The first episode of Spartacus - Blood and Sand was bad enough to keep me from watching any more of the season for over a year.  I would never have recommended the show to anyone based on that episode.  It seemed an over-the-top blood fetishist's dream version of the movie 300, with little excuse of drama or story to go between gore and titties.

Recently I watched episode 2, and then promptly the 11 episodes that followed it.  It was like a different series.  Oh it still had ridiculous amounts of blood and naked bodies (full frontal of both genders is pretty common here), but somehow it got interesting.

About all the series shares with other Spartacus stories is that he was a slave bought for gladiatorial purposes and eventually leads an uprising.  This series is all about his time as a gladiator.  He meets different sorts of men in his Ludus (a gladiatorial house owned and operated by a Roman family), but mostly those who honour and respect the gladiator brotherhood.  This of course sets him at odds since all Spartacus wants is to be free to see his wife again, and to screw over those who contributed to his current situation.

For all the spectacles which inundate this series, the characters are surprisingly rich and understandable.  Everybody reacts in a believable manner, and the story is well crafted with deceit and double crosses that to each character would feel justified.

Unfortunately, you have to watch the first episode so you know who everyone is and the necessary back story.  The rest of the season is your reward for passing that trial.

This brings us to season 2: Spartacus - Gods of the Arena.  Apparently the actor who plays Spartacus (Andy Whitfield http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1813878/) got hit with Cancer and couldn't do another season.  The writers "improvised" a prequel season with Gods of the Arena, and WOW what a job!

Season 2 tells us about how Crixus came to be champion, how Ashur came to be the gimpy weasel he is, how Batiatus (the Dominus of the Ludus) and Solonius became bitter rivals, and even how the gladiator who throws fishing nets ended up doing so.  All the characters you either like or hate in Season 1 get their back stories explained in Season 2, and it's done so well that even though the audience KNOWS the outcome, we're still glued to the show.

Seeing how these characters became who they were in Season 1 was thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended.  Of course there's still all the blood, gore and sex laced throughout the show, but it seems less focal.  In fact, it was the less bloody death scenes that (in my opinion) carried more weight.

Season 2 makes Season 1 better, but make sure you watch them both in the order they aired.

The Good: Surprising depth of character, and the second season has great plot weaving
The Bad: There's a forced sex scene in the second season that is central to some of the story, and unfortunately it's unlikely the woman would "like" it by the end.  To make this more bearable, I imagine she had desires for the guy beforehand that she was keeping private.
The Ugly: Season 1 Episode 1.  Unlike the rest of the episodes, this one is utterly predictable and you really don't give a crap about the characters (yet).