Movies We Dig | Film, Antiquity and Everything in Between – Details, episodes & analysis

Ready your quardriga and place your bets as we race to the finish of Movies We Dig Season 4! We end the season with the most recent series depicting ancient Rome, Peacock's Those About to Die. Oddly enough, there's not a single Julio-Claudian in sight. That's right, new imperial family=new opportunities to plot and scheme your way to the top! And if anyone can pull it off, it's Ramsey Bol...excuse us, its Tenax and company. It's time to "Rise or Die!" (sigh). Anyone else getting a strong sense of déjà vu here?

And whenever we see a gladiator, you know we have the call in our good friend and Roman spectacle specialist, Alexandra Sills! Does a show about Roman entertainment manage to entertain a modern audience? Let's find out!

Want to learn more about gladiators in modern media? Then be sure to check out Alexandra’s webpage, writing, social media, and much more at https://linktr.ee/alexandrasills.

Rome wasn't founded in a season of television, but you can watch it on Tubi. Joined by super-special guests and experts of archaic Rome, Dr. Peta Greenfield and Dr. Fiona Radford (aka The Partial Historians), we dig into the first season of Romulus (2020), an Italian historical drama retelling the founding of Rome. Familicide, divine epiphanies, pre-agricultural wolf cults, eyeball-poking-masks, this show has everything. It's also the only piece of television (to our knowledge) spoken entirely in Archaic Latin. We also did the whole episode in Archaic Latin too.

You can find out more about the Partial Historians on their website and listen to their show on most streaming services. Pre-order their new book, Your Cheeky Guide to the Roman Empire, now!

What happens when a bunch of gladiators break out of a ludus? They loot villas, burn down an arena, and party with some Germans, that's what! And all in the name of lov... I mean "VENGEANCE!" The ladies of MWD are joined by special return guest, Christina Hotalen, to discuss the second season of Starz's Spartacus. This season might be the most fun of them all! Now if certain characters would just stay dead...

If you want to check out Christina's work, both academic and otherwise, use this link: https://linktr.ee/infestissima

Present ears for listening and broach subject! Joined by our special guest doctore, author and host of Let's Talk About Myths, Baby!, Liv Albert, we strip down to our subligacula to break down the prequel series of the Spartacus franchise: Gods of the Arena. Hear us discuss this show's hyper-stylized cocktail of blood, sweat and sex. Opinions vary but we're all in agreement that this show does not do anything half-measure.

The ladies decided to have a good ol' Girls' Night! And what better series to discuss than the first season of Starz's Spartacus? With its Zack Snyder aesthetic, impressive gladiatorial fights, and sad attempt to include romance, where could we go wrong? Joining in is our resident Roman spectacle specialist, Alexandra Sills, to help us distill the true essence of Blood and Sand...which is apparently "Tits and swords!" Joking aside, there is much to admire about this show. And no, we don't mean all the gladiators' abs. Well, not just their abs.

You can find Alexandra’s webpage, writing, social media and much much more at https://linktr.ee/alexandrasills

Find out what we're all about! Please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe if you like what you hear and follow us on social media. Thanks for listening!

Girls can be warlords too! To celebrate Women's History Month we're looking back at the 90's cult classic series Xena: Warrior Princess. Joined by super special warrior-guest Amy Pistone, we carve up this show's sparagmatic approach to antiquity, storytelling, fan-fiction, feminism, queer representation and all things 90's. ***INSERT XENA WAR CRY***

After completion of the Disney+ Percy Jackson series, the MWD crew thought it would be a good(?) idea to revisit the original film with new perspectives and participants. Has time improved our overall view of the film? Maybe the better question to ask is which of the hosts end up hating this film the most. Grab your magical pens with the same level of skepticism as Lerman's aged-up Percy as we delve into this quintessentially 2010s young adult film. And be sure to avert your eyes when Medusa shows up! Or when Grover decides to go pantsless.

And a special thanks to Hannah Bazinaw for her participation and assistance in covering the Percy Jackson series! You made for an excellent psychopomp:)

We wrap up our in-depth analysis on Disney+'s newest adaptation of Rick Riordan's series, Percy Jackson and The Olympians! Joined by special guest and PJ-expert, Hannah Bazinaw, we review our final thoughts on this series now that it's wrapped. What about this show did we love? What did we hate? what did we love to hate? Get it here, as we talk family trauma, hero's journeys and when actually was the golden age of television (hint: it's True Blood).

Season 1 of Percy Jackson and The Olympians comes to an end. All deals are completed; the traitor is revealed; and our trio is headed off on their next ventures (while giving Disney a shameless plug). Special guest Laura Porto joins Christie to discuss the good and bad of the season finale. While the episode mostly ends on a high note of Percy reuniting with his mom, we still can't quite shake the "ick" feeling the final scene gave us. Here's hoping season 2 leads to some monster slaying we'll be happy to see!