This episode was the first thing I thought of when I watched 'The Viper and the Mountain' from Game of Thrones this season and everyone was hyping it as "BEST FIGHT SCENE EVAH!!!!!!"
So I sat down and rewatched 'Shadow Games' to refresh memory and thought "Dear GoT fans: really?"

Was surprised and delighted to see my wife fire up The Shield on Netflix of her own volition after listening to me go on for years about how awesome it was.
She finished the pilot, then promptly shelved S2 of Orange is the new Black to tear through the remainder of S1 in 3 days.
We start S2 tonight (provided she…

The last paragraph defines what separates The Shield from nearly every other serialized drama, even The Sopranos: It never ran from, nor tries to take back its actions. It's always "What happens next and what are the consequences of what I have done?"

I would buy this book.

This is a great scene, mainly because of the minimalism on display. No fat whatsoever. Of course, I freely admit to being biased as it's one of my personal Top 3 movies of all time.

Yes, I'm aware Top Gear is on Netflix. But, at least the ones i've seen on the US/Canadian Netflix feeds, they're the episodes that broadcast on BBC America/Canada (aka. edited for time and content), not the ones that are originally broadcast on BBC2.

The unedited versions of Top Gear would be nice. The ones broadcast on BBC Canada/America are like what watching Miami Vice or WKRP would be like if you stripped out all the music and cut out 1/5 of the show so you could fit in commercials.

All right. Let's get the quotes rolling, shall we?

'Revelations' does indeed start with Solonius's execution. One awesome scene out of many in that episode.

While we're paying tribute to 'Spartacus', I want to shout out again in regards to the unbelievably strong job Deknight and the rest have done regarding casting. They may not have been the most recognizable names, but by the Gods, they found the best ones for the parts again and again. Even when they had to recast the…

Regarding the games in this episode:
 Honouring Crixius was definitely part of it, but it was far more about maintaining the morale of the army as a whole, not to mention providing an outlet for pent-up anger against the Romans and grief over those that had been lost.
Look at how they found out that their split-off army…

This needs to be an extra on the inevitable TV Series box set… with the entire cast and crew singing at the top of their lungs.

Considering how many home runs they've hit in regards to casting over the course of the series (Nick Taraby as Ashur in particular) the fact that they've only really whiffed once in regards to Naevia is kind of remarkable.

Some random thoughts:

For me, The Bakersfield Expedition existed to have the audience laugh at the male leads, never with them. Some examples:

After the disaster that last week's episode was, what a swing in the other direction this one was.
After too many episodes of portraying Sheldon as an oblivious asshole, we finally get to see what's probably the most realized portrayal of him to date. I don't think he needs to be sympathetic to work as a character, but…

It's the little things about this show that I love so much.

Phil the Troll
At this point, between his reviews for White Collar and Burn Notice, I've come to the conclusion that Phil's being deliberately antagonistic in his reviews in order to spike page counts.
Keep up the good work, sir!