He earns the name 'Spartacus' for his display of skill and bravery in the arena, and he's soon purchased by Lentulus Batiatus (John Hannah), owner of a thriving 'ludus' - or training ground - for developing and seasoned gladiators alike. The young man defeats several professional gladiators, and his sentence is reduced from death slavery. When the Roman commanding officer of his unit, a legatus named Claudius Glaber (Craig Parker), choses to advance his career by ordering his Thracians to attack Mithridates and the Greeks rather than confront the Getae, the man who will be Spartacus leads a revolt against the legatus but is punished and ultimately finds himself sentenced to death in the gladiator arena while his wife is condemned to a life of slavery. A young Thracian who will soon become known as Spartacus (Andy Whitfield), hoping to finally put violence behind him and start a family with his wife Sura (Erin Cummings), enlists in the Roman Auxiliary army to fight the invading Getae and help end their brutal raids once and for all. No, 'Spartacus: Blood and Sand' isn't at the top of the TV heap, and yes, the show probably exists more to push boundaries than it does to tell a meaningful story, but it still manages to offer a whole lot of good-old-fashioned entertainment that gets the blood pumping and the senses excited, all the while entwining some well-constructed drama and good character development amidst the cartoonish violence and almost nonstop parade of nudity, sexual intercourse, and the kind of explicit dialogue that might even make Quentin Tarantino blush. The series' first episode is particularly steamy and violent, but viewers who tuned out the show after its first outing missed out on a season that quickly turns into a far more emotionally engaging and thematically challenging story arc than its 'blood and boobs' early veneer may have otherwise suggested.
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