Spartacus: War of the Damned Season 3 - DVD

Content: The forces of Spartacus (Liam McIntyre) are steadily growing and slowly but surely becoming a serious threat to the Roman army. After Spartacus and his men manage to rout the forces of Cossinius (John Wraight) and Furius (Jared Turner), the commanders decide to seek help from the powerful member of the Senate, Marcus Crassus (Simon Merrells). The wealthy man is to use his financial support to add 10,000 men to the Roman forces. But Crassus, an ingenious as well as manipulative strategist, is not content with just providing money for the fight against Spartacus. He wants to be at the forefront when the slaves receive their just punishment. But Spartacus must not only fight a new enemy, but also the threat of winter. Now it's time to secure supplies and find a place to spend the winter. A difficult time lies ahead for Spartacus, Gannicus (Dustin Clare), Crixus (Manu Bennett) and their allies, a time when tensions within the resistance fighters continue to rise as the all-important battle draws nearer...

Spartacus: War of the Damned, the third and final season of the hit TV interpretation of the Spartacus legend, features an utterly accomplished finale. Although the fate of the legendary slave and gladiator should be known to many, the creators have succeeded in the end once again really gripping tension. On the one hand, this is due to the new antagonist Marcus Crassus, who is not only ice-cold like many of his predecessors and literally walks over dead bodies for his goals. He is also a really ingenious manipulator and strategist, who always seems to be one step ahead of his opponents. This makes Crassus one of the most interesting and best villains of the whole series.

On the other hand, the high level of tension is also due to the increasingly dense dramaturgy, which approaches the final battle with great strides and also repeatedly puts the cohesion within the insurgents to hard tests. There are hardly any longueurs in the last episodes and also the clichéd dialogues are kept within absolutely bearable limits. In addition, there is the usual mixture of frank depiction of sex and excessive blood fountains, which gave the series in the last chapter again an 18 release - but this time at least in completely uncut version. This overall package makes the finale of Spartacus to extremely rousing TV entertainment of the particularly bloody kind.

Admittedly, the deliberately over-stylized look, the not always particularly profound dialogues and the sometimes somewhat striking treatment of sex and violence do not necessarily make the series now great TV art. And even if in certain aspects, such as the replica of the slave ships, value was placed on authenticity, one should not take it as a viewer with the historical accuracy quite so seriously. Because the bottom line is that Spartacus: War of the Damned wants to offer one thing above all: good entertainment and a worthy farewell to the series for the fans. And they succeeded brilliantly. And therefore there is also for the furious finale again a clear: worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The DVD presents the series in the final season again in first-class technical quality. Thanks to the extremely good overall sharpness, the very clean picture allows even the smallest details to come into their own excellently, especially in the brighter moments. Colors (and especially the red) are powerful and contrasts are very well matched. The audio is in a very lively Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, which is convincing with some very good surround effects, especially during the fights in the arena, and coherent ambient sounds. In addition, dialogue and music are well matched, which is why in the end there is also a deserved very good for the technical implementation.

Extras: On the fourth disc, this season again has a few nice extras for fans of the series to offer. It starts off with a look back at the first two seasons of the series (approx. 9:10 min.), followed by a look at the training the cast had to go through to believably deliver gladiators in ancient Rome (approx. 3:37 min.) It continues with a bloody goodbye (approx. 2:43 min.) and a short documentary on the special effects of the final season (approx. 5:08 min.). A featurette on the costumes and sets (approx. 3:55 min.) and an interview with the creative minds behind the series (approx. 6:58 min.) are also still on the program. And last but not least, there are ten extended and removed scenes (approx. 30:06 min.), which feature some extended dialogue sequences as well as additional violence and sex scenes. All in all, a decent additional offering. Good!

Conclusion: Spartacus: War of the Damned is a more than worthy finale for this very special version of the classic story about the legendary gladiator and freedom fighter Spartacus. Also in the final episodes the blood flows by the gallon and there is again a lot of sex, corruption, betrayal and great battles. And the makers also stick to the visual style in the swan song of the series. The result is ten extremely exciting, rousing and entertaining episodes, which are presented on DVD in very good quality. In addition, the box also offers some extras, which could have been a little more detailed, but which are still a very worthwhile addition, especially for fans. Overall, there is therefore for this unabridged season box a very clear: Absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp