TV Review: Spartacus Vengeance 1.1, 'Fugitivus'

rating: 4

Going into this review, let me state outright that I€™ve never seen any of the Spartacus TV series. I€™m aware of its existence, and a friend of mine loves it silly, but I€™ve never seen it. So I came into the advance screening of this episode knowing the history of Spartacus himself, having watched the excellent Stanley Kubrick directed Spartacus movie from back in the day and knowing that the actor on this series died a bit ago and had to be replaced. So what€™s what I went into this with. What did I come out with? A certain level of respect for a series that owes more to 300 than it does to Kubrick and a realization that it might be no bad thing. We begin with Spartacus (Liam McIntyre) leading an attack on a Roman cavalry patrol. This does not go well for the Romans. He takes the loot from the slain Romans and returns to what appears to be an underground hideout for him and his would-be army of escaped slaves. He talks a bit with his woman (Katarina Law) and confronts a Gaul (Manu Bennett€ side note: the friend who was with me at the screening, and loves the series, won a plate autographed by Bennett. Some of you may now begin seething with jealousy), who has different ideas about what everyone should be doing. Back in Rome, we see that the fallout from the slaughter of the Roman patrol is landing on a praetor named Glaber (Craig Parker). He eventually winds up taking his wife (Viva Bianca) on a mission to find and destroy Spartacus and his little army. They begin by heading toward a building previously owned by someone named Lentulus Batiatus, and find a very interesting surprise therein. In the background to all of this is plenty of nudity by both genders (notably during a raid on a whorehouse), more over-the-top violence than the show really needed (though at least they avoided the €œslow down, speed up, slow down€ again shots that I really hate), plenty of politics and a brother/sister pairing that seems likely to €œgo Lannister€ if things continue as they are€ Now as I said, I€™ve never seen any of the show until this episode, so I can€™t really comment on how it fits in. I will say that the friend of mine who watched the earlier episodes really liked this one and thought that McIntyre worked well as a replacement for the previous actor. As for my non-fan impression€I liked it. I though the acting was good, the writing was decent, and the set-pieces were interesting. Even though I was coming into this more or less as a noob, I was still able to figure out what was going on, and at no point felt lost. Now I don€™t get Starz, so I€™m not sure I€™ll be able to watch any more episodes of this series, but I will say that just on the basis of this one episode, I€™m interested enough to go back and try to watch the others on Netflix. That€™s a pretty good compliment, I feel! (Spartacus: Vengeance airs in the USA on the Starz cable network on January 27)