Watching Spartacus

Finally got around to watching Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

It’s just as bloody and sexual as I’d been told… but what very few have mentioned to me is how fine the writing is. Great, revealing dialogue. These are very, very fine character arcs. Reversals, double-crosses, surprises, slow burns… it’s just really impressive stuff. The acting is likewise top-notch, sometimes amazing.

I tried watching a little bit of it with my wife at my side and, alas, she couldn’t see past the stylized violence — or all the swearing. There’s a lot of both. But just as I learned to look past some of the conventions of anime that struck me as peculiar, I just tune out some of the other stuff. Your mileage may vary. It’s pretty manly.

Highly recommended, with appropriate caveats.