Xena: Season 0, Episode 01 (Hercules): "The Warrior Princess"

"The Warrior Princess"

Before I jump into this first review, there are a few things I want to go over. 

ON THE SUBJECT OF SPOILERS: My reviews are full of them! They're full of current episode spoilers and sometimes series spoilers.

• Current Episode Spoilers: Though you probably know it, I'll just say it: If you're reading an episode review, of course I will spoil the entire episode under discussion. It's a review! 

• Series Spoilers: I'll note when I'm about to spoil anything in the series by posting [SERIES SPOILER] before said item and [END SPOILER] following each item. A series spoiler is anything that happens following the episode you're currently reading.

Please don't read an episode's review, unless you've seen the episode under discussion or you want it to be spoiled.

QUALITY: If you're familiar with Xena and/or Hercules, you know there's "stuff" you have to accept before you can love the series. A lot of aesthetic aspects suffered due to the low budget of both shows (well, I'm guessing it's because of low budget.)

1) The actors aren't always great.
2) The special effects are of the early variety (i.e. they often look fake and stilted).
3) The accents are either American or Kiwi (not that that matters to me).
4) The dialogue isn't always solid.
5) The story isn't always seamless and continuity-based.
6) The wigs aren't always believable. Like, at all.

With these precursors in place, I won't always point out when something feels inauthentic or unfinished (though I'll try). Both Hercules and Xena are peppered with these points, which is part of the fun!

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Isn't it beautiful? I love it so much! Thank you.. thank you. Hold your applause, please, your thanks is enough.

Now, I'm going to elaborate on some things. This is the very first episode and my first review, after all, so take-off is shaky.

1) I thought that I could take notes throughout the episode and then easily transfer them to the template afterward. I realize, now, that not only is that highly inefficient, it does the series and myself a serious disservice, as I'm not able to watch/enjoy the show as I should, if I'm worried about taking notes. So, I've revised my method.

1. I'm going to watch the whole episode once, fully and completely with devotion and without taking a single note.
2. Then I'll play the ep again and take notes, and play it a third time while I prepare the review.
3. That means I'll have played each Xena episode three times (with at least one viewing having my undivided attention) before this roller coaster comes to a stop.

2) I find it, uh, very hard... to stop myself from rewinding repeatedly during each episode, particularly during fight scenes. This is done out of pure appreciation of the stunts and choreography. It can not be helped. The only thing that can stop me is a broken remote control. I also like to review stuff in slow motion. All of this makes the episode about 15 minutes longer than necessary. I try to restrain myself during the first viewing as much as possible. Sometimes I'm successful; sometimes I'm not.

3) Hercules says this to his mother: “It’s just that I don’t get to see much of Iolaus, except when we’re in life and death situations. I was hoping we could do something more normal this time, you know? Like, hunt, fish. Whatever. Talk.” This was too big to fit into the "Quotes" section, but it's pretty cute, so here.

4) Speaking of mistakes, when the town is trying to appeal to Hercules to stand up to Xena, someone says, “Don’t go, Hercules!” before he even makes a move to leave. ­

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