Xena Warrior Princess
Created | Updated Mar 10, 2002
"Xena: Warror Princess" (XWP) is the highest-rated syndicated show on television, with an average viewership of more than 5 million viewers a week.
XWP is a spin-off of the 2nd highest-rated syndicated show on TV, "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" (HTLJ). HTLJ was the only long-running successful outcome of "The Action Pack", a rotating group of action shows that included "TekWar" (a limited-run adaptation of the novel by William Shatner of "Star Trek" fame. TekWar was later picked up by a cable network, but did not remain on the air long), and "Rising Son", among others. HTLJ aired the !st of 5 TV movies in 1993. The actual series began in January 1995 and will end during the 1999-2000 season. XWP is an spin-off from the HTLJ episodes "Warrior Princess", "Unchained Heart", and "The Gauntlet", which were the 9th, 12th, and 13th episodes (now available as a boxed set of videotapes, natch). At the time of this entry XWP is in reruns between its 4th and 5th seasons, having begun in Fall 1995. Both shows are filmed in New Zealand.
So much for the historical background... the background of the premise (of the spin-off of the show of Xena:Warrior Princess..;-))
Both HTLJ and XWP take place in some unspecified period before the year 1AD. Hercules is the figure familiar from Greek mythology: the son of Zeus, King of the Gods. He travels around using his extraordinary strength and kind nature to help people around Greece (and later other locations in the world). During his travels, he meets Xena, who at that time is a warlord intent on taking over Greece, and later the world. She is categorized as ruthless and amoral (which she is), but the details aren't made clear (until later on her own show). During the course of their interaction, Hercules inspires Xena to give up her evil ways and become a force for good. Xena's own show revolves around her efforts to do this, despite the mistrust of people who knew her before, and her own predilection for violence and evil behavior.
Yeah, so who cares, and why? Well, 5 million people watch the show every week, so there must be *something* to it....
First of all, the hero is a girl. Not some little wispy femme, either... Xena/ Lucy Lawless is 6 feet tall and has a BIG sword. With which she stabs, slices and dices villains. Very athletically. While still clearly being a girl (albeit a big one). There's never been anything like it on TV, and in the 5 years since it started, there hasn't even been an effort to clone a cheap knockoff. Which, given that this is television, is really saying something.
Second of all, the hero's sidekick (Gabrielle) is also female. So the show is about 2 women travelling together, without male escort (leaving aside the question of the supporting character Joxer, who is a special case) or patronage, doing decidedly "unfemminine" things like killing giants and challenging evil gods who try to destroy our world. 2 girls (women, actually, of course, but as a female this speaks to the 12-year old in me and not me alone)... and they are girls, not boys in girl's bodies, or some "feminine" constructs who carry sword or staff but *really* needs some big strong man to do the actual work. Xena and her friend Gabrielle are quite competent on their own, thank you very much.
Third of all, speaking of Xena and Gabrielle.... their relationship is close. Very close. The writers and producers of this show are clearly unafraid of, and in fact enjoy, homoeroticism. Both the actors and the producers have said numerous times that the implication Xena and Gabrielle are lovers has been quite deliberate. The fans call it "subtext". The popularity of this show was built on the foundation of lesbian support, and that has been acknowledged both in interviews of the staff and in the subtextual communications within the show. Although both characters have had long-term heterosexual relationships, and viewers can argue with some foundation that they are *not* lovers, it is patently obvious that Xena and Gabirelle's most important relationship is with each other, sex or no sex.
Fourth of all, for the writerly and creative, watching this show is an education.. perceptive viewers can clearly see the writers delicately treading the line between their outrageous ideas and what current standards allow. Even more fun is watching them extricate themselves when they've miscalculated, which sometimes takes as much as a half-season to accomplish, but they're also very honest and have yet to leave any important tangled thread unresolved in as reasonable a manner as possible (without cheating, in other words).
