Television series
Spartacus
STARZ's take on the Thracian slave revolt is gladiatorial pulp elevated by genuine craft: blood sprays in slow motion, sex and violence share equal screen time, and beneath all the excess sits a surprisingly sharp story about dignity, betrayal and revolution. It's operatic, unapologetically trashy, and builds into something properly moving. Watch it for spectacle, stay for the ending that actually earns its tears.
If you liked this
Rome2005
HBO's Rome gives you the same corridors of power and casual brutality but with a novelist's patience for politics and marriage as much as swords. Denser, funnier, and just as filthy underneath the togas.
But Two seasons and gone, cancelled before its time, so it ends abruptly and leaves you wanting the show it never got to become.

Gladiator2000
The film that made arena combat cinematic again. Same wounded-warrior-seeks-vengeance engine, condensed into two hours of Ridley Scott's grandest, most emotionally direct filmmaking.
But You'll have seen it, probably more than once, and its DNA is already all over Spartacus so it might feel familiar rather than fresh.

Vikings2013
Swap the sand for snow and slavery for Norse raiding, but keep the tribal politics, brutal set pieces and characters who earn genuine loyalty. Michael Hirst clearly learned some lessons here.
But It sags badly after the first few seasons and the historical liberties get wilder as it goes, testing patience built up early.

The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Spartacus1960
Same historical rebellion, same title even, but told as a restrained studio epic rather than pulpy spectacle. Watching both back to back shows exactly what fifty years of television did to the same story.
Kubrick's version of the same rebellion, shot in widescreen Technicolor grandeur with Kirk Douglas radiating stoic conviction instead of rage. It's the respectable ancestor to the STARZ show's id.
But Long, stately, and morally tidy where the series is deliberately messy; the pacing belongs to a very different era of cinema.

More like this (8)
Black Sails2014no page yet
Pirates instead of gladiators, but the same STARZ appetite for violence, sex and slow-burn political scheming among people society has already discarded. Underrated and beautifully written.
But Slow first season that many people bail on before the show finds its extraordinary gears in seasons two through four.
3002007
Pure stylised carnage, all abs and slow motion and roaring speeches, this is Spartacus's aesthetic turned up to its most extreme, unapologetic volume.
But It's all style, almost no interiority, and the jingoistic machismo hasn't aged particularly gracefully.

The Last Kingdom2015
Warriors caught between empires, brotherhood forged in battle, and a hero who never quite belongs anywhere. Cheaper looking but sincerely felt, with terrific action choreography.
But Visibly lower budget than Spartacus, and the storytelling is more straightforwardly heroic, less morally tangled.

Troy2004
Ancient world spectacle with oiled bodies, doomed love and battlefield glory, built around a hero wrestling with fate rather than free will. Brad Pitt fully commits.
But Sanded down for a mainstream audience, so the gods are gone and the mythic weirdness is traded for straightforward blockbuster momentum.

Britannia2018
Druids, Roman invaders and tribal warfare rendered with genuine strangeness and style, this scratches the same ancient-world-violence itch with a weirder, more hallucinogenic edge.
But Deliberately bizarre and slow in stretches, it won't satisfy anyone wanting Spartacus's relentless narrative drive.

Ben-Hur1959
Another enslaved man clawing his way back through Roman society toward vengeance, told with old Hollywood's full theatrical grandeur and that legendary chariot race.
But Three and a half hours long, stately and reverent where Spartacus is feral, and its Christian framing may not land for everyone.

I, Claudius1976
Strip away every drop of blood and you're left with the pure engine underneath Spartacus, ambition, betrayal and survival among people who own each other. This is that engine running on wit instead of violence.
BBC studio-bound and theatrical, this is Roman political viciousness performed almost entirely through dialogue and glances rather than swordplay, with Derek Jacobi and Sian Phillips devastating in every scene.
But Videotaped on obvious sets with zero action, its pleasures are entirely verbal, which will bore anyone drawn to Spartacus for the fights.

Vinland Saga2019
Same arc as Spartacus, a man forged by slavery and violence who has to decide what freedom actually costs, but told in an entirely different genre with an ending that argues the opposite lesson about revenge.
An anime about a boy raised for vengeance among raiders and slavers, who slowly discovers that revenge is a trap rather than a destiny. Gorgeously animated, morally serious, unexpectedly gentle underneath the brutality.
But It's anime, subtitled or dubbed, and the pace is meditative where Spartacus is propulsive; some episodes barely feature combat at all.

People
Cast
Writing
- Steven S. DeKnightCreator
Production
- Aaron LamAssociate Producer
- Charles KnightAssociate Producer
- Moira GrantAssociate Producer
- Paul GrinderAssociate Producer
- Aaron HelbingCo-Producer
- Aaron LamCo-Producer
- Brent FletcherCo-Producer
- Charles KnightCo-Producer
- Jed WhedonCo-Producer
- Maurissa TancharoenCo-Producer
- Seamus Kevin FaheyCo-Producer
- Todd HelbingCo-Producer
- Daniel KnaufConsulting Producer
- Grady HallConsulting Producer
- Jeffrey BellConsulting Producer
- Joshua DonenExecutive Producer
- Rob TapertExecutive Producer
- Sam RaimiExecutive Producer
- Steven S. DeKnightExecutive Producer
Recommended by
Game of Thrones, Gladiator, Vikings, Troy, Britannia, Barbaren, 300, Gladiator II