From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V9 #7 Reply-To: chakram-refugees@smoe.org Sender: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk chakram-refugees-digest Thursday, January 21 2010 Volume 09 : Number 007 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] "First Take" from Sparty Chicago Preview [iferae@aol.c] [chakram-refugees] RE Spartacus ["Cheryl Ande" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:17:40 EST From: iferae@aol.com Subject: [chakram-refugees] "First Take" from Sparty Chicago Preview I went to the Chicago preview of Sparty's premier ep tonight for three main reasons: it was free, to see Lucy and decide if it was worth giving the devil (Comcast) more money to get Starz. (I blame Lucy for my getting premium cable in the first place, to catch her on BSG, Curb Your Enthusiasm, etc.) The free part worked out well. I was among about 200 others filling the smallish theater. We got a complimentary bag of popcorn, drink and choice of candy (yaay Twizzlers!) Oh, and a T-shirt. Red, of course. No photos. "You are destined for great and unfortunate things" on the front, Sparty logo and sell on the back. No "what did you think" questionnaires, which was strange but fine by me. I saw way too little of Lucy, but lots of familiar faces from Herc, Xena and Legend. A fair amount of skin, which I quickly got used to. Overall tasteful nude make-outs between Sparty and the wife. Teases of goings-on between others. (Most of the "blink and you'll miss it" scenes already available on-line). Fantasylike landscaping, which -- though striking-- was a little weird when you're used to seeing NZ's natural beauty. Dramatic and movie caliber music (of course). Not much sand this time around, but lots and lots and lots and lots of blood and severed body parts. If someone had squeezed a pimple (thankfully no one did) it would've shot a geyser of red in slo mo that seemed to come right at you, splatter against the air, then blanket practically everything in sight. There was surprisingly little reaction from the audience -- mainly a chuckle or two at the rare humor or "hmmm, they actually showed that woman's 'down there'" intakes of breath. Thing is, I didn't really give a rat's behind about the characters or their political jousting. The primary human touch (if you can call it that) was watching Sparty slice, dice and spit blood. I imagine it will compare impressively with the best of those realistic video games. Except you can't control anything that happens. It was certainly visually unique and stunning. But if most of the characters are as cold-blooded as initially portrayed, I'm probably not a good candidate for feeling compensated by hot sex or ubiquitous gore. As for the Lucy sightings, I didn't feel the same intrigue about or sense of the character as I have with other roles. I suppose that'll happen along the way. I'd love Sparty to live up to its hype. They obviously put a lot of work into it. Certainly other reviewers urge giving it a chance. At this point, though, I'm leaning toward relying on my tech savvy friends to figure ways for me to catch eps as I can without paying Comcast another penny. - -- Ife ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:19:54 -0500 From: "Cheryl Ande" Subject: [chakram-refugees] RE Spartacus "So Starz, Tapert and Lawless are going the sex and history cable TV route. I'm afraid it will be as far below The Tudors as The Tudors was below Rome. Boeotian" Why do you assume that? Too much sex? Rome was a very sexy place so how can you do a story about Rome without sex. Do you assume history will be damaged but let's be frank we know almost nothing about Spartacus or the people around him prior to his revolt so TPTB can't do as much damage to history as was done in either Rome or the Tudors. CherylA ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ End of chakram-refugees-digest V9 #7 ************************************