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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed shows.
Spartacus: Blood and Sand
EMAILPRINTSERIES: Starz, Friday 10:00p (60 minutes)
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 13 votes
Read user comments
Rate this show >
Show Info
Genre(s): Drama
Created By: Steven S. DeKnight
First Air Date: January 22, 2010
Summary
Starring Andy Whitfield, John Hannah, Lucy Lawless, Peter Mensah, Manu Bennett, Viva Bianca, Craig Parker, Jai Courtney, and Erin Cummings
Spartacus is a Roman soldier who is forced to become a gladiator in the premium cable network's latest drama that promises more gore and sex than "300" or HBO's "Rome."
Episode Guide & More Info: More about this show at TV.com
Also On The Web: Official Show Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker
After artistic duds like the TV version of "Crash," Starz may have found its destination series in Spartacus. This might prove to be the not-at-all-guilty pleasure of the season.
Read Full Review >Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan
Spartacus develops into an enjoyably soapy escape--a la the similarly sweaty and sex-drenched "True Blood"--as its first season progresses.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-TimesPaige Wiser
There's no denying that stylized decapitations are entertaining, especially when accompanied by a generous helping of soft porn.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd
Given that Spartacus does not stumble in what it sets out to do, one's objections to the show, if objections one has, will be moral, or simple matters of taste, to the extent that those two concerns can actually be separated.
Read Full Review >Zap2it (Inside the Box)Hanh Nguyen
Eventually, the series makes way for just enough plot to give our poor, overstimulated eyes a rest. There's a bit of political maneuvering, fierce rivalries, the examination of slavery vs. free will, ludus-yard hazing and even romance.
Read Full Review >Boston HeraldMark A. Perigard
Spartacus fetishizes violence even more than it depicts sex and nudity, which is often. There’s a whole lot of B.C. banging going on here.
Read Full Review >New York PostLinda Stasi
It is trashy fun as Spartacus, who is not really that interested in overthrowing oppressive Roman rule right now as he is in getting his sexed-up wife back, fights his way up gladiator rankings and out.
Read Full Review >Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
It's no "Rome," but at least it appears headed more in that direction.
Read Full Review >Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
The result is compulsively watchable pulp, provided you have a high threshold for decapitations and copulations, sometimes simultaneous.
Read Full Review >Washington PostHank Stuever
It's deliciously, marvelously bad, and I was helpless in its grip. It's a long way from Kubrick, but what isn't?
Read Full Review >San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesChuck Barney
Some viewers will be riveted to the sex, violence, beautiful nude bods and sensory gluttony of Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Others will be turned off almost instantly.
Read Full Review >NewsdayVerne Gay
After Spartacus blows most of its special-effects budget on the pilot, it settles into a not-bad sword-and-sandal genre series, a la "Xena" or "Hercules."
Read Full Review >Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart
Though the violence is designed to be gorgeous, like a graphic novel, it doesn’t have the pacing of a comic book. The creators of Spartacus: Blood and Sand seem a little too enamored of their ability to sketch a vast Thracian tableau, a fight scene, or a coliseum full of cheering CGI Italians.
Read Full Review >USA TodayRobert Bianco
There's no denying that Spartacus does what it sets out to do fairly well--and in a way that doesn't duplicate anything else now on TV. Were it broadcast free over the air where children might find it, one might blanch, but that's not the case.
Read Full Review >Dallas Morning NewsCary Darlig
Toto, we're not in I, Claudius, or even Rome, anymore. The problem, though, is that this Spartacus is so over the top that it begs to be considered as total camp.
Read Full Review >New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
The trappings up front are so over the top that to say you watch Spartacus to see a contemporary reworking of a cinema classic is like saying you go to Hooters for the food.
Read Full Review >TV GuideMatt Roush
Spartacus is derivative as entertainment and primitively pandering as a diverting spectacle of campy historical fiction.
Read Full Review >Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
This attempt to milk the success of the 2008 movie “300’’ is a major dud, from the C-level production values and shoddy green-screen technology to the horrible makeup that turns star Lucy Lawless into a Raggedy Ann doll.
Read Full Review >Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall
If you're a teenage boy who loved "300"--or any other demographic who loved "300"--you may well dig all the digitized, slow-motion blood splurts, the abundant nudity (albeit with some of the full frontal coming from male characters as well as female) and the stylized, computer-generated backgrounds. But stay far away if none of those things make you say "Hells yeah!"
Read Full Review >VarietyBrian Lowry
To be fair, the program does improve marginally after the premiere, but by then the bar's set so low a three-legged horse could clear it.
Read Full Review >Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
So, one gets an episode about Spartacus' lessons at gladiator school and another episode about his fights in "the pit," a place brutal enough to make professional wrestling look like ballet. With such thin stories each week, it's small wonder that sex and violence are used to take up the slack.
Read Full Review >San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Spartacus is an exercise in some of the worst writing, acting and directing you'll ever see (or not).
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this show is 3.8 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
C.D. gave it a0:
I was expecting something more...That had to be the biggest turd of a show. Horrible writing, acting, special effects. I couldn't stop laughing, not because it was funny, but because it was supposed to be serious. Watch at your own risk.
MIG gave it a6:
The show itself is basically 300 in a television format. The visuals are pretty nice too look at with some good art direction, but thats where it stops. 300 was a nice diversion where you didn't need the best script or top notch acting as long as the visuals could keep you enthralled with good direction. What this show lacks is a good script and good acting. This show has moments of really good acting and writing but its spaced so far apart that it is almost not worth mentioning. The rest of the time its no very good. Tapert should have kept the camp factor from his earlier works, had that been done this would have been better. That being said this sin' a terrible show, its actually not bad although overly serious and quite dumb. I'd say give it a shot, the show has promise, and hopefully unlike Heroes it will expand on that promise.
Christine K gave it a1:
Spartacus: Utter BS, and I don't mean blood OR sand.
Lori E gave it a3:
WOW! As an adult viewer that can handle CG and even respect the wonderful technology, in short bursts, this was way over the top. What an overall disappointment. I really was looking forward to this, as a movie goer that really loved the original movie, it was a great shock to see how they, so far, have ruined it!! I won't be watching the rest. How sad.
gregory f gave it a0:
What a piece of crap! Bad CG, bad dialogue, bad acting, and bad directing. A poor attempt to rip off 300, Gladiator, and Rome. I cant believe Starz order a second season of this garbage already. What a joke!
Einar gave it a6:
Does every fight scene have to be in slow motion? but am interested to see what happens next.
Brandon S. gave it a5:
Incredibly violent and sexually explicit, t's about as subtle as a battering ram. But it's got a lot of talent involved, and it has potential. Did I mention it's really really violent? Definitely not of the same quality as Rome, but I'm going to stick with it for a while and see how it goes.