How to do spoiler tags. Spoiler But put an = sign after the 1st spoiler in the brackets then write the spoiler you need to hide and end with another set of brackets with another spoiler word Spoiler BUT make sure you put a / before that 2nd spoiler or it won't disappear. Spoiler: Xena Gabrielle: Have you seen Xena? Tall.. beautiful, piercing blue eyes, throws a mean right hook... (sees someone walk by who's been punched recently) looks like she's throw it already."
Athens City Academy of the Performing Bards (Xena) - A clip show where the new material is focused on Gabrielle. Skipped. A Fistful of Dinars (Xena) - This was ok. Xena has to stop some bad guys who are hunting for treasure from finding ambrosia and becoming gods. A pretty standard adventure without much to talk about.
And ya didn't miss much. Gabby meets Homer (who lived in the 8th Century BC) as a young aspiring bard. But one of the other bards tells the story of Spartacus' slave revolt (73-71 BC) as if it's an old tale. All this one episode after the siege of Troy (c.1240 BC). About a month later, an episode of Hercules had him create the first Olympic games (776 BC).
I'm fussy about things like taking various elements of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, adding thinly-disguised Christianity, throwing it into a blender, and calling it a dramatic story. @Forbin: Wait'll they zip through Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula in a matter of months.
The Fire Down Below (Hercules) - This was another good episode. Salmoneus strikes it rich, and in the process angers Hera. Hercules has to save Salmoneus from Hra, an old king, and Nemesis. Salmoneus was great, and the story was entertaining. Pyro wasn't an amazing monster for Herules to fight, but it was an interesting fight at the end. OVerall, this was another enjoyable hrcules episode. Warrior...Princess (Xena) - This was a good episode, but the premise is kind of goofy. Considering the fact that the Hercules/Xena franchise has already had 2 Xena lookalikes, having a third (on purpose this time) is stretching it. It was interesting to see Xena interact with the lookalike. Seeing Diana try to be Xena was entertaining, and even Gabrielle managed to be useful and didn't annoy me. I liked how they used the idea for a Xena episode, but hopefully it the last one. They've joked about it, and did it well. I just hope they've gotten it out of their system, it could become a running gag if they're not careful, and I think that would just be annoying. They're right at the edge where I'll accept the lookalikes without getting bothered by the why/how, I hope they don't push that over the edge. Having said that, I'm sure I'll now soon be seeing Lucy Lawless starring in an episode where they find a village full of Xena lookalikes
According to the thread title spoilers are allowed, and it's not like anyone is posting entire episode synopses.
Well, to be fair, I figured the title of the thread would be interpreted as (once people started reading the thread) a warning that I'd be spoilering the episodes I was talking about as I go, not that I wanted people to come in and start discussing specifics about future episodes or anything Its not a huge deal, but if people do decide they want to talk about big spoilers I'd appreciate some spoiler tags or at least some restraint. I have been trying to skip past things that seem too spoilery, and things like Forbin's comment about someone called Meg isn't a big deal, but generally speaking a bit of discretion is appreciated.
Mortal Beloved (Xena) - This was a good episode. Xena has to go fix the underworld, and ends up meeting her former love, Marcus. They defeat a psycho who stole Hades's Helm of Invisibility, and had used it to put good people into the bad part of the underworld and bad guys in the good part. In the end, Marcus (who had gone to the bad part, even though he died doing a good thing) managed to earn a spot in the good part of the underworld. I liked this episode, although maybe they shouldn't have had Xena have someone she loves die and then have them visit in the underworld, since Hercules did it first and it was more powerful there. Still, it was done well here, and overall it was a good episode.
It also sort of begs the question, if she can get in and out of the Underworld whenever it strikes her fancy, why is she mourning her brother in the pilot? Why doesn't she just go visit him?
Well, you'd think Hades would be a bit annoyed if mortals started coming in for no reason. He's had a bad track record of getting defeated by non gods in the series so far, but he's still a god. Xena got in because the underworld was in crisis, as did Hercules the few times he's been in there. Just because Xena knows a way to the underworld doesn't mean she'd be allowed to use it. She may be the warrior princess, but she's not going to risk angering Hades without a very good reason. He could easily kill her if he decided to, and while I don't think he'd do that without reason, he's not going to let a mortal have consistent access to the underworld. There also isn't anything to stop Hades from closing that way into the underworld if its abused. Few people could swim down and enter without dying, which is probably why its not closed. If Xena abused it, he could probably close it.
The Royal Couple of Thieves (Xena) - This was a great episode. Bruce Campbell is as awesome as always, and I liked how he interacted with Xena. The fight between Xena and the skilled assassin was pretty entertaining.I also liked the reveal of what the weapon actually was. Overall, this episode was just great, I really have nothing bad to say about it. One thing I've been noticing about Xena is that, even in bad situations, she always seems excited to get into a fight or just trouble in general, almost always having a grin on her face. Its interesting, and different to how someone like hercules generally approaches a fight. From a character perspective its probably done to put fear in her opponents (a really skilled warriorcoming at you with a huge grin on her face is probably a bit demoralizing ), and I think its a nice touch.
The Prodigal (Xena) - This was a Gabrielle episode with almost no Xena. I only watched the first part with Xena, and the very end. Gabrielle's been getting better, but I'm still not willing to watch a Gabrielle episode that has almost no Xena, especially when the concept of the episode is "Tease fans with Gabrielle going away". Altared states (Xena) - Screw this episode. Its very concept is stupid. We know the greek gods exist, we've been seeing them since the first TV movie. Using the Isaac/Abraham story is just freaking idiotic. I swear, if Xena rescues a carpenter named "Esus" from being crucified in a later episode, I'll just turn the show off. Not because of being offended (I'm not atheist or agnostic, but I'm not anywhere near religious enough to get offended by jokes or stories using characters from christianity/the bible), but because this whole thing is stupid and not why I'm watching the show. Its supposed to haveGREEK MYTHOLOGY. I don't know if they just like taking potshots at modern religion or what, but its super distracting and doesn't fit with the show. I'm trying to watch some people go on adventures and kick the bad guys butt, not "Oh, look at what the stupid/evil religious people who totally aren't christians are doing now". I'm hoping it doesn't come up again, but I've been mildly spoilered enough to know it does. I have the first 3 seasons of Xena, and I'll just skip any if they try to do something like this again. Also, while I was looking up info on this episode, I ended up exploring the Xena wiki enough to (accidentally) learn about Eve. Well, its a good thing I've already decided to not waste money on Xena once Orci/Kurtzman started working on it, otherwise I might have accidentally bought season 5 eventually and completely lost my mind I'm liking the show right now, and I think it will get better in the next two seasons I have, but it really seems like it just jumps the shark eventually.
Xena jumps the shark every other week!! I wouldn't skip whole seasons. There are lots of gems throughout the whole series.
Well, I don't plan to skip seasons, I plan to (at most) only go to season 4, then stop. I don't intend to see the Orci/Kurtzman era of the show, which happens to start at season 5. The fact that the show seems to jump the shark (while also starting to pound you over the head with "subtext" based off of things I've read about the last two seasons ) are just more reasons to support a decision I already made as soon as I learned the Transformers 2 writers basically take over Xena (and Hercules I think) Now, if Xena (in the next 2 seasons) becomes a show I absolutely love and can't get enough of (as opposed to just being an enjoyable adventure show that I like), I might change that decision, but the show is really going to have to make me a super fan to change my mind about the last two seasons.