Spartacus bursts back onto our screens with a Vengeance, opening with a characteristically bloody, bullet-time battle sequence. The difference this time is that the action no longer happens inside the arena or ludus (gladiator training school) but out in the open, against Romans. Spartacus has led a band of slaves to revolt, and they have all broken out into the wider world. The other glaring difference is Spartacus himself. Following the passing of Andy Whitfield who played Spartacus with such aplomb in the first season, replacement Liam McIntyre has sizeable shoes to fill.

It was never going to be easy watching the role, which Whitfield embodied so completely, being filled by somebody else. I embarked on the first episode fully open to accepting McIntyre, hoping that he would succeed in portraying the tortured, angry yet honour-bound and compassionate Spartacus that we saw in Whitfield. To an extent, probably to the greatest extent possible, he has succeeded, but it is just is not the same. To his credit, McIntyre hasn’t attempted what would have been a doomed attempt at imitating Whitfield’s performance, yet has inherited a degree of his solemnity and his essence. He is good, but I’m waiting to see if he truly has the chops to carry the entire series on his back as did his predecessor.

All of the other characters to have survived from the first season are the same, which makes the change that bit more incongruous. However, all performances were up to scratch. The drama was maintained at a reasonable amplitude throughout, the good old poetically vulgar dialogue on point. Fans of the first two series will be familiar with the show’s unreservedly explicit nature, whether that be of a violent or sexual one, and this episode won’t disappoint. Particularly gratuitous is a sequence where Spartacus and comrades, in pursuit of Crixus‘ lost love Naevia, raid a brothel; you can imagine the kinds of scenes.

We feel the machinations of Roman society as a whole closing in on the principal characters in this episode. The fugitive slaves face the threat of clashing with the actual Roman army. Glabus is feeling the political pressure to bring Spartacus down once and for all. New political opponents are introduced, with some nice foreshadowing of future quarrels to come. Illythia (played by Viva Bianca and one of my favourite characters to watch onscreen) is faced with back-from-the-dead Lucretia, whom her husband has chosen to keep alive as a symbol of resistance against Spartacus. She isn’t given much scope to shine at her vindictive best in this episode, but I don’t doubt that that is coming. Lucy Lawless‘ traumatised and bewildered Lucretia hopefully won’t stay so for long, and just like that, we have a whole load of vengeance just dying to be acted out.

One of the greatest strengths of the past two series was their ability to provide, without fail, a shock ending to each and every episode, marking astonishing twists and turns in the plots. The end of the first episode of this series, sadly, does not provide quite the same jaw-dropping impact. I won’t give it away, but it was reasonably predictable and, though somewhat shocking, hardly sensational. However, though this new series feels a little more muted in comparison to the triumphant previous two, it is by no means a disappointment. It is remarkable how the creators manage to make so watchable and seducing a series based on a story to which we all know the ending, thanks to a combination of great writing, show-stopping action sequences and charismatic performances. I rest assured that there are yet more shocks and thrills to come. A promising start, let’s hope the pace only continues to accelerate.