Spartacus: Blood and Sand Season 1 - Blu-Ray

Content: During the war against Greece, the Roman army recruits the Thracian Spartacus (Andy Whitfield) to lead a group of fighters to protect Roman lands from raids by the barbarian Geats. But when Spartacus falls from grace for disobeying orders, army commander Claudius Glaber (Craig Parker) orders Spartacus and his wife Sura (Erin Cummings) captured. While Sura is enslaved, Spartacus is to be killed fighting four gladiators in the arena at Capua. However, Spartacus manages to survive the fight, which gets him the attention of Batiatus (John Hannah), the owner of the gladiators. The latter offers to take care of finding and freeing Sura if Spartacus fights for him. But even though his first confrontation with the strongest of Batiatus' gladiators, the giant Crixus (Manu Bennett), does not end gloriously, Spartacus soon manages to gain respect and recognition in the gladiator school under the direction of the former fighter Drago (Peter Mensah) and soon in the arena. But at the same time, the gladiator also makes more and more enemies, so that his life more than once hangs by a thread. But the hope of seeing Sura again keeps Spartacus fighting - unaware that to Batiatus and his wife Lucretia (Lucy Lawless) he is only a small part of a much larger web of intrigue, betrayal and greed.

Spartacus: Blood & Sand tells the back story, known only in fragments, of the slave revolt that made Spartacus a legend. The creators of the series are only concerned with historical accuracy to a limited extent. Rather, the viewers should be entertained with a very special look, lots of blood, merciless fight scenes and debauched sex. Especially the first episodes offer a slight overkill in this regard. The story here is almost completely crushed by the effects strongly reminiscent of the film 300, a very unusual kind of brutality for television and a lot of naked male and female bodies. And so one might almost suspect that the series has little to offer except for its visual showmanship.

But far from it. Because when the series has finally found its tone and no longer focuses only on the show values, it builds around the sex and violence scenes an extremely exciting and entertaining, cleverly constructed story, which is able to captivate more and more from episode to episode and finally culminates in a great as well as bloody finale. However, this also leaves a somewhat sad feeling.

Because with the end of the first season, viewers also have to say goodbye to lead actor Andy Whitfield. While planning the second season, the actor was diagnosed with an early stage of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Since the fight against cancer seemed very promising, in order to give Whitfield time to recover, the prequel Spartacus: Gods of the Arena was unceremoniously slipped in, which dealt with the backstory of Batiaus and his gladiator school. Whitfield was not needed for these new episodes, as Spartacus had no role here yet. But any hopes that Whitfield would be back for a second regular season after this hiatus were abruptly dashed when the actor succumbed to cancer in September 2011. His legacy is now taken up by Liam McIntyre in the new episodes.

Although Whitfield's performance, which he delivered in the first season of Spartacus: Blood & Sand, often threatens to be crushed by the effects or other visual distractions, it is always apparent what talent lay dormant in the actor. It's sad that he won't be able to prove this in further seasons and other productions. Fans of the series, however, Andy Whitfield leaves thirteen episodes more than worth watching, in which he delivered a really good performance alongside convincing co-stars such as Lucy Lawless, John Hannah or Craig Parker.

So if you like historical material, dangerous intrigue, bloody gladiator fights and beautiful bodies, if you don't mind coarse language, lots of blood and debauched sex, you simply can't miss this great series. Some episodes have been slightly extended for the Blu-Ray release and enriched with more sex and violence scenes. However, in the German version of the Blu-Ray and the DVD, the fourth episode was slightly shortened, which can not really be understood, because the episode was still uncut in the night program of ProSieben to see. In contrast, the Blu-Ray releases from Italy or Austria, which also have a German soundtrack, are completely uncut.

Picture + Sound: The Blu-Ray presents the series in first-class technical quality. The very clean picture shows even the smallest details in extremely good sharpness. The colors are vibrant and the contrasts very well matched. However, the high picture quality also brings out the artificial character of the visuals more clearly, which takes some getting used to, especially at the beginning. The sound is only available in Dolby Digital 5.1, but can convince with some very good surround effects, especially during the fights in the arena, and coherent ambient sounds. In addition, dialogues and music are well coordinated, which is why in the end there is also a deserved Very Good for the technical implementation.

Extras: The Blu-Ray has on the fourth disc just under 50 minutes of bonus material to offer. Things kick off with a nearly 15-minute behind-the-scenes look at the series, which offers a not particularly in-depth, but quite entertaining and informative overview of the production and background of the series. A montage of the best fight scenes is offered in the 7-minute Spartacus: Royal Combat. How the actors prepared for these fight scenes is shown in Gladiators Training Camp (approx. 4 min.). Filth and Punishment takes a rather amusing look at the preparations for the scene in which Spartacus and Varro are thrown into the hole. The making of the prosthetics is briefly examined in Andy Gets Plastered (approx. 3 min.). And in A Legend Is Recreated, the producers talk about how they approached this reimagining of the legend surrounding Spartacus.

The numerous sex scenes and romantic entanglements are then covered in the short documentary Oh, Those Horny Romans (approx. 6 min.). And in Before the Green Screen: The Shadow of Death (approx. 5 min.), a more detailed look is taken at the studio shoot in front of the green screen. Amusingly, the bonus material concludes with Exposing your Ludus (approx. 5 min.), where some very fun snapshots from the set have been captured. The trailer for the series then rounds it all off nicely. Very good!

Conclusion: The first season of Spartacus: Blood & Sand doesn't take long to make it clear to the viewer what you're getting yourself into here. Violence, sex, very raw language and very specific visuals make this series a very special viewing experience. Those who are easily shocked by a very explicit depiction of violence or overt nudity and sex should give this Blu-Ray a wide berth. But if you don't mind that, after a somewhat bumpy beginning, you'll quickly be captivated by the adventures of Spartacus and the other gladiators and the myriad intrigues in the house of Batiatus. The Blu-ray presents some episodes in extended version, only one episode was shortened for the German exploitation. The technical realization is on a very high level and also the bonus material is worth seeing. Therefore applies: absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp