Spartacus: Blood and Sand

Me and Aimee were trying to find a new show to watch, and for me, Spartacus has been something I've wanted to re-watch for so many years now.

Source

Style

It's so clear from even the first episode that 300 was a heavy inspiration for the direction and art style. Slow motion, mixed with stylistic scenes of gore and violence.

In a way it comes across, at times, looking fairly low-budget, but realistically, around the time that the show released budgets for television shows wasn't really there.

Game of Thrones changed that to a certain extent, and after it, many other shows started pushing the bounds of what was possible, and with that, the studios started to pump more money into these endeavors.

Back When I First Watched It

Around the time it came out I was watching it weekly, and really enjoyed the show and from it I started to look into the history behind the show revolving around the real Spartacus, and at large, the gladiator pits in Rome and the conditions some of these people would be living in.

It wasn't a surprise that these gladiators were treated more like race horses - in a way - the conditions for most wasn't the best, but if they proved themselves they'd be given a comfortable life... well, as long as they continued to perform well.

I'm glad to be watching it again after all of these time, I remember it having plenty of drama, but at the same time there was a lot of comedic elements, plenty of witty dialogue, great character development, and unapologetic cursing.