But the really interesting thing is the "Joseph Campbell" factor. [If you've read or seen 'Transformations of Myth Through Time' or 'The Power of Myth', you'll be aware that Joseph Campbell was a well-known cultural anthropologist, focused on the use and function of mythology in society. He received mainstream (as opposed to merely scholarly) notice with his assertion that the movie 'Star Wars' was the most perfect example of archetype in the current age.] The show's premise is that Xena has changed herself from evil to good. But what then is the appropriate attitude towards a truly reformed evildoer? Do we just forget what she did? Or do we punish her, even though she's different now? And is she, really, different now? It's no metaphor; Xena *has* done truly evil things in her pursuit of power. The writers periodically throw a flashback story into the mix, graphically detailing her activities of that time. And because they do, the audience has to answer the very same questions that Xena struggles with.... No discussion of Xena can be complete without discussing "The Rift", which comprised the second half of Season 3. It began when Xena lied to Gabrielle, concealing from her that she had killed someone that she claimed had not been killed at all. It continued when Xena, perhaps being overcontrolling (and Gabs perhaps not being independent of mind enough to complain), took them both to "Brittania", where Xena then abandoned Gabrielle, which resulted in Gabrielle bearing a half-human/half-demon child against her will (among other things). Gabrielle then lied to Xena saying she had killed the child, but had not... which resulted in Gabrielle's daughter returning and murdering Xena's 12 year old son. Whuff!, you say... and so what...? "So what" is that Xena responded to this unbearable stress by riding into the village where Gabrielle was staying, capturing her by means of a whip around the legs... and dragging her behind the horse for a couple miles preparatory to throwing her off a cliff. It's referred to as "The Gab-Drag", and frankly, fans don't like to talk about it much... there were a lot of fights and defections over this issue. Fans loved Gabrielle, *Xena* loved Gabrielle... how could she do such a thing to her, and still be a hero? *Our* hero...? How could Gabrielle forgive her? How could Xena forgive herself? How could a viewer forgive her and continue to watch a show starring a character who could and would do such unspeakable things? This was not, couldn't be, an abstract or pretend question. Any viewer who continued to watch the show had to answer it, or decide consciously to stop watching the show...which was an answer in itself. The struggle roiled painfully, violently, viciously across fan sites around the world, across Usenet.. in exactly the same way we had all watched this ficticious character struggle with exactly the same issues for 3 seasons... 'The Joseph Campbell factor', y'see?
In a recent episode, Renee O'Connor played a modern-day reincarnation of her character Gabrielle, during which she referred to the show as "chop-schlocky crap". And in many ways it is... it is, after all, an action adventure show for the American television market. But that's not *all* it is. Not by a long shot. Were Joseph Campbell still alive, I think he would agree.
XWP is a spin-off of the 2nd highest-rated syndicated show on TV, "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" (HTLJ). HTLJ was the only long-running successful outcome of "The Action Pack", a rotating group of action shows that included "TekWar" (a limited-run adaptation of the novel by William Shatner of "Star Trek" fame. TekWar was later picked up by a cable network, but did not remain on the air long), and "Rising Son", among others. HTLJ aired the !st of 5 TV movies in 1993. The actual series began in January 1995 and will end during the 1999-2000 season. XWP is an spin-off from the HTLJ episodes "Warrior Princess", "Unchained Heart", and "The Gauntlet", which were the 9th, 12th, and 13th episodes (now available as a boxed set of videotapes, natch). At the time of this entry XWP is in reruns between its 4th and 5th seasons, having begun in Fall 1995. Both shows are filmed in New Zealand.
So much for the historical background... the background of the premise (of the spin-off of the show of Xena:Warrior Princess..;-))
Both HTLJ and XWP take place in some unspecified period before the year 1AD. Hercules is the figure familiar from Greek mythology: the son of Zeus, King of the Gods. He travels around using his extraordinary strength and kind nature to help people around Greece (and later other locations in the world). During his travels, he meets Xena, who at that time is a warlord intent on taking over Greece, and later the world. She is categorized as ruthless and amoral (which she is), but the details aren't made clear (until later on her own show). During the course of their interaction, Hercules inspires Xena to give up her evil ways and become a force for good. Xena's own show revolves around her efforts to do this, despite the mistrust of people who knew her before, and her own predilection for violence and evil behavior.
Yeah, so who cares, and why? Well, 5 million people watch the show every week, so there must be *something* to it....
First of all, the hero is a girl. Not some little wispy femme, either... Xena/ Lucy Lawless is 6 feet tall and has a BIG sword. With which she stabs, slices and dices villains. Very athletically. While still clearly being a girl (albeit a big one). There's never been anything like it on TV, and in the 5 years since it started, there hasn't even been an effort to clone a cheap knockoff. Which, given that this is television, is really saying something.
