Warning: This interview refers to major spoilers from the last several episodes of Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
You can't say we weren't warned: in the promotion for the new Starz show Spartacus: Blood and Sand, the actors and creators all stressed that this was unlike anything else on television — that it would be sexier, with both female and male nudity, and also much more violent.
We knew about the sexy part right from the beginning. But two weeks ago, we got another reminder of just how violent the show is when Barca, a gay gladiator, was unceremoniously killed after a misunderstanding with the unforgiving Batiatus.
This last week, in response, Barca's partner Pietros, took his own life.
The two plots twists, which we wrote about here, have been the subject of much debate on the site.
But we wanted to know exactly what the producers of the show were thinking, so we called up co-creator Steven DeKnight, who is also the show's executive producer and head writer. DeKnight has also worked on, and written for, Smallville, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, and Angel.
The interview took place last week, before the episode in which Pietros kills himself had aired.
