“Paterfamilias” feels like the first episode of Gods where we need to tread a little water. After the “successes” of “Missio” we need some setbacks. And of course it wasn’t going to be that easy. This was a Batiatus scheme, … Continue reading Spartacus: Gods of the Arena: Episode 03: Paterfamilias
You could be forgiven, based on the marketing, that Spartacus was a show exclusively about how badass gladiators were. And I’m sure many people did write it off as such. Which is a shame, because it means they missed episodes … Continue reading Spartacus: Gods of the Arena: Episode 02: Missio
Weirdly, even though it’s been over a year since I did the last Spartacus: Blood and Sand review, what strikes me most about watching Gods of the Arena this time through is how familiar it feels. In many ways, it … Continue reading Spartacus: Gods of the Arena: Episode 01: Past Transgressions
From 1859 to 1872, the United States and the United Kingdom were technically in a low-grade conflict sparked by a dispute over a pig. Both nations claimed the island of San Juan, in the Salish Sea, between Vancouver on one … Continue reading The History Thread Fights the Pig War
This is adapted from a lyric essay I’ve been writing on and off since 2011. At 11:30 AM on December 17, 2010, a young man approached the office of the governor of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia. He was a fruit … Continue reading The History Thread is Setting Itself on Fire
Hullo, I’m Hobbes, stepping in for today while Agnew steps back. Today is the anniversary of the death of famed imperialist Major-General Charles George Gordon at the siege of Khartoum in the Sudan, 1885, sometimes called “Chinese Gordon” (ah, the … Continue reading The Emergency History Thread is Ever Victorious Until It’s Not
Welcome to the end of what feels like the end of a year that fit into a week, everyone. Monday was the President of the United States pressuring a state to overturn its election in his favor, Wednesday was the … Continue reading The Replacement Weekend Politics Thread Waits For What’s Next
“What would you do—to hold your wife again? To feel the warmth of her skin, the taste of her lips? How many men would you kill? A hundred? A thousand? There stands but one between you and her. ” There’s … Continue reading Spartacus: Blood and Sand: Episode 13: Kill Them All
If you think of this episode as, essentially, Part One of the finale, then I think “Revelations” works a little better. Much of this episode is set dressing for the final confrontation and the result is a little uneven, especially … Continue reading Spartacus: Blood and Sand: Episode 12: Revelations
Over the course of the show, Batiatus has put quite a number of wheels in motion, and most of them have run smack into the mud, one way or another. You could forgive yourself if you thought he was piss … Continue reading Spartacus: Blood and Sand: Episode 11: Old Wounds
Friends, ‘Cados, Countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Varro, not praise him. Jai Courtney has not gone on to a lot of terrible success. He’s had a string of high profile box office bombs, all of which … Continue reading Spartacus: Blood and Sand: Episode 10: Party Favors
Pour one out for…uh…let me look up her name…Licinia, Crassus’ niece. There was only ever room in this town for one viperous catty female lead, and Illythia ends this episode by literally bashing her rival’s head in against the floor. … Continue reading Spartacus: Blood and Sand: Episode 9: Whore
I believe the AV Club’s comments called this Chekov’s cock: what comes out in the first act must go off in the last act. Anyhow, pour one out for Segovax, the Gaul whose major failings were basically Spartacus’ failings—a desire … Continue reading Spartacus: Blood and Sand: Episode 8: Mark of the Brotherhood
One of the fundamental challenges facing any voting system that allows for local representation is how to draw those local districts. In those systems, the need for local representation comes into conflict with the need to achieve a system that … Continue reading XTREME Civics & Comparative Gov’t: How to Gerrymander a Voting District
To this point, Spartacus’ plot, in as far as it follows the life of the eponymous character, has been about reuniting with his wife Sura. Everything he’s done, everything he’s sacrificed or debased himself for, it has all been in … Continue reading Spartacus: Blood and Sand: Episode 7: Great and Unfortunate Things
Coming off the heels of “Shadow Games,” you’d expect some bit of a decrease in quality, and while I don’t think “Delicate Things” matches those highs, I do think it continues the win streak. We pick up immediately after the … Continue reading Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Episode 6: Delicate Things
In my notes, there’s a line that says, “this is a good episode.” Then later I underlined it. Then I put a star next to it. Now, maybe this is a charitable reading based on just the low lows of … Continue reading Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Episode 5: Shadow Games
Left out of the voting systems conversation last week were two rather unique ways of voting—one that affects only a handful of people around the world, but is still quite important to talk about, and one that, directly or indirectly, … Continue reading XTREME Civics & Comparative Gov’t: Voting Systems Pt. 2: STV & US Primaries
The “Pit of the Underworld” sucks. All the gladiators look down on anyone who fights there, and the other ludus owners make snide remarks if you fight your gladiators there. So Batiatus sending Spartacus to fight there, the latter having … Continue reading Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Episode 4: The Thing In The Pit
Welcome to the first installment of XTREME Civics & Comparative Government. This series is meant to be less specific political issues, but rather to be an explainer of how things work around the world, and to probe at some of … Continue reading XTREME Civics & Comparative Government: Voting Systems
Three episodes in and I’m vacillating on what exactly I loved about this show. Again, these early episodes are notorious for being sub-par, but there are hints of the show that it’s trying to be, and will eventually become. As … Continue reading Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Episode 3: Legends
