle between the two rivals more time to unfold.
I also liked the fight itself. There was a nice give and take between Spartacus and Crixus, showing how equally matched the two men really are. Also the way they dealt with the fight had made it take up a considerable amount of screen time. It seemed like probably the longest fight scene in the show, although I didn’t time it, but that is as it should have been given the two men’s season-long animosity toward one another finally reached a climax.
I’m not sure what’s different about the fight choreography, but at times it feels more like a dance than fighting. The fights are dynamic and probably more physically demanding that the normal banging together of weapons that happens in most sword fighting scenes on TV and film. Usually, the action is also far more two-dimensional and depend too much on only what a guy (or girl) can do with the hands and upper body. In the fights for this show, the participants use their entire bodies as you probably would if you were fighting for your life. They kick and roll and jump to try and gain the advantage. I especially liked how upwardly mobile the fighters seemed to be.
I know it’s probably not realistic, Andy had talked about them using rigs to get him and his stunt double airborne for that jump to the balcony in the finale, so the other less spectacular leaps probably were all done the same way, but I simply adore how fluid the jumps are. I hope they continue this fighting style in the prequel and second season and beyond.
I adore the costumes, wigs and make-up in this show. Aside from Spartacus’ barely believable mane in the initial episode (and in the flashbacks that happened later in the season), the hair otherwise looked so good.
I really love the costuming by Barbara Darrish in this show. It’s beautiful, but it can be spare and masculine too. I love how striking the little drapes the gladiators wore in the arena were when combined with their wide belts, arm armor, shields, helmets and plumes. Their costumes were gorgeous, but also masculine at the same time. Not sure how they achieved that, but the men looked fantastic when in full dress ‘uniform’ to fight in the arena.
The clothing of the women, both Roman citizens and slaves, was stunningly beautiful. The artful drapes of the flimsy (and easy to remove) clothing of the slaves was perfect: artful, yet also fitting to their status as living, breathing sex toys. Ilythia and the other wealthy women, including Lucretia after Batiatus’ finances improved, wore probably some of the most beautiful period costumes I think I’ve seen on TV. They were delicate and draped flawlessly, fitting the actresses well and suiting the characters they played perfectly.
I usually don’t mention the music in my reviews, I do not play an instrument and wouldn’t presume to speak with any authority on any composer’s work, so I only mention the soundtrack normally in my “Smallville” reviews only if it was striking. And the music here is, despite the sometimes unlikely mix of styles that show composer Joseph Loduca sometimes combines in the score. I think I’ve heard what sounds like a didgeridoo in addition to symphonic music, hard rock guitar solos and a sort of non-articulated operatic rock vocals that sound similar to what Lisa Gerrard produced for the films “Gladiator” and “The Insider.”
I am in love with the music, even when it’s harsh or discordant. Somehow, it still seems to fit. I think one of the best scored sequences was the preparation of Spartacus, the women painting him in gold body paint, up through the terrific sex scene that followed. It helped build the tension and anticipation, it was lovely and is probably the main reason I’m looking forward to a soundtrack being released from the show. (Apparently coming the same time the DVD and Blu-Ray are released.) I want to hear that music again.
To Sum Up:
While this show has a few flaws, nothing is ever perfect; the show more than made up for those and then some. It’s probably as close to perfect as I think it’s possible for a television show to get.
Yes, the language, violence, and sex are far more extreme than is normal even for made-for-premium-cable fare, so the show isn’t for the faint of heart. Yet, if you’re like me and appreciate a well turned phrase, or a beautifully conceived and executed plot twist, wonderfully intense acting and gorgeous costumes, sets and photography, you might want to give this show a try.
I think for me, the best parts of this show are the strong storylines and characters. This is a bold show with producers, writers, actors, directors, and designers all fully committed to telling the best story they can, no matter what.
Take a look at this show, if you haven’t already, if only because no other show tells its stories quite as fearlessly (no quarter given, no mercy shown) as this one does. It’s one of a kind and Starz’s tagline for it as ‘A bold new original series unlike anything on television’ I think is probably the understatement of the century.
“Spartacus: Blood and Sand” is now one of my favorite shows ever. I can’t wait to see where series Show Runner and Creator Steven S. DeKnight will take these characters next.
C.M. Houghton can be found on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cmhoughton and her KryptonSite reviews can be found at http://kryptonsite.com/triplet.htm. Additionally you can talk about Spartacus: Blood and Sand on our forum!
3 Comments
Wonderfully detailed review. I share your love of this show, and anxiously await its return. I found the casting to be stellar, on pretty much every count. I also very much agree with your point about the style being unlike anything else on television. I think it was so different that it might have put some people off in the beginning, but the lucky ones who stuck it out were richly rewarded. My son and I were completely addicted to this show and couldn’t wait for every new episode to air. The emotional impact of Varro’s death was so profound and moving. I hated it, at the same time, it was a perfect demonstration of the show’s willingness to take risks.
I think it’s a CRIME that John Hannah isn’t getting at least an Emmy nom for his portrayal of Batiatis.
Nice work, triplet!
Thanks for that… I agree: I really wish John could have been nominated for an Emmy. What a crime. He really deserved it.
Maybe they’ll make up for that with the sequel.
And I absolutely adore the show for the risks they’re willing to take, killing off characters they love, because it’s better for the story.
I forget who said it, but when you write you have to be willing to kill your children (the best loved parts of your own works) if it serves the story better.
They are in this show.
I admire them greatly for that. It’s brave and it’s makes for better TV so kudos to them.
Excellent indeed. I have been looking for this information.