There is still more than a month before the January 22 premiere of the Starz network's original series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" (if the anticipation is killing you, you can always watch the preview, here, or the Academy Award-winning film from which the show is adapted, above), but Starz has already ordered a 13-episode second season to commence filming in New Zealand in early 2010.
As my colleague Tara noted after attending Starz's panel at TCA this summer, the series echoes the visual effects of the film "300," with lots of gratuitous squelching sounds as burly men swipe at each other with axes and send blood spurting into airborne ribbons. We're also baited with oily torsos, heaving breasts, and -- so we're told -- Lucy Lawless in some kinky nude love scenes that will undoubtedly take place in firelit tents littered with animal pelts.
The second season will have a different subtitle than the first -- "Vengeance" instead of "Blood and Sand," which I predict will mean the following: in the first season finale, someone beloved by Spartacus will endure a bloody, sandy death at the hands of someone unexpectedly evil, leaving a major cliffhanger that will force us to wait around for the next batch of episodes. Our hero will then dedicate himself to avenging the deceased (shirtlessly, of course). Season 3 will be something like "Bone and Sinew," and involve lots of bone-cracking and sinewy biceps; Season 4 will be "Boobs and Loincloths," and so forth. Even if it turns out to be nothing more than a well-toned, scantily-clad romp fraught with spattering bodily fluids and animal skins, I'll probably be highly entertained.
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