What They Say:
Enemies Of Rome – Spartacus and his formidable army continue to outwit Rome’s best com-manders. The powers of the Empire desperately turn to wealthy politician Marcus Crassus for help in crushing the rebellion.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Coming into the third and final season of Spartacus with War of the Damned, it’s an interesting change for me. I had missed the other seasons when they were broadcast but ended up going through them in the past year with all the Blu-ray sets that were on sale at various times. Watch-ing each season on its own, getting into the way the structure works and the utter beauty in the brutality and sexuality of it. A lot of it was all on Andy Whitfields shoulders as the lead, and the loss of him between the first and second season was a serious blow, one softened as much as possible by Liam McIntyre taking over the role after Whitfield participated in selecting him. With each season having a different flavor to it, taking into account the stopgap prequel season, it works in its own way by having this different Spartacus taking the reins.
With so much change at the end of the second season, with so much of the cast dead, so many principle characters out of the picture, the carnage was profound. But it shifted the narrative in a big way as Spartacus was now finally forward moving rather than in a retreat or holding position. As we see from the start here, he’s a man full of energy and power now, leading an army of men that don’t fight by the traditional Roman rules of war. With so much lost to him at the hands of the Roman’s, he comes across as possessed in how he fights and those expressions are more than enough to scare off at least some of the Romans. Throwing his army behind him as they come with much the same look and ferocity only adds to that fear.
With Spartacus gaining quite a lot in terms of a following, each new effort they push forward to gains them more and more victories, though it does go only so far in the end. But what has hap-pened is that as his ranks swell, the Roman army finds itself without a lot of options as the battles are draining the funds and getting more manpower is proving difficult. The more the legend of Spartacus grows, the more the ranks well, the harder the fight the Romans have on their hands. But no matter the way the ranks swell, Spartacus continues to be cautious overall and is intent on bringing down certain Romans before others as they’ve been the elusive ones in the battles so far. It provides for some good, old guard type soldiers for him to deal with, even if they do retreat. They have experience on their side and the more they fight against Spartacus, the more knowledge they do gain.
The larger threat that Spartacus will have to face over the course of the season is the Senator known as Marcus Crassus, a powerful man with much coin and a deep seated quest for true honor that’s earned and not given. When he’s approached to help fund the raising of ten thou-sand men, he even agrees to serve a command under the men that have retreated at this point. It’s shocking to his son Tiberius, but it’s very illuminating as to the way that Crassus thinks, mak-ing him one very dangerous Roman to deal with. As a different side of the coin to Spartacus, he brings his own style to the table and looks for the reality of the situation and not the way that he believes things should be based simply on the fact that it’s always been so.
With a lot of foundation set up int his episode in regards to the new characters, we see two primary stories really playing out. With Spartacus, it’s his attempts to take down the two Roman commanders that have eluded him for months now. Their deaths will be extremely useful in slowing down the army that’s being raised since the psychological value of their death cannot be overstated. We get to see some very well done and engaging fights and planning going on with it since it gives us a secretive mission that allows Spartacus, Crixus and Gannicus work together to do what needs to be done. The trio have fought hard since finding their way out of the house of Batiatus and this definitely helps to reinforce it.
But a good deal of time is given over to Crassus as well as he continues his training with the slave gladiator of note, Hilarus. Through the various fights he goes through here to train to think and understand a gladiator like Spartacus, it’s hugely instructive to his own mindset and his is-sues with his son Tiberius who thinks far too highly of himself. With so many Romans of mind that simply by their status of birth and place that they cannot be undone, he is the rare one that understands the reality of the situation. Attempts at teaching his son this only go so far and are misunderstood. But watching how Crassus works several situations here, and does one of them with absolute honor while the other is made of pure manipulation for his own end goals, he’s set up in a similar way to many other Romans in the series, but with more than enough difference to make him stand apart.
In Summary:
Spartacus: War of the Damned really starts off well here by setting up a lot of the foundations of where the season will go. The major part of it is really the introduction of Crassus and his person-ality and goals, which aren’t all that dissimilar from many, many other Roman senators, several of which we’ve seen in the series so far. But he also brings a different kind of focus, seasoned and intense feeling to the character as he intends to get down on the same level as Spartacus in a way, but also realizes that Spartacus is above many of them because of his accomplishments and drive. Spartacus for his part does some solid work here as we see just how driven he is after all that’s happened and that the intensity is still there. But we also see that his goals are starting to change as the realization of just what kind of force he has under him now comes to light. There’s a lot to like here and as just the first ten percent of the season, it portends a lot of great, amazing and brutal moments ahead.
Grade: B+
