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Spartacus Rewatch June 2014 and Beyond

maraleia

By maraleia
in Spartacus [V]

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ElleryAnne

ElleryAnne

I'll be watching the SyFy version, because I don't get Starz :)  Also, I haven't seen the show before, so for me it's a first-watch. I'll be curious to know what I'm missing due to the editing.  If it sounds like too much is being cut, I may switch to Netflix DVD's, but I'm hoping the Syfy version holds up.

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GHScorpiosRule

GHScorpiosRule

The episodes start tomorrow on Syfy FYI

 

Yipe! I missed it. Is season 1 available on Starz? When I finished watching the last few of the last season, last month, I thought only that season was available.

 

And Andy had so much charisma and oomph, I could never accept anyone else as Spartacus. I know that's not fair, but that's how I feel.

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ybrik

ybrik

Missed the first ep on Syfy so I can't say anything about the editing. However, I think I will do a rewatch on my bluray copies. I just can't imagine watching and not seeing Illythia in all her glory.

 

I love the entire series pretty equally. I liked both Andy and Liam as Spartacus for different reasons. Andy is charismatic and intense that just burst in his scenes. Liam has this quietness and sadness about him that really works for Spartacus in the later seasons.

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GHScorpiosRule

GHScorpiosRule

WAHOO!!!! Starz has ALL three seasons or is it four? on Demand, so I can watch 'em there, instead of the edited scify, thus also avoiding commercial breaks!

 

As for Andy, I think he hit it out of the park on all levels and all emotions--anger, rage, depression, cunning, sadness...I'll admit, I am biased. That said, I tried to give Liam a chance; I did, but, like Raymond Burr was is Perry Mason, to me Andy Whitfield was Spartacus.

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ybrik

ybrik

I can definitely understand that feeling. I think for me it helped that so much time passed between Blood and Sand and Vengeance. It was two years basically.

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GHScorpiosRule

GHScorpiosRule

I can definitely understand that feeling. I think for me it helped that so much time passed between Blood and Sand and Vengeance. It was two years basically.

 

Yeah, and I binge watched, watching them all on Netflix, so that may have something to do with how I feel.

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Meredith Quill

Meredith Quill

Yes I think knowing that AW was ill and then having the prequel series allowed us to get used to the idea that Andy possibly wasn't returning. It was still jarring when it happened and it's tragic that he never got to finish what he so brilliantly started. LM had to fill his boots and did a decent job, under what was obviously sad circumstances. In all honesty, I never fully got over him not being AW.

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Sile

Sile

(edited)

I was watching some of the Twilight Zone marathon today, went off to do some other stuff and, when I got back, Spartacus was just starting! I'd read a while back about SyFy running it and wondered how in the hell they'd manage to keep it coherent with all the editing, but then promptly forgot about it.

I read the first episode thread and it's so much fun to see it through the eyes of those watching it for the first time! I'm assuming that since it's kind of a do-over and new threads that spoilers would be polite, even though it's not a first run. But here's a question:

Will historical fact be considered a spoiler? I can see how the plots and fates of the fictional characters would certainly be spoilers, but what about the ultimate results of those based on actual people?

I got to thinking about this because I must confess that I've never watched the last three episodes of the series 1. because I didn't want it to end, but mostly 2. because I knew that it was time for things to start happening that I didn't want to happen. So although I don't really know how it's going to end, I know basically how it really did end. I really do need to crank up the DVR and finish watching it because, after all this time, I still don't know ...

edited because saying what I didn't know was kind of a spoiler in itself.

Edited by Sile
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ElleryAnne

ElleryAnne

Just a heads-up -  If anyone meant to start rewatching with the Syfy episodes and missed any so far, the first four episodes are being re-run as a marathon on Syfy on Monday night, 7/21, starting at 7PM Eastern.  

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green

green

WAHOO!!!! Starz has ALL three seasons or is it four? on Demand, so I can watch 'em there, instead of the edited scify, thus also avoiding commercial breaks!

 

As for Andy, I think he hit it out of the park on all levels and all emotions--anger, rage, depression, cunning, sadness...I'll admit, I am biased. That said, I tried to give Liam a chance; I did, but, like Raymond Burr was is Perry Mason, to me Andy Whitfield was Spartacus.

