Spartacus & Portlandia

Spartacus: Gods of the Arena

When you tune in to Spartacus you expect three things: blood, breasts and betrayal. The prequel series to Spartacus: Blood and Sand delivered all three. Where Blood and Sand told the gladiatorial birth and rise of Spartacus, Gods of the Arena is poised to tell the story of Crixus' rise from a worthless slave to the greatest gladiator in the house of Batiatus. I'm also interested to see Oenomaus elevated to the role of Doctore and being removed from the roster of gladiators. The lovely Jaime Murray, who was last saw as Dexter's psychotic British girlfriend, joins the cast a Gaia this season's sexy, conniving, female infiltrator in the house of Batiatus. Sure the writing, blood and acting are over the top but it's Spartacus. It's like watching Cinemax with swords but without the guilt.


Portlandia

So what's a guy like Fred Armisen to do when he gets dumped by Peggy Olson? The answer of course is you go out and make a sketch comedy series for IFC. And if you're going to do that the logic partner would the the former guitarist for a now defunct all girl indie band, Carrie Brownstein. The first episode of Portlandia had a few laugh out loud moments and a few more that were right on the cusp. The adult hide and seek league and the opening musical number were by far my favorite sketches. The Steve Buscemi sketch was close but it took me have to the sketch to finally realize Fred Armisen was actually playing a middle aged woman instead of a middle aged hippy burned out man. Overall there were enough laughs to bring me back next week plus Kyle MacLachlan and Aubrey Plaza are special guests next week. I'm not going to miss that.