Spartacus Gods of the Arena Prequel Season Episode 1 Recap
We are back, ladies and gentlemen. The first few minutes of 'Spartacus: Gods of the Arena' gave us heaping helpings of things we've come to expect from this Starz series: spurting blood, naked bodies, violence, profanity, and, just for grins, Batiatus using a public toilet.Remind me again, why isn't this airing on ABC Family?
OK, I kid, but it almost felt as though with this first episode back, 'Spartacus' felt a particular need to get in our faces with its most outrageous or provocative content. There couldn't just be sex, there had to be lots and lots of sex of many different varieties; there couldn't just be violence, there had to be unusual beheadings and an extra helping of insanity when it came to the creative use of spurting blood.
All right, all right, we get it -- this is a show about people who use each other for any number of purposes, and the results aren't always pretty. And iff we didn't get the point that bodies are merely so much flesh to be sold by the pound, a couple of scenes were set in a butcher shop.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the show's in-your-face tendencies; after a year without 'Spartacus' I would have beheaded someone myself if this show hadn't returned when it did. I just hope that, in the six episodes of this prequel season, the show can both hold on to its signature sauciness and dig into the characters in the ways that made 'Spartacus: Blood and Sand' much more than the sum of its blood-spattered parts.
'Gods of the Arena,' this new prequel season, is only six episodes long, and it makes me wonder -- in that relatively short time span, can we come to care about Gannicus' plight as much as we did about the lives of Spartacus, Crixus, Doctore or even Barca in 'Spartacus: Blood and Sand'? That remains to be seen.
But the first episode of the prequel season covered a lot of ground quite fluidly and set up several new conflicts with efficient energy, and it was intriguing to see the characters in such different places. How different things were five years ago! Let's take a brief look at then and now, for each of the show's main characters:
Batiatus (John Hannah): It's poignant to see a Batiatus who is, in a way, quite innocent. He's been around, sure, but he's so certain that all it takes to succeed as a ludus owner is persistence and an ability to cross the right palms with silver. How naive! At the end of the episode, his energetic ambition collides with a cold, stark reality: The people who occupy the higher reaches of society don't want the upstarts below them to succeed. Tullius, the man Batiatus had wanted to emulate, ended up pissing in his face. That's one thing I love about the show -- not the abuse via urine, but the way it constantly leaves its characters in unwinnable situations. On a character level and a story level, things are about to get interesting: We know that Batiatus is going to fight and scratch and claw his way out of this hole, but we also know events like these are going to make him every bit as ruthless as the heartless Tullius in a few years. Clearly something will go wrong between the good friends Batiatus and fellow ludus owner Solonius, and no doubt other relationships will suffer as well.Lucretia (Lucy Lawless): It's also poignant to see Batiatus and Lucretia so deeply in love. In a few years' time, they'll still love each other, but as we saw in 'Blood and Sand,' they'll be both be much more scarred and cynical. There might as well have been an "irony alert" sign flashing when Lucretia talked about not wanting to bed a dirty, gross gladiator. As we saw in 'Blood and Sand,' she not only slept with Crixus but had deep feelings for him -- feelings she couldn't quite admit. In any event, once we saw Lucretia as such a loving, supportive wife, that was our clue that things are bound to go at least partly wrong between them. These young marrieds are about to find out just what it will cost them to rise in Capuan society.
Oenomaus (Peter Mensah): Fans of 'Blood and Sand' are probably saying to themselves, "Hey, why is Doctore not being called by his rightful name? What's going on here?" In this prequel season, which is set five years before 'Blood and Sand,' Oenomaus is using the slave name he carried before he took over instruction at Batiatus' ludus. And given that Oenomaus is relatively content as 'Gods of the Arena' begins, my guess is that he's the character who will suffer the most this season. He's got a wife, and even if they are both slaves, they're both being treated relatively well and they get to spend time together. Oenomaus even smiles now and then! Clearly things are about to go very wrong in his life. It's interesting to note, however, that though his circumstances are different, Oenomaus/Doctore is essentially the same guy he was before -- ethical, honest, strong, reliable. I love this character and relish the idea that we'll get to explore his life more fully. Also, I must add that there's no doubt in my mind that Oenomaus' wife will come to a brutal end this season. That's not based on inside knowledge, that's just a guess. Since when do the people in this world ever get to keep what they want? If they do, they generally have to pay a very high price.
Crixus, Ashur and Barca: We see the burly gladiator Crixus when he first arrives at Batiatus' ludus, when his hair was still long and he was mocked for being a "little" guy. Ashur is among the trainees who survived the house's brutal training regimen but has yet to get the brand of the brotherhood. It should be interesting to see how Ashur got the injury that ended his career in the arena. As for Barca, he appears to be the same tough guy, and that's to the good; not everything in life changes all that much in a five-year span.
As far as the show's new characters, Gaia is ringing a few alarm bells for me, though it's too early too tell if she'll end up being a good or bad addition to the cast. If Gaia (who's played by Jaime Murray) ends up being a standard-issue vixen, there to cause soap-opera-style troubles between the lead couple, that might be problematic; so far she's seeming like an overly predictable type. It's too soon to tell, though; we'll have to see what her game is, and if the feelings she apparently has for Lucretia are real or merely part of some secret agenda.
Vettius and Tullius are, so far, relatively one-dimensional villains, but the characters are well played (though Vettius' sneering could get quite old if he doesn't moderate it a bit). In any event, 'Gods of the Arena' is really the story of how Lucretia and Batiatus lost their innocence, so to speak, and John Hannah and Lucy Lawless are so good at playing earlier versions of themselves that it doesn't really matter that not all the show's characters are fully fleshed out (no pun intended).
Of course, the season is also the story of Gannicus, and I think it was wise of the show's writers to make him the opposite of the Spartacus who arrived at Batiatus' ludus five years later. That taciturn man burned with an interior fire and quietly came up with an increasingly canny plan for revenge; he was the unshowy opposite of Gannicus, a heedless bad boy who never thinks about the consequences of his actions.
Will we find out that Gannicus nurses some secret pain that makes him take refuge in wine, women and spectacular feats in the arena? Possibly. That might be an interesting way to go with the prequel season, but the truth is, the character may end up being just one more supporting player in the saga of Lucretia and Batiatus. That might be the wisest course for the 'Spartacus' franchise. I don't know about you, but I still have the memory of Andy Whitfield's performance as Spartacus fresh in my mind, and I don't know that I'm quite ready to emotionally invest in another gladiator's personal saga.
But to see Lucretia and Batiatus fight their way from street brawls to the sands of Capua's shiny new arena? I'm definitely interested in that tale. As I said, I don't know if six episodes will be enough time to tell that story with depth and complexity, but the previous season frequently shocked and surprised me in good ways, so I'm giving 'Gods of the Arena' the benefit of the doubt. And given how energetic the first episode of 'Gods of the Arena' was, our return to Capua is off to a good start.
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