I was actually quite excited when I first saw the trailer for this, but reality sunk in when I read that Sam Raimi and Rob Tappert were producing. Rome this is not! I love Hercules, Xena, and just about every other stupid series they produced (they were what they were), but Spartacus aspires to be better, and in some cases it is. The story is more mature, as is the scenery. Being on the Starz network allows more mature content(similar to HBO) and they milk it to the bone. That being said, I wish they put less effort into showing us boobs every ten minutes and more effort into the script. The dialogue is aweful! And the story… very familiar territory (it could have written itself). A deserting soldier’s village is burned, his wife taken into slavery, and he is forced to do battle in the colloseum. The blood effects were mostly CG and were done in a way that the blood would pop from the scene, giving it a very stylized, almost cartoony quality. The overall effect was good for the most part, if not just a little over-used (wherein lies the problem). The green screen technology (ala 300) again, worked in some parts, but failed in others.

Overall, for the pilot, it was watchable, even enjoyable on some levels, but not quite as good as I had hoped. With some better writing and a little more consistency, Spartacus Blood and Sand could be something worth watching. It was good enough that I’ll watch the first few episodes, but if it continues on the same path, I’ll save my hour for re-runs of better shows.