Okay, this is the one new drama I’ve been looking forward this fall, mainly because my unlimited Kathryn Morris love.
No surprise that CBS unveils yet another crime drama. You’ve got CSI, CSI: Miami, Navy CIS, and now Cold Case. I’d say it’s almost overload, but I hope that Cold Case gets a chance.
So far, the pilot episode is getting mixed reviews from me. Kathyrn Morris is hot, and I like the attitude she takes with her character. A lot of early reviews made her character sound so dour and depressed. But she can flirt with a suspect with the best of them, playfully and artfully.
But the plotline is so L&O “ripped from the headlines.” Yeah, it’s the pilot episode, so they wanted it to stand out. But I hope the production episodes get away from the entire “ripped from the headlines” thing.
By the way, the upcoming Philip K. Dick-based movie “Paycheck” (staring Baffleck and directed by John Woo), the hottest blonde in the movie isn’t going to be Uma Thurman. It’s going to be Kathryn Morris (who also starred as Tom Cruise’s wife in the most recent Philip K. Dick-based movie, “Minority Report.”)
Did Xena ever have a boyfriend? I never really watched the show, but catching a few minutes now and then flipping channels, I was always amused by the veiled hints at lesbianism. Was the show popular with lesbians and eternally adolescent men?
Wasn’t she that crusading warrior who tried to steal Gabrielle from Xena?[/quote]
Indeed she was. Zealot of All That Is Good And Righteous (as defined by the voices she heard): Najara. In the episodes Crusader and The Convert.
Quite the love triangle.
You probably haven’t noticed, but I’m actually quite a big fan of Xena.
Yes, Xena has had boyfriends, and indeed had a child with one of them (who sorta defied genetics, but that’s for another day). Actually quite a few boyfriends. Off the top of my head: Ares, Hercules, Borias, Caesar, Odin (this just gets sillier and sillier)… then just Marcus, I think. She did have a bit of a fling with Hercules sidekick Iolaus at one time, too.
Most of them in the past, Hercules was a season one thing. She always had some chemistry with Ares, who always tried to win her back, which unfortunately led to the creative team having a stroke or something and creating the dreaded season five of Xena, where they sort of wanted to Ares and Xena to hook up more obviously with Ares and Gabrielle with Joxer. It wasn’t popular, and sucked.
The show was a hit among lesbians, but also a lot of other women, since Xena, despite appearances to the contrary, is a very strong female character, the likes of which is rarely seen on TV (I would say never), and rather deeper and just plain better than its competition.
I think I actually blocked out… that character from my memory when making my list.
And yes, Gabrielle was married to Perdicus in season two, blessedly killed the morning after by Callisto in a jealous rage. Uh, I meant “in sadistic malice”, really.
Hades? Hades was just a pit stop. My, the number of lands of the dead they visited… sheesh.
Actually, they weren’t resurrected that often, it just seems that way. If you discount the ones that resolved themselves in the same episode, it just happens… thrice, sort of. First time, Gabrielle isn’t actually dead. Second time, they’re definitely dead, but in a fit of bad judgment, they actually went to heaven and then were revived by the loathsome Christ character and third time was a 25 year sleep sort of thing. Wait, actually four, I had forgotten Xena’s first death and ambrosic revival.
That’s just .75 times a season, hardly anything! Unless you count when they die and then revived in the same episode, of course.
Xena tried to have a fling with Iolaus in order to get to Hercules and kill them or whatever, in the Hercules series when she was introduced. That’s why they still had a passing familiarity in the Xena series.
I think the show was strong for lesbians because it had strong female characters (and Gabrielle was evolving into one), then the creators got wind of it all and started to throw bits of meat at the lesbian audience, a lot of entices and other things to hint at the fact that they were a semi-couple or occasional lovers. I only watched a bit of the last few seasons but I still had this impression, even during the atrocious Caesar episodes/season.
I liked her outfit when she went to China or whatever at the end, but found that it was all pretty pointless.
Overall… entertaining though throughly awful show. If young girls only use that to learn history than we’re gonna have a lot of problems in about ten years.
Actually, those were the good episodes. It got worse. The consensus of season quality is something like this: 2,3,1,4,6,5.
They first met Caesar in season 2, but he managed to be in all the following seasons except 5. There were actually two Chinese occasions, the generally considered good (though flawed, like most of the show) episodes in season three and the atrocious ones in season 5.
Overall… entertaining though throughly awful show. If young girls only use that to learn history than we’re gonna have a lot of problems in about ten years.
I don’t agree, obviously. And I started to like the liberties they took with history, since what is true in history, anyway? And the source material is still there, after all.
It’s not a kids’ show, and it’s not PBS. Far greater insults to history and science have been made to a far greater audience. That the presentation is rather campy doesn’t make it worse. I’d almost say it was better because it’s so over the top that it’s very unlikely that someone would take it as truth. Some movies about WW2 or something are probably worse shameful manipulations to make a good Hollywood stories.
My enjoyment of the series is heightened by the liberal use of historical and mythical figures, and I would not be surprised if a lot of people have gotten interested in the myths and histories presented and gone to find “proper” knowledge. I would also agree with those (there are several) that have commented that the presentation of the Greek gods is better than most, portraying them in a modern fashion, but very much in the same spirit as the Greek tales.
Now, if you had claimed that some parts were insulting to Christianity, I’d be inclined to agree. Or to pacifism.
You can’t have a campy presentation and then go off and crucify folks. That’s just plain wrong.
Historical liberties (poetic license) that are shameful in any era is a bad choice. Good movies do it tastefully (SPR) or in such a way where it fits into a larger picture (Kelly’s Heroes) easily and convincingly. Xena (and Hercules) just throws it in your face and asks you to suck it down.
Which is not to say it’s not an enjoyable show, I watched it for about three seasons I guess (according to your Gabrielle costume/wonderbra timeline above) but it became a bit too sickening.
