'Spartacus' is a Slave to Shock Value, Nudity, and Graphic Violence

The STARZ cable network is bringing us new original programming tonight with the first installment of their controversial series, "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" and I would like share with you the USA TODAY review by Robert Bianco.

They got the Blood part right. They just left out the rest of the body parts Starz throws at you.

A heady mix of 300-style graphic violence and "Debbie Does Rome" soft-core porn, "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" is proof of TV's ever-expanding boundaries and ever-plummeting tastes. You've never seen anything quite like it on TV and, with luck, will never again anytime soon — not because it's terrible but because once is surely enough.

If you've seen 300, you'll immediately recognize the highly stylized look of this adventure hour in which everything, other than the people and the sets, is created on a green screen. That allows both for the weirdly colored landscapes and — most often — for the fountains of bizarrely behaving blood. It can't just spurt; it has to shoot out, freeze in midair and then splatter, drenching everything in its path.

You have to marvel not just at its flow but also at the Romans' incredible ability to produce it. Spartacus alone has a sword that can cut off two legs with a single swipe. That's a technology lost to time.

Sex, however, is ever with us, and ever with Spartacus. Man on woman, woman on woman, man on man, full frontal nudity of both varieties (though, in typical fashion, more female than male); Spartacus offers up the full array, early and often. It even features ancient-world fluffers, which is probably a first.

There is a story buried underneath the breasts, blood and obscenities, but it doesn't much matter. Still, for those unfamiliar with the basic outlines from history class or the classic Hollywood epic, Spartacus (Andy Whitfield) is a warrior betrayed, enslaved and separated from his wife by the Romans in the end days of the Republic.

Sold to a gladiator camp run by Batiatus (John Hannah) and his wife, Lucretia (Lucy Lawless), Spartacus must learn to persevere so that he can someday, a few seasons from now, organize the slave revolt that shakes Rome to its core.

Though it's loosely based on real events, you would not want your children to get their history lessons (or any other lessons) here. You could point out that the Romans were no more violent than other ancient peoples and were less licentious than some (we don't get the term "Roman virtues" for nothing), but you would be wasting your time. Spartacus is a brutal, ugly graphic novel come to life, not life itself.

Still, there's no denying that Spartacus does what it sets out to do fairly well — and in a way that doesn't duplicate anything else now on TV. Were it broadcast free over the air where children might find it, one might blanch, but that's not the case. You have to pay to watch Starz, which means it's up to you to decide who watches it. Enter at your own risk. And watch out for those swords.

"Spartacus: Blood and Sand" will be televised tonight at 10:00 pm (ET) on STARZ.

Visit the official website at: http://www.starz.com/originals/spartacus.