 

I take from the above statements the lead actor died in the middle of the series?  Was he sick?  An accident?  So they hired another actor to have to step into the role to finish it out?  That must have been awkward.  Also it is going to be weird watching the lead actor here knowing he didn't live out the TV series.  On the whole I think I like knowing this going into the show.

 

Anyway, I'm brand new to this show here cause I be one of the poor folk that can't afford the premium pay channels especially one that usually has nothing on it.

 

Until now my only knowledge of Spartacus is from the actual real history and, of course, the historical fiction of Howard Fast's novel turned into the classic blockbuster 1960 film with Kirk Douglas and John Ireland as Spartacus and Crixus (and Laurence Olivier of course when Crassus eventually shows up).  So it will be interesting to see a TV series 21st century re-telling of the history/legend and how their fictional components either parallel or depart from the 1960 film since only so much is known of the real Spartacus so it's a treasure trove to spin/texture the character into pretty much anything a writer wants to.  And a film with compressed essence is going t differ from a TV series with tons of screen time to add all sorts of stuff. 

 

And I get this is a "300" type of thing from the first few episodes so it won't have the more naturalistic feel I prefer.  But hey, I like anything historically-based so I'm in anyway.  Need this to hold me until Vikings returns.  Is the series over?  Is SyFy showing all of it?

 

BTW, if I read the episode threads will there be spoilers regards this version?  I mean I assume the historical facts are cool to talk about but this series' future episodes won't be talked about in the threads until that episode pops up?  Cause I'm sure I'm not the only one seeing this for the first time.  I'll probably look anyway but would be nice if series spoilers about series created characters didn't pop up from the get go.

 

Okay, off to read the first five threads since I caught up via the marathon Monday night.

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Meushell

Meushell

@green (not sure how to tag people on this site, so hopefully this works)

Andy, the original Spartacus actor, was diagnosed with cancer after season 1. They pushed back season 2 and made the prequel season (Gods of the Arena) to give him time to recover.

From what I understand, he fought the cancer, and even planned to go back to work. The cancer, unfortunately, came back stronger than before. He gave his blessing for them to continue without him and even helped pick the new Spartacus (Liam).

Also, between the prequel and season 2 the actress who plays Naevia got a new job. (It was a very long time between seasons.) Because of that, they hired a new actress to play the character.

The series had four seasons in total. No more are being made.

Season 1 (Blood and Sand)

Prequel Season (Gods of the Arena)

Season 2 (Vengeance)

Season 3 (War of the Damned)

The prequel season is also sometimes called season 0. However, it should be watched after season 1 as it gives spoilers to what happened in season 1.

As far as I know, SyFy is showing all four seasons.

I do not know the answer to your spoiler question. Sorry. Since it is a rewatch thread with new people to the series, I would assume spoilers are not to be given. I think that is how most people here are treating it (aside from actor information, which like you, I would like to know going in). Hopefully, someone else could better answer your question.

Character threads will give spoilers though.

Also, welcome to the rewatch. We hope you stick around.

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maraleia

maraleia

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Since this re-watch isn't getting as much traffic as I thought maybe we should fold the individual episode threads into season threads. Let me know what you think everyone.

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green

green

Maybe if it was put back in the active viewing forum since it is currently being broadcast for the first time on a non-premium channel that would help?  Cause there are a few of us non-premium channels first time viewers around.  It was in the active section the other week which was how I found it.  I never ever think to look in the non-active "all listings" sub-forum myself.

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Meushell

Meushell

I like the individual episodes myself. I like seeing what other people say it on any one particular episode. It is probably also more inviting to people who have not seen the show. If someone is behind on the rewatch, they can see what others have to say without fear of being spoiled about future episodes.

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maraleia

maraleia

  • Author

I'll ask to have it put back on the main page. Done and done.

FYI don't forget to use the episode format option and post the original air date when adding new episodes. Thanks a million!!!

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green

green

I'd like to be so bold as to offer a suggestion in this thread to the mods here.  Since there is so little traffic here on the Spartacus re-watch threads maybe we could condense it into two threads? 

