Category: TV Reviews

Death in Chains – Director: Charles Siebert/Writers: Babs Greyhosky, Adam Armus, Nora Kay Foster

This one starts with King Sisyphus preparing to welcome a very special guest to his castle … Celesta, the embodiment of Death. Sisyphus pissed Zeus off, so he sent Celesta to claim Sisyphus’s soul, but Sisyphus isn’t ready to go without a fight. He tricks Celesta into sitting down and captures her in a chair that has manacles hidden in the arms. Continue reading “Xena Reviews: Season 1, Episode 9”

Prometheus – Director: Stephen L. Posey/Writer: R.J. Stewart

This one starts with Xena and Gabrielle’s camp being attacked by bounty hunters early in the morning. Xena takes care of the assailants (with Gabi sleeping right through the fight), but one of them gets a knife in the throat from his own guy. Xena does an emergency tracheotomy and she and Gabi take the guy to a nearby inn. Continue reading “Xena Reviews: Season 1, Episode 8”

The Titans – Director: Eric Brevig/Writer: R.J. Stewart

This one starts with Xena going after a murderous bandit named Hesiod. After pounding his men, she loses Hesiod because Gabi (who Xena told to look after Argo) screwed up Argo’s reins so Xena couldn’t ride after Hesiod immediately. Continue reading “Xena Reviews: Season 1, Episode 7”

The Reckoning – Director: Charles Siebert/Writer: Peter Allan Fields

This one starts with Xena and Gabi traveling through a forested area. When Gabi goes ahead to look for a road, Xena hears the sound of fighting and finds a hooded man attacking some farmers nearby. Continue reading “Xena Reviews: Season 1, Episode 6”

The Path Not Taken – Director: Stephen L. Posey/Writer: Julie Sherman

This one starts with a young couple (Agranon and Jana) getting all lovey-dovey in a meadow while they talk about their upcoming wedding. Apparently their kingdoms (Boeotia and Kolonus) having been feuding for years, so neither of their families is too enthusiastic about the marriage, but it may be just what both kingdoms need to heal the rift between them. Unfortunately, a band of masked thugs show up and beat the shit out of Agranon, kidnapping Jana. Continue reading “Xena Reviews: Season 1, Episode 5”

Cradle of Hope – Director: Michael Levine/Writer: Terence Winter

This one starts with a king (Gregor) consulting a seer about the troubling dreams he’s been having. She tells him there’s a child in his future, but Gregor informs her his wife died in childbirth six months ago, so that’s impossible. The seer insists there’s a baby in Gregor’s future, who’ll grow up to take his throne. Continue reading “Xena Reviews: Season 1, Episode 4”

Dreamworker – Director: Bruce Seth Green/Writer: Steven L. Sears

This one starts with Gabi playing at sword-fighting (against a tree, which will be a recurring theme) until Xena catches her and gives her hell. Xena warns Gabi about fighting, saying the mere fact of having a sword in your hand makes you a target. Continue reading “Xena Reviews: Season 1, Episode 3”

Chariots of War – Director: Harley Cokeliss/Story: Josh Becker, Jack Perez/Teleplay: Adam Armus, Nora Kay Foster

This one starts with Xena and Gabi on the road, Gabi regaling Xena with a story about two people turning into intertwining trees. Xena leaves Gabi to scout out their route and runs into some villagers being attacked by ruffians. Apparently, the ruffians have attacked before (some kind of territorial dispute in the valley) and the villagers are pacifists so they can’t fight back. Continue reading “Xena Reviews: Season 1, Episode 2”

Sins of the Past – Director: Doug Lefler/Story: Rob Tapert/Teleplay: R.J. Stewart

Welcome to my first review of Xena: Warrior Princess. I already talked about how I came to be a Xena fan last week, so let’s get right to it. I’ll give a brief synopsis of the story, then go into my trenchant analysis. (Yes, that was a joke.) Xena first appeared (as a villain) in three Hercules episodes and was supposed to be killed off. But the producers realized the character had great potential as a dark anti-hero struggling for personal redemption, trying to make up for all the terrible things she’d done in the past. Continue reading “Xena Reviews: Season 1, Episode 1”

As you can probably guess from the title and the image on this post, I’ve decided to make Xena: Warrior Princess the subject of my next TV review every Wednesday. Xena’s been on my short-list for a while now, but I’d hesitated to go ahead with it because there are a lot of episodes (134) and that’s a pretty big commitment, especially if I didn’t like the show. Luckily, the show is brilliant and I absolutely love it, so I’m happy to finally review it. My history with Xena is short, but rather interesting. Continue reading “Xena Preview”