Review: 'Spartacus: Gods of the Arena' shines with Mensah, Bennett, Tarabay

By April MacIntyre Jan 21, 2011, 18:47 GMT

"Gods" tells the story of Batiatus (John Hannah) and his scheming wife, Lucretia (Lucy Lawless) as the center characters, who have "good" Solonius, Asher and a pre-"Doctore" Peter Mensah as Oenomaus who is the "juice" of this series.

Starz prequel miniseries, 'Spartacus: Gods of the Arena' is on steroids visually.

More flesh, both in unctuous carnal pose, and in crimson spurting decline - as beheading, disemboweling, graphic neck artery slicing is slow-mo - so every sinew and tendon is lovingly displayed for your vicarious viewing pleasure. This makes us all part-Coliseum throng, watching the biggest spectacle of ancient Rome and its Empire unfurl in HD.

“Spartacus: Gods of the Arena” stars Dustin Clare, John Hannah, Lucy Lawless, Peter Mensah, Manu Bennett, and Jaime Murray. It will premiere on Starz on January 21st, 2011 at 10 ET/PT, 9 CST.

Breasts and merkins abound, the requisite gay Gladiator moment occurs as Barca (Antonio Te Maioho, alive in the prequel) has his beefy paramour plant one on him during a ludus pow-wow in one scene for the premiere episode.

Barca

The show has a large devoted gay following and they appreciate the show attempting to weave gay storylines as matter-of-fact happenstance, just the way it was back in those times.

Starz debuted "Spartacus: Blood & Sand" a year ago to boffo ratings, through the roof for the network.  Even before its premiere, Starz announced a second season.  Then came the shock news of star Andy Whitfield's non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer, and his first round of treatment.  The network scrambled, and came up with the prequel idea, and then more bad news about Andy's cancer treatment not quite doing the job surfaced.  The network, with Whitfield's blessings, now has cast a new Spartacus (Liam McIntyre) to the chagrin of the die-hard fans.

Solonius

"Gods" tells the story of Batiatus (John Hannah) and his scheming wife, Lucretia (Lucy Lawless) as the center characters, who have "good" Solonius (Craig Walsh-Wrightson), Asher (Nick Tarabay) and a pre-"Doctore" Peter Mensah as Oenomaus - who is the juice of this series - by their side at the ludus.

Mensah's Oenomaus is a Gladiator, not the whip-cracker we met in season one, and he plays this role with a lightness and happiness absent in the Doctore role where we first encountered him.  His Oenomaus has conjugal visits with his slave wife; he is clearly in love with her and happy.

Also great to see Asher (Nick Tarabay) restored as a vital gladiator in training, and we see the beginning of his bitter hatred with Crixus, born from their less-than-optimal first meeting. Tarabay is a compelling actor and he, along with Bennett and Mensah, are the saving graces for me in a series noticeably lacking the talents of Whitfield and Viva Bianca (Ilithyia).

The six-episode prequel miniseries debuts Friday at 10 p.m. EST, brings a new hunk to the forefront: Gladiator, Gannicus (Dustin Clare), who like any good wild Celt, drinks too much and loves the ladies.  He is masterful in the arena as well, and earns a spot with the big boys.

Gannicus

Clare described his role in detail at the recent TCA's: "He is a very self-destructive character.  He's always trying to escape his reality, and he does that through abusing things like alcohol in excess, and there's a lot of contradictions in the character.  So, that's always a nice thing to play with, not only physically in the arena when he's in the arena...and preparation was all the normal  preparation you do as an actor in terms of  research and history and the accent.  And then physically, there's a big work life physically for the role and for the show for all the gladiators.  So there was a lot of training, a lot of not much eating and eating very little.  My character fights with two swords, so you are also learning a left-brain and right-brain kind of action, which takes a little while to get down. But Gatticus is a very self-destructive character, and he's also probably got suicidal tendencies.  And I think you're going to see a really nice journey through the six episodes.  He has a great relationship with Oenonmaus, and it's kind of the saving grace."

Set roughly five years before the events in "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," the new prequel  "Gods of the Arena" is Batiatus and Lucretia's story as Hannah's covetous Batiatus eclipses his father's reputation and rises to power with Gladiator Gannicus, who we already know does not make it to season one.

Oenomaus

The story of Gaul slave Crixus's (Manu Bennett) acquisition is explained.  Oenomaus (Peter Mensah) whose path from gladiator to his role as Doctore in season one is illuminated, which gives us great insight to this centerpiece character.

Meanwhile, the premiere brings back that firebug pale villain from 'Dexter," actress Jaime Murray.  Murray is "Gaia", the bisexual Patrician merry widow who has a taste for opium too.

Lawless also was present at the TCA panel and reveled in being allowed to add depth to her conniving ambitious character: "That never happens where you get to go back and fill in blanks and actually find out more about your own character."

Also promised in this prequel is the ballyhooed legend, Batiatus' father, Titus, who is not introduced in the premiere episode sent as review material.

Are you excited for this prequel? How do you feel about Liam McIntyre taking over as Spartacus? Talk back, tell me your most anticipated Sparty character in this series and why: