Xena and Hercules

Everyone knows ‘em. Not everyone loves ‘em. They each had their own show with vast measures of success, yet one show came from the other and there are only five episodes in which they star together. Confused as to who they are? Well, you shouldn’t be by now. You clicked on it to read this review didn’t you? We’re talking about the one and only Hercules with the other one and other only Xena. In their one and only self-titled shows.

With some awful witty (not awfully witty) repartee, throwaway one liners, ghastly computer animation, wooden acting and dodgy sets and costuming it’s easy to wonder at the immense popularity of this show. Yet, watching these five episodes I gathered a kind of underscoring of humour running within the unwritten context. The actors know it’s a dodgy show and they have fun with it regardless, perhaps knowing full well this isn’t Oscar or Emmy material and finding their satisfactions in that. From the first episode I admit I was a little standoffish, but by the fifth I was actually kind of weirdly attracted to it. I still knew all I knew about their dodginess and cheap production values, yet the unfailing good humour of the cast was quite endearing. I’m not saying I’m a fan by any stretch of the word, but I have seen these shows in a new light and think more of them now.

Executive producer Sam Raimi, who directed some of our favourite comic book films (Spider-Man, Darkman, The Quick and the Dead and the Evil Dead series among others) has applied his usual brand of over-the-toppishness here to good effect. The shows are quirky and simplistic, but most of all they’re fun and this is what proves to be the major drawcard. Yes, it’s a kid’s show, but adult viewers have been catered for with enough to keep them interested if they keep their eyes open.

One problem with this two disc set is a simple one and baffling as to why it was overlooked: the five episodes are played out of sequence, which was just plain confusing to a novice Herculean/Xenaphobe like me. (It might be easier to condense those names further... fans should now be called Hernians. Yeah, that’ll work.) Anyhow, I had to figure it out myself.

Episode Two: Judgement Day, should have been played last. The rest seem to be in order, so it isn’t that big a deal and the copyright year on the reverse was the biggest helper there, but even so, a little help from the studio might be nice.

Episode rundowns goeth like thus:

• Prometheus: Prometheus is the dude what gives humans their powers and emotions and stuff. When he’s captured we may lose our powers, so Hercules and Iolaus (his best pal) must join forces with Xena and Gabrielle (her best pal) to save the day for humans everywhere.
• Judgement Day: Hercules is married! During the honeymoon, his wife is murdered by Strife and Hercules is the prime suspect. Now, confused by peculiar dreams that suggest he killed her, Hercules must discover the truth before local villagers lynch him.
• The Warrior Princess: Iolaus falls for a mysterious stranger who is raising an army to fight some bad-ass dude. She turns him against Hercules and sets him up to die. Hercules must save Iolaus before he gets himself killed.
• The Gauntlet: Xena is cast out of her army after drawing the line during battle. Darphus, the new leader, is causing widespread chaos, and Xena must enlist Hercules to beat him.
• The Unchained Heart: Hercules and Xena pursue Darphus - recently raised from the dead – to defeat Ares’ evil plan of dominating the world.

Being shot for TV this is your classic 4:3 transfer without enhancement. Still, it looks okay and there aren’t really instances of artefacts or anything nasty like that. There are some noticeably grainy moments pretty frequently, but this still looks about as good as a telly transfer will generally look. Shadows, which are fairly frequent in these episodes, lose a little detail, but for the most part blacks are blacks. Try and ignore the woeful and cheap computer animation, which is thankfully not common.

Sounds of battle are always going to be a close call, but in this instance they come over alright. There are occasional synch issues here and there, but mostly things are okay. Xena’s theme song is probably the most annoying thing of all the audio. It pipes up every time she leaps into action with its Celtic singing and such. Then there’s that extra-specially annoying ‘Yiyiyiyiyi!’ every time she attacks a group of baddies.

However, the dialogue is mostly okay, although some of the clanging lines are delivered too clearly as is the audible silence that follows (though that was just in my living room). Some of the lines are just clumsy writing, but they have been written to appeal to kids, so I gotta remember that. Allover though, the sound is like TV sound is.

Nup. Not a lick.

From my initial misgivings I have retreated from battle to regroup and surrender to entertainmentnessness. Sure it’s cheap (check out Xena’s bent-in-action sword in The Unchained Heart at 33:39) and it’s wooden (check out any of the villager’s carts!) but it’s TV fantasy and that’s all it's ever claimed to be. A lot of fun, whether your into it or just like making fun of crappy shows, and easy to watch, particularly after you accept the storyline for what it is and the actors enjoying their work.