“I am Spartacus!” – Spartacus
Spartacus Season 1 Rankings: where did “Great and Unfortunate Things” rank?
Spartacus’ “Great and Unfortunate Things” came in as the #4 ranked episode of Spartacus’ 13 Season 1 episodes! Find more Spartacus rankings here.
Here’s why “Great and Unfortunate Things” was ranked as the #4 episode of 13 Spartacus Season 1 episodes.
CATEGORY – TV
SHOW – Spartacus
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – Starz
GENRE – Drama, Period Show, Historical Epic, Swords & Sandals
EPISODE – “Great and Unfortunate Things”
BEING RANKED FOR – Spartacus Season 1
RANK – #4 of Spartacus’ 13 Season 1 episodes
Spartacus, “Great and Unfortunate Things” (S0107) review
We open with a flashback of a still longhaired Spartacus (Andy Whitfield), back in his Thracian days, making love to his future wife Sura (Erin Cummings) for the first time. She tells him that he shall never love another. Then we flash forward to the present, Sura’s funeral, and seemingly the reason that Spartacus has been fighting on has died. And scheming Batiatus (John Hannah, who seems to get better in this role each week) plays the role of, “Oh well, now you can be an even better and more effective gladiator to make me rich, so chin up, m’lad!”
Crixus (Manu Bennett) is awake, and alive! Hilarious that his first words after getting his ass beat in the epic battle with Theokoles are “when do I fight again?” Pretty funny too that Lucretia (Lucy Lawless) tells him to want for nothing, but Crixus can barely tolerate her desire (though he must play along of course as he’s her slave essentially). And Doctore (Peter Mensah) is back where we expect him to be, hating on Spartacus hardcore. It’s to be expected, of course, as the former knows that the latter tried to drug him up with doctored wine (doctored, Doctore, get it?) during his planned escape.
I thought at first that the subplot with Barca (now dead, though the gladiators believe that he purchased his freedom), Pietros (Eka Darville), and Ashur (Nick Tarabay) was something of a distraction, but it seems to be taking on larger life. Pietros seemed to be in position to take on a larger role with Barca’s leaving/death, only to be cut short in a most cruel way indeed. To be a slave in Ancient Rome: not good times.
This was the most serious episode of the series yet, and perhaps the most satisfying dramatically for it. I asked last week for less blood splashiness and gratuitous “they did <em>that</em> back in the day?” scenes, and this episode delivered (the final arena scene was well done: this is a gladiator show, you know?). Seeing Spartacus walking out into the arena, ready to put his Thracian past behind him, makes me think that there could be great things yet for this oddly captivating little sword and sandals show.
Other thoughts on “Great and Unfortunate Things”:
- Sometimes lost in this intentionally larger-than-life blood-splashed and lusty epic is that the acting all round is pretty great. I’ll call out leading man Andy Whitfield here, who often plays the tortured “straight man” of sorts amidst a violence- and death- and sex-mad landscape. A look in his eyes portrays that sensation of wondering if, at any moment, you really might slip over into full-blown insanity.
- The title of the previous episode is “Delicate Things” whereas this one of course and noted 50 times here is “Great and Unfortunate Things.” I like when titles play off each other like that. Joss Whedon shows have done that very sweetly in the past, Buffy the Vampire Slayer coming to mind in particular.
- Nice to see more screen time for Spartacus’ gladiator sidekick Varro (Jai Courtney) this week, though he is in the worst spirits we’ve seen him in, taunted by his family’s brief visit and reminder that he was once a free man, and haunted by the news that his wife was raped and impregnated during his absence.
- “You are a slave. To cling to a life beyond these walls is to see your heart parted from your chest.” – Varro to Spartacus
The review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.
Spartacus, “Great and Unfortunate Things”: episode and cast info
Air date – March 5, 2010
Spartacus creator – Steven S. DeKnight
Directed by – Jason Warn
Writing credits – Steven S. DeKnight, Brent Fletcher, Miranda Kwok, Todd Helbing, Aaron Helbing
Cast Andy Whitfield – Spartacus
John Hannah – Batiatus
Peter Mensah – Doctore
Manu Bennett – Crixus
Erin Cummings – Sura
Nick E. Tarabay – Ashur
Lucy Lawless – Lucretia
Jai Courtney – Varro
Antonio Te Maioha – Barca
Lesley-Ann Brandt – Naevia
Eka Darville – Pietros
John Bach – Magistrate Calavius
Lliam Powell – Numerius
Mark Mitchinson – Aulus
Matt Gillanders – Marcellus