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Just four minutes into "Sins of the Past," the first episode of Xena, you'll gladly follow the warrior princess anywhere. Taking on a gang of marauders, she leaps onto an upright spear embedded in the ground and, with a cry of "Ai-yi-yi-yi-yi," does a circular wall of death on their chests. A syndication phenomenon, this audacious 1995 series was a spin-off from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Lucy Lawless stars as Xena, dressed to kill in leather and breastplate. Her exploits are legend: "She came down out of the sky in a chariot throwing thunderbolts and breathing fire," remarks one awestruck boy in the first episode. Xena wants to bury her violent past, but there is no rest for the formerly wicked as she takes up arms (and feet) against any number of villains and mythological beasts. She is joined by Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor), a young peasant woman who "is not cut out for this village life," and runs away from home to join Xena in her adventures.
As the series evolved, speculation was rife about the true nature of their relationship. Playful and provocative teasers in several of these episodes give this first season an unexpected erotic charge, as witness "Altared States," in which the two skinnydip, and later, a drugged Gabrielle, revived by Xena, looks upon her and gushes, "By the gods! You are beautiful." Other memorable episodes include "Callisto," which introduces the vengeful female warrior who would further bedevil Xena in seasons to come; "Prometheus," in which Kevin Sorbo guest stars as Hercules; "Chariots of War," in which Xena wears a dress (!), and "Warrior...Princess," in which Xena trades places with her look-alike, a Princess named--yes--Diana, who is the target of assassins. By the gods, Xena is an absolute hoot whose pleasures--stylized action sequences, cheesy special effects, tongue-in-cheek anachronistic dialogue--are anything but guilty ones. Clumsy packaging, lack of commentary, and less than pristine picture quality are minor drawbacks to this otherwise thrilling set. --Donald Liebenson
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
She was Xena, a mighty princess forged in the heat of battle,
By
This review is from: Xena Warrior Princess:S1 (DVD)
In a time when women on television and cinema were either portrayed as greedy divas (e.g: Dynasty, Dallas, Bold and Beautiful), or as romantic devices for action movie heroes, came a character that redefined viewers perception of women on television.She was Xena, a character who appeared on Hercules's first season and eventually got such a good reception that her quest for redemption became a six season success. Personally I think it was a good thing that the show was syndicated and was not the sole property of a main tv channel (ABC, FOX, NBC or CBS) because with the way that the show mixed both comedy and drama - or either veered in one of those directions for a few episodes - I don't think the mainstream channels would have known how to promote this show, which is what happened to Twin Peaks and Human Target who lasted no more than a few seasons unfortunately. Worse, they would have turned it into a more conventional tv show. Back to Xena, the first season of this dvd is presented in Dolby 5.1, which is a great way to better experience the surroundings of Xena's adventures around Greece, though this sound quality has not been kept in the newer releases made by Universal, which has neither 5.1 sound system nor the special features of the first dvd release. As for the special features in the first DVD release, we have a series of screensavers and xena chronicles with which we can play a quiz asking questions about the adventures in Xena's first season. Personally, those special features are not bad. But it would have been nice to have had some of the promotional spots used for the release of Xena, commentaries from the creators, casting videos of the actors, bloopers on the show, and even the hercules episodes that introduced the Xena character. But anyway, this doesn't changed my satisfaction for this first season, which introduced to us the main characters of this show (xena, gabrielle, Ares, Callisto, Joxer, Autolycus, Salmoneus, the amazons) and their wonderful personalities, in an episodic structure that involved one adventure for each episode, along with some recurring one whose stories either continued or came to an inevitable conclusion. As for the video quality, the show was apparently shot on 16 mm for the first few seasons and on this season, the image quality of the first eleven episodes are not at the top of the quality game. Though this improves after the first seventeen episodes and for the following seasons, the images have a bit of grain that may annoy some people. Of course the cgi effects on this season may look dated to the recent innovations on Spartacus, Lost and the last Xena seasons, but with the time constraints and their focus on their storytelling instead of their visual effects, Xena's story was a real treat for viewers all around the world and continues to exist even a decade after its final season. The soundtrack by Joseph LoDuca was a pleasure to listen to and added the right emotions to the story and the characters' actions; while the stunts and the New Zealand landscapes used for the show made Xena's quest an epic event for viewers to experience. Finally, of the episodes that I watched, my least favourite was the thirteenth episode since this episode was more of a best-of (something that I am not always fond of) that summarised the most important incidents of the first twelve episodes, along with excerpts from Kubrick's Spartacus (quite an irony considering Lucy Lawless's recent show on Spartacus). But my favourites were the following episodes: Episode 6 (Ares's first episode), episode 10 (the Amazons first episode), episode 15 (Xena pretending to be a princess who looks just like her), episode 17 (Bruce Campbell as Autolycus), episode 20 (for its great twists), episode 22 (Callisto's first episode), and episode 24 (where Xena and Gabrielle are in the stands healing people instead of fighting at the front of the war). See you next season.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Xena Lite!,
By
This review is from: Xena: Warrior Princess - Season One (DVD)