 

1. Unspolied, re-watch thread where people post up through the latest episode broadcast on sci-fi but just make it one thread instead of one of two posts per multiple threads maybe?

 

2. Also maybe a complete (spolied?) thread for people who have seen the whole series where they can discuss same?  Since I've downloaded and watched all but three remaining episodes I so could get into a thread like this.

 

Anyway food for thought.  I'd like to discuss some about the whole series but don't see an appropriate thread to post in and don't want to spoil anyone.  So option #2 is of interest to me especially.

 

Also in case anyone checks this thread before tomorrow (8/14/14) night and didn't notice?  There are two episodes being broadcast -- at 9 PM and 10 PM in a row.  Don't know if they are going to do it every week but I think that show that ran before it finished it's run or something. 

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green

green

(edited)

Question.  There were no previews after the last episode of season one that ran Thursday night the 4th of Sept.  Are they just showing that season only?  You would think if it continued next week there would have been promos and voiceovers at the end of the episode.

 

Anyone know if SyFy just bought the first season's rights or are planning on making us wait for some time before the second season or what?  Cause that would suck.  It isn't like they have too much of any line-up at all worth watching so I hope they are showing the whole thing all the way through. 

 

If they try and string it out well I'm sure the viewership will do pretty much what I already did and find it free to download online cause people don't like waiting forever for shows anymore.  And a series that is already complete needs to be shown all at once cause the other episodes are already "out there" for non-patient (most all of us) viewers to find otherwise.  (Why are all these networks anywhere from 10 to 20 years behind the technology?).

Edited by green
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Ohwell

Ohwell

I just started watching this series a few weeks ago.  Wish I had seen Blood and Sand from the beginning, but I'm looking forward to Gods of the Arena.  I have to say though, sometimes when I see Andy Whitfleld I get kind of teary-eyed, knowing he's gone. 

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Meushell

Meushell

I'm enjoying the sci-fi version. It is kind of fun to see what they come up with instead of cussing. I like the Blu-ray version the best, but I am enjoying this version better than I thought I would. It kind of sucks though that some things are cut out for commercial time.

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Ohwell

Ohwell

Speaking of the cussing:  I hear them saying "fricking" a lot and I'm assuming that that's their favorite cuss word.  Is "fricking" a substitute for "fucking" in the SyFy series?  Did they have that word in their vocabulary way back then?   

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green

green

(edited)

Speaking of the cussing:  I hear them saying "fricking" a lot and I'm assuming that that's their favorite cuss word.  Is "fricking" a substitute for "fucking" in the SyFy series?  Did they have that word in their vocabulary way back then?   

 

Yeah I downloaded the original broadcast and "fricking" overlaid all the "fucking" from the starz broadcast.  I think the f-bomb comes from maybe medieval or Renaissance England or slightly later.  But I'm sure the Romans had several versions of it's equivalent in Latin.  But the series isn't in Latin so English F words of various degrees are used instead.

 

The Romans tended to be pretty earthy folks and not just in speech.  If you have seen some of what has been preserved of their wall graffiti, it is full of some rather raw stuff too.

Edited by green
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Meushell

Meushell

Missio didn't record a couple of weeks ago, so I got behind. The last couple of days though, I had a mini-Spartathon to catch up.

 

Speaking of the cussing:  I hear them saying "fricking" a lot and I'm assuming that that's their favorite cuss word.  Is "fricking" a substitute for "fucking" in the SyFy series?  Did they have that word in their vocabulary way back then?   

 

"Fuck" really is their favorite cuss word. There was one sentence in particular, said by Batiatus....

"I speak of being fucked! By the gods, by the Magistrate, by that cock-suck Solonius and his grinning schemes! I'm of proud family; a family of means and history! You fucking c***! You sold the men! Common slaves, who tried to kill me, tried to fuck me like a whore! But I will not be fucked!"

 

I'm glad, in the Syfy version, they got creative here instead of having him say "frick" a bunch of times. It would just be silly, especially since he was beating information out of a man during that scene. The other censoring works pretty well, but "frick" just makes it obvious that it's censored, especially when a character is angry.

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BK1978

BK1978

I never saw this first run (Because I did not have Starz) and I was not even going to bother watching it when I saw it on Syfy.  But I decided to watch it and I became hooked.  I love this show now that I gave it a chance, I will say that I think Andy was better in the role. 

