[SPOILERS] I don't have a whole lot to say this week. "The Thing In The Pit" told a very simple story: after last week's embarrassing submission in the arena to Crixus (Manu Bennett), a disgraced Spartacus (Andy Whitfield) was removed from gladiatorial combat and sent to "The Pits" (a kind of underground fight club) to earn coin for Batiatus (John Hannah), whose financial problems are worsening.Cue a series of savage brawls against sub-gladiator degenerates who celebrate wins by slicing the face off losers to wear as a death-mask.It was great to see stylish action sequences taking their cue from Guy Ritchie films (all slow-motion, wobbling face punches), instead of a bloodthirsty video-game, and even the spilt blood looked realistic this week. I also appreciate how Hannah's doing his best with occasionally ropey material (fancy, mannered dialogue laced with expletives), and the climax was actually pretty decent -- with Spartacus agreeing to throw a match and die, letting Batiatus make a fortune in wagering against him, in return for a promise his master will find his enslaved wife Sura. How that situation resolved, plausibly, was undoubtedly the best thing about "The Thing In The Pit". And I liked the suggestion Spartacus is a cursed man infecting the ludus with bad luck.
However, Spartacus: Blood & Sand is still a pea-brained television series getting by on blood, guts, nudity, sex and profanity. Remove those ingredients and there would be little nourishment, although there's enough promise and charisma floating around for me to believe this show can catch a wind. Isn't it about time we left that damned ludus and arena, though? I know Spartacus is a relatively low-budget cable series on Starz, but there's a whole ancient world out there to explore, so I hope we get to see more of it.
WRITERS: Aaron Helbing & Todd Helbing
DIRECTOR: Jesse Warn
AIRDATE/CHANNEL: 15 JUNE 2010 - BRAVO, 9PM