Do you want the good news or bad news first?Okay,the good news:If you have already bought the Xena catalogue from Anchor Bay studios you will be pleased to know you have the most definitive Xena you can have.The bad news?:There are NO,I repeat NO,extra features whatsoever in this entire set!Not even a measly commentary.This is Xena lite to be sure.And the quality of the shows "look" will be addressed a little farther on in the technical section of this review(don't miss that!). Created from the fertile minds of Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert this series was a spin off from the already running and successful Hercules series.Xena started in the /95-/96 TV season while Hercules was already running as of January/95 and the character Xena was intro'd through three Hercules eps,Warrior Princess,The Gauntlet and Unchained Heart.Personally I was already a Hercules fan and watched both concurrently until I lost interest in Hercules story arc when Iolaus was killed off,his "likeness" brought back then killed off,and finally Iolaus himself brought back for good,in a series of totally unbelievable scenarios.This is when Xena took over for me and I stayed with this ground breaking series from then on.Why/how groundbreaking you ask? Firstly,like Hercules,the producers brought to the table an uncommon and unique mix of martial arts/action/drama/comedy that had never been seen before on television or since.Secondly they used the backdrop of ancient Greece to play in and I will have you note the unprecedented amount of movies that have since been made from 2001 onwards when Xena finally left the airwaves.Think 300,Troy,Rome,the more recent remake of Clash of the Titans,Alexander,etc,etc.I believe Raimi and Tapert created a virtual two man modern renaissance of this genre through Hercules and especially Xena;to which no one has given them proper credit. Everything about Xena from beginning to end was great from the acting,to the ep plots and something just as important which gets overlooked too much,the stunt work.I defy anyone in the business to find a more capable group of stunt men and women than those in New Zealand. The first season of Xena introduces us to most of the characters that would become familiar to its fans throughout its six year run.We see Draco played most viciously and directly by Jay D'Gaia,Meleager the Mighty played wonderfully by Tim Tomerson,the psycho-killer of Callisto played to the hilt by beautiful Hudson Leick,the always confident/self assured God of War played beautifully by the late Kevin Smith,Autolycus,the King of Thieves(lifted literally hook,line and sinker from Shakespeare's "The Winter Tale")played with great aplomb by Bruce Campbell(long associate of Tapert and Raimi),Salmoneus the "king" of salesmen played slickly by Robert Trebor,and my personal favourite Joxer,played with a great sense of whimsy and comedy by Sam Raimi's brother Ted;definitely Ted's best and longest lasting role. I have never seen a TV show that could be so action packed,even violent,one minute then have you in tears the next.The bond that develops between a repentive(for her past mistakes)Xena(Lucy Lawless)and her naive but slowly maturing bard companion Gabrielle(Rene O'Connor) is indeed special to behold.The lesbian community would of course later run with this concept but this season more often than not runs counter to their claims and is often overlooked proof contrary to their arguments,as we are several times introduced to both Xena and Gabrielle's male lovers both present and past.It's unfortunate also that Lawless would fuel the lesbian angle herself,I think just to gain more viewers than anything else.After all ratings are what counts in the TV biz. Alright let's look at the "look" of the eps in this set.I do not have the Anchor bay set of Xena's to compare to but I do have the first season of Hercules.Hercules looks great on the Anchor Bay set but Xena through most of the first season here looks like it was shot on 16mm film rather than 35mm(that is only a guess as I do not know the specific filming particulars).Although generally good in contrast,sound and colour they can be quite grainy;going from good to poor in a matter of a few scenes.Moreover there are film clips from the trio of Hercules/Xena eps,clips from the 50s film Spartacus starring Kirk Douglas and even a clip from a Steve Reeves Hercules movie inserted into several eps and ALL to a one are beautifully crisp and clear!This tells me it isn't the transfer that is the problem here it is the actual film stock used.However things DO improve.Almost 3/4 the way through the season beginning with the ep "Altared States" the film stock improves greatly and begins to look like the 35mm it should.From here on some eps look mostly like 35mm while some even look like a combination of 35mm and 16mm.If this is the case I can only speculate that Raimi and Tapert had a severely limited budget from Universal to work with(with two shows running concurrently)and as a result had to resort to the cheaper film stock to create the spin off(Xena)until the ratings were able to justify the faith they had in it. This five single disc set of Xena is packed tightly in a standard size DVD case and each disc comes embossed on top with a chakram.Nice to look at,if nothing else. All in all I think I will recommend this set.I almost thought of rating this set much lower both for the appalling lack of extras(none) and the graininess of the film present in most of the eps.However the film issue is explainable and the lack of extras DO make this set more affordable to those of us(like me)who couldn't afford the original set through Anchor Bay.There are no pretensions here from Universal as what you see in these 24 first seasons eps are definitely what one gets;a bare bones issue.However you can bet I(along with many others I'm sure)will be scrutinizing season two VERY closely and hope the film stock will be a non issue from then on.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Can you hear my disappointment?,
By A Customer
This review is from: Xena Warrior Princess:S1 (DVD)
I was thoroughly disappointed to find that these DVD's did not include closed captions nor subtitles. I have enjoyed watching the various Xena episodes over the years on TV where the CC's were broadcast. It's unfortunate that in the year 2003, when the technology is readily available, that so little regard is given the paying customer. I am one of the millions of hearing impaired persons that like to buy and view DVD's. I would certainly 'not' purchase any DVD in the future that did not contain either closed captions or subtitles. (At least foreign films, with non-English dialogue allow the viewer the opportunity of reading English subtitles.) If they want to sell more DVD's and be a 'responsible' company, then they need to do it 'right'.
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