NZ-made Spartacus TV series returns as bloody and sex-driven as ever

Russell Brown

Columnist & features writer·New Zealand Listener·

3 Dec, 2025 05:00 PM2 mins to read

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From left, Jordi Webber (Tarchon), Graham McTavish (Korris), Nick E. Tarabay (Ashur), and Tenika Davis (Achillia). Image / Supplied

In most stories, decapitation would mark the end of a character arc. But here we are at the beginning of Spartacus: House of Ashur, in a new timeline where Ashur (Nick Tarabay) survived the confrontation on Mt Vesuvius in Spartacus: Vengeance and has been rewarded with his own gladiator ludus
to run, head still firmly attached to body.

Does it matter? Not really. For storytelling purposes, Ashur is a complex man, a villain who might not be all bad. The former errand boy to gladiator-master Batiatus still struggles to be accepted by the aristocracy, yet he is formidable in his own way. Especially now his gladiator chops have returned and he’s lost that pesky limp.

Besides, there are plenty more heads to be lopped off. And, as we see (possibly while peeking through our hands), the odd bobbing prosthetic penis to be forcibly removed from its owner by an interesting new character. The first few episodes also present skulls being crushed, a dwarf peeing on a fresh corpse and any amount of furious rutting. It does sound bad when you put it that way.

Twelve years on from the last instalment of Spartacus, series creator Stephen DeKnight hasn’t changed his ways. If anything, his writing (he calls it “Shakespeare meets Conan the Barbarian”) leans further into his basically made-up Latin syntax. Definite and indefinite articles are banished from dialogue (except when they’re not) and the use of the word “fucking” would make a New Jersey gangster blanch.

It’s all held together with literal world-building: it seems a point of pride with the producers that not a frame of this was shot on location, but in some warehouses in South Auckland. It’s cohesive and convincing, and a good earner for hundreds of Kiwi crew and cast members including Cameron Rhodes, Jordi Webber and Jamaica Vaughan, with Lucy Lawless guest starring as Lucretia from the original show.

Spartacus remains something you probably wouldn’t show your children or your granny. But it’s tremendous at being what it is.

Spartacus: House of Ashur streams on ThreeNow from Saturday, December 6.

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