 

It is funny how many of the actors on the show have or are popping up in other shows that I watch.  I will admit to feeling very stupid though because after I start watching shows I tend to look up the cast on Wikipedia or IMDB to see what other stuff they were on that I might have watched.  Well anyway I did not realized that Crixus was played by Manu Bennett from Arrow fame.  I spent all of my time saying to myself, "This guy looks so familiar.  I wonder what I saw him in before."  When I looked him up I felt like a complete idiot.  I had spent two years watching him on Arrow and I just did not realize it was the same guy. 

 

I have to say I absolutely have a huge crush on Viva Bianca.  There is something so sexy about how devious she is.

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ElleryAnne

ElleryAnne

It looks like Syfy's November line-up is resulting in a change in time for Spartacus again.  In Nov., it'll air on Sun, Mon and Tues at 11:00PM, starting 11/9 with the season opener for the last season, and wrapping up with the episode called Victory on Sun., Nov 30.

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green

green

Thanks for the info.  I just went through endless frustration on the SciFi site trying to find why it wasn't on tonight.  Should have come here first.  Way to go SciFi.  You are making it harder for me to find Spartacus then it was for Glaber to find him.  Grrrrr.

 

Looks like I'll have to catch one of the re-broadcasts of Daily Show / Colbert Report on Mondays and Tuesdays this month.  SciFi is such a pain.

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Meushell

Meushell

(edited)

It is funny how many of the actors on the show have or are popping up in other shows that I watch. I will admit to feeling very stupid though because after I start watching shows I tend to look up the cast on Wikipedia or IMDB to see what other stuff they were on that I might have watched. Well anyway I did not realized that Crixus was played by Manu Bennett from Arrow fame. I spent all of my time saying to myself, "This guy looks so familiar. I wonder what I saw him in before." When I looked him up I felt like a complete idiot. I had spent two years watching him on Arrow and I just did not realize it was the same guy.

I'm just as bad. Spartacus and Legend of the Seeker share many actors. I didn't recognize many until it was brought up in the forums. The few I recognized on my own, it took an embarrassingly long time, and I was watching the shows on the same time. Lol.

 

It looks like Syfy's November line-up is resulting in a change in time for Spartacus again. In Nov., it'll air on Sun, Mon and Tues at 11:00PM, starting 11/9 with the season opener for the last season, and wrapping up with the episode called Victory on Sun., Nov 30.

Good to know. I was late with scheduling this last season. I did a search, and the result confused me. Lol. Apparently, I confuse easily.

 

ETA: I'm finally all caught up with the rewatch, both in watching and posting. Yea!

Edited by Meushell
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spritz

spritz

Wow, that was a fantastic series. I have to say that Spartacus was the best series that aired this fall season. I realized that it was a rerun and "edited for content", but still, it was very compelling tv.  

 

I didn't get to see it when it originally aired on Starz. I'm thankful Syfy aired it.

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green

green

Wow, that was a fantastic series. I have to say that Spartacus was the best series that aired this fall season. I realized that it was a rerun and "edited for content", but still, it was very compelling tv.  

 

I didn't get to see it when it originally aired on Starz. I'm thankful Syfy aired it.

 

Glad you liked it too.  And don't worry about the editing.  You didn't miss anything but porn level stuff aimed at 14 year old boys.  And all those scenes were still there but in shorter versions edited to show the more R rated shots from the scene and less of the X rated shots from same.  You didn't miss any real dialog or story content per se.  Show was actually better on SyFy without it I'd say.  It was, as you say, compelling TV and the compelling part didn't come from the X rated stuff.

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ElleryAnne

ElleryAnne

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Netflix will be making Spartacus (complete series) available for streaming beginning February 1, in case anyone missed it on Syfy, or wants to catch it unedited, or just wants to re-watch it.

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phane00

phane00

Encore just picked up both Spartacus (all seasons, unedited) and Black Sails.  As of Jan. 5th, they're through s1e1 of Black Sails and s1e6 of Spartacus.  I so miss the unedited Spartacus... and Whitfield as Spartacus as well. 

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