Spartacus: House of Ashur Slices Back With Seduction and Savagery

Starz has a type. Whether it is Spartacus, Power, or Outlander, the network thrives on prestige-meets-soap, where high drama and flying limbs live in the same scene. Spartacus: House of Ashur leans into that sweet spot hard. Sometimes it works. Sometimes I wish it traded a little of the melodrama for actual grit. But there is no denying it moves.

So what is House of Ashur, exactly?

It is not a straight prequel or sequel. Think of it as a myth-flavored alternate timeline that rewrites the board to bring back a fan favorite. Last time we saw Nick E. Tarabay as Ashur, the scheming ex-gladiator got his head removed by Lucy Lawless's Lucretia. Here, Lucretia literally yanks him back from the underworld and returns him to the land of the living, good as new. No limp. No scars. Just a second shot and a lot of unfinished business.

Back in Capua, Ashur now runs the ludus, the gladiator training school where he once bled and hustled. He is flush with money and influence and ropes in Crassus to bankroll the operation. Spotting a fortune in the making, he zeroes in on Achillia (Tenika Davis), a lethal, enigmatic fighter who immediately becomes his prized asset. To shape the stable, Ashur hires Korris (Graham McTavish) as head trainer, a grizzled veteran who is not shy about a battle scar or ten. Having a woman as a marquee combatant sets off its own scandal in this world, and the show milks that tension for all it is worth.

Tonally, picture Cobra Kai by way of ancient Rome with a dash of that back-in-the-habit comeback energy. Only, you know, with more dismemberment.

The ensemble also includes Ivana Baquero, Jamaica Vaughan, Jackson Gallagher, Jaime Slater, and Jordi Webber alongside Tarabay, McTavish, and Davis. Steven S. DeKnight, who built the original Spartacus, returns as creator and showrunner.

How it plays: blood, sex, and a lot of capital-D Drama

The show is unapologetically extreme. Bodies break, organs spill, and the first two episodes feel engineered to test your tolerance for gore. The sex is just as amped. DeKnight pushes the needle so far that House of Ashur often flips between full-on carnage and sudsy scheming without much connective tissue. It is either swinging a sword or fanning itself, not always both at once.

There is a clear appetite for Game of Thrones-style power plays, and the series keeps tying those political gambits to romantic angles. Sometimes that mix lands, sometimes it feels like the palace intrigue is there to tee up the next tryst. On the plus side, the dialogue goes for operatic Roman heat with a Shakespeare-adjacent cadence that becomes oddly addictive once you settle into it.

Performance-wise, Tenika Davis pops. If you clocked her scene-stealing turns in Cabinet of Curiosities or It: Welcome to Derry, you will not be surprised she owns the screen here. McTavish is exactly the kind of seasoned, battle-worn presence you want barking orders in a blood-soaked arena, and that dynamic with Davis becomes a key engine for the season.

Does it work?

Mostly, yeah. House of Ashur is never boring. It is a glossy, pulpy rush that scratches the sword-and-sandal itch with a vengeance. If you want layered storytelling and top-tier production value, temper expectations: the plotting rarely hits the complexity of its peers, and the digital backdrops can be pretty obvious. But as a lean, rowdy return to this world, it is a very easy binge and will absolutely satisfy existing Spartacus diehards while pulling in curiosity-watchers.

I screened all ten episodes, and while I kept wishing for a few more moments of genuine grit between the operatic flourishes, the show’s velocity and shamelessness are its own kind of charm.

Release

Spartacus: House of Ashur streams exclusively on Starz starting December 5. All ten episodes were reviewed.