Spartacus: Gods of the Arena

The creators of Spartacus: Blood and Sand faced a problem. Their star, Andy Whitfield, was being treated for non-Hodgkins lymphoma (he has since died). Since they didn't have their lead actor for a sequel, they decided to a prequel instead, a season of six episodes, labeled season 1.5. It's still called Spartacus, but there's no Spartacus to be found.

Instead we see how Quintus Batiatus (John Hannah) came to wrest the ludus (gladiator school) from his tyrannical father, and how Crixus (Manu Bennett), the bad guy turned good guy in the first series, came to be a gladiator.

When the series begins, Hannah is running the ludus and is happily married to Lucy Lawless. His father is in Sicily because of bad health. But Hannah gets in a tussle with a local nobleman, who wants Hannah's best gladiator, Gannicus (Dustin Clare). This brings the father back, much to Hannah's consternation.

Other subplots include Clare falling in love with his good friend's (Peter Mensah) wife (Marisa Ramirez). Mensah is the gladiator who will be named "doctore," the trainer of the gladiators. Another pair of gladiators, from Syria, include Ashur (Nick E. Tarabay), who in the first season is crippled, so the viewer waits to see how he gets it.

As with the first series, there is plenty of sex and violence, with the over-stylized mayhem, usually in slow motion and with blood spurting. The dialogue is rendered in overly formal English ("Apologies" instead of "I'm sorry," for example), though there is plenty of blue language--"Jupiter's cock" is a favorite. But this only lends to the fun of the show. Don't go looking for any historical accuracy. There's some--when a retiarus (a type of gladiator using a net and trident) is introduced, Hannah mentions that it's a new style from the East. Retiari were only seen in the Imperial period, not the Republic, when this series is set. Also, Clare fights without a helmet--only a retiarus would do that.

There are some memorable set pieces, such a classic Roman orgy, and the climax is a battle royale with a mess of gladiators fighting in a circle of fire. The choreography of the fight well matches the story, and is quite thrilling.

After Whitfield's death the producers were forced to go ahead with the story with a replacement, but this six-episode interlude is a nice way of giving Whitfield a chance to recover, as well as fleshing out the backstory of some of the characters.