Second of all, the hero's sidekick (Gabrielle) is also female. So the show is about 2 women travelling together, without male escort (leaving aside the question of the supporting character Joxer, who is a special case) or patronage, doing decidedly "unfemminine" things like killing giants and challenging evil gods who try to destroy our world. 2 girls (women, actually, of course, but as a female this speaks to the 12-year old in me and not me alone)... and they are girls, not boys in girl's bodies, or some "feminine" constructs who carry sword or staff but *really* needs some big strong man to do the actual work. Xena and her friend Gabrielle are quite competent on their own, thank you very much.
Third of all, speaking of Xena and Gabrielle.... their relationship is close. Very close. The writers and producers of this show are clearly unafraid of, and in fact enjoy, homoeroticism. Both the actors and the producers have said numerous times that the implication Xena and Gabrielle are lovers has been quite deliberate. The fans call it "subtext". The popularity of this show was built on the foundation of lesbian support, and that has been acknowledged both in interviews of the staff and in the subtextual communications within the show. Although both characters have had long-term heterosexual relationships, and viewers can argue with some foundation that they are *not* lovers, it is patently obvious that Xena and Gabirelle's most important relationship is with each other, sex or no sex.
Fourth of all, for the writerly and creative, watching this show is an education.. perceptive viewers can clearly see the writers delicately treading the line between their outrageous ideas and what current standards allow. Even more fun is watching them extricate themselves when they've miscalculated, which sometimes takes as much as a half-season to accomplish, but they're also very honest and have yet to leave any important tangled thread unresolved in as reasonable a manner as possible (without cheating, in other words).
But the really interesting thing is the "Joseph Campbell" factor. [If you've read or seen 'Transformations of Myth Through Time' or 'The Power of Myth', you'll be aware that Joseph Campbell was a well-known cultural anthropologist, focused on the use and function of mythology in society. He received mainstream (as opposed to merely scholarly) notice with his assertion that the movie 'Star Wars' was the most perfect example of archetype in the current age.] The show's premise is that Xena has changed herself from evil to good. But what then is the appropriate attitude towards a truly reformed evildoer? Do we just forget what she did? Or do we punish her, even though she's different now? And is she, really, different now? It's no metaphor; Xena *has* done truly evil things in her pursuit of power. The writers periodically throw a flashback story into the mix, graphically detailing her activities of that time. And because they do, the audience has to answer the very same questions that Xena struggles with.... No discussion of Xena can be complete without discussing "The Rift", which comprised the second half of Season 3. It began when Xena lied to Gabrielle, concealing from her that she had killed someone that she claimed had not been killed at all. It continued when Xena, perhaps being overcontrolling (and Gabs perhaps not being independent of mind enough to complain), took them both to "Brittania", where Xena then abandoned Gabrielle, which resulted in Gabrielle bearing a half-human/half-demon child against her will (among other things). Gabrielle then lied to Xena saying she had killed the child, but had not... which resulted in Gabrielle's daughter returning and murdering Xena's 12 year old son. Whuff!, you say... and so what...? "So what" is that Xena responded to this unbearable stress by riding into the village where Gabrielle was staying, capturing her by means of a whip around the legs... and dragging her behind the horse for a couple miles preparatory to throwing her off a cliff. It's referred to as "The Gab-Drag", and frankly, fans don't like to talk about it much... there were a lot of fights and defections over this issue. Fans loved Gabrielle, *Xena* loved Gabrielle... how could she do such a thing to her, and still be a hero? *Our* hero...? How could Gabrielle forgive her? How could Xena forgive herself? How could a viewer forgive her and continue to watch a show starring a character who could and would do such unspeakable things? This was not, couldn't be, an abstract or pretend question. Any viewer who continued to watch the show had to answer it, or decide consciously to stop watching the show...which was an answer in itself. The struggle roiled painfully, violently, viciously across fan sites around the world, across Usenet.. in exactly the same way we had all watched this ficticious character struggle with exactly the same issues for 3 seasons... 'The Joseph Campbell factor', y'see?
In a recent episode, Renee O'Connor played a modern-day reincarnation of her character Gabrielle, during which she referred to the show as "chop-schlocky crap". And in many ways it is... it is, after all, an action adventure show for the American television market. But that's not *all* it is. Not by a long shot. Were Joseph Campbell still alive, I think he would agree.
