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Articles
Entertainment Weekly
2 June 1995
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
Xena Mention:
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys has, in its debut season, proven to
be the highest-rated new show in syndication, and this fall will yield a
spin-off, Xena: Warrior Princess. The fierce, wild-haired Xena, played
by the wonderfully named Lucy Lawless, has been popping out of her
breastplates all year on Hercules. She first appeared as a villain bent
on killing Herc, but in recent episodes, she has become his ally--nay,
his soulmate: They smooch and hug and then, side by side, lop off the
heads of vicious centaurs. The name Xena is nowhere to be found in my
copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology. Were she still alive, Edith would
probably groan at such an absurd character, but, come September, an
awful lot of happy preadolescent boys are going to get hooked on Greek
mythology.
Rest of the Article
DUSTING OFF my old schoolboy copy of
Edith Hamilton's Mythology in order to grapple with the goofy wonder
that is HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS (syndicated, check local
listings), I came across this description of the ancient Greek hero:
"Intelligence did not figure largely in anything he did and was often
conspicuously absent." Bingo! So Hercules: The Legendary Joureys,
absurdly popular and supremely silly, turns out to be more faithful to
mythological fact than I had expected.
If, as Hamilton suggests, Hercules was just a really strong dumb guy,
this TV series has him down cold. As played by Kevin Sorbo, Hercules is
the sort of muscular adventurer who, walking down a leafy lane, meets a
little girl who suddenly turns into a two-headed monster. After slaying
this creature, Hercules tells his friends about it this way: "I met a
kid on the road. She turned into a thing--totally unprovoked."
Hercules is meant to be a period piece; the opening-credit voice-over
helpfully informs us that the show is set in "a time ... when the
ancient gods were petty and cruel." (You know, as opposed to the
present-day Welfare Reform: The Legendary Journeys.)
The series' centuries-of-old scenes are actually filmed in a rustic
section of New Zealand. The makers of Hercules apparently don't want to
slow down their viewing audience with the sort of stilted, formal
language that's supposed to make historical epics seem realistic.
(Remember the Steve Reeves Hercules movies of the '50s?) Thus, in this
new version we have the traditional spectacle of ancients in sandals
traveling by oxcart, but when they open their mouths, they're likely to
say things such as, "Boy, you sure know how to show a guy a good time,"
and "Maybe it's time to hang up the old sandals."
To be sure, much of this is supposed to be funny. The executive
producers of Legendary Journeys are Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, the team
responsible for such parodic genre films as The Evil Dead, Darkman, and
Army of Darkness. Raimi and Tapert know that doing a sword-and-sandals
show in the '90s demands a certain amount of winking irony. After all,
what are shows like A rican Gladiators and Beach Clash if not genially
decadent versions of overbuffed Greek gods and goddesses bulging and
sweating for the amusement of us rabble? Previous pop-culture versions
of Hercules were often cheap, fleshy epics surrounded by
high-mindedness. Legendary Journeys, by contrast, features some pretty
impressive special effects and unfettered horniness: In one episode, a
scantily clad maiden is trussed up bondage-style. Hercules tries to
rescue her, but he's gone temporarily blind so when he reaches out, he
almost accidently touches (tee-hee!) her breast.
There's nothing approaching wit in Hercules--the humor is very broad,
right down to the ludicrously inappropriate kung fu moves that these
folks break into during fistfights. But the plentiful, exaggerated
action scenes, combined with Sorbo's low-key, I-know-I'm-a-big-dumb-guy
attitude, make this show a magnet for kids and a soothing brain-cooler
for adults slack-jawed in front of their TVs.
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys has, in its debut season, proven to be
the highest-rated new show in syndication, and this fall will yield a
spin-off, Xena: Warrior Princess. The fierce, wild-haired Xena, played
by the wonderfully named Lucy Lawless, has been popping out of her
breastplates all year on Hercules. She first appeared as a villain bent
on killing Herc, but in recent episodes, she has become his ally--nay,
his soulmate: They smooch and hug and then, side by side, lop off the
heads of vicious centaurs. The name Xena is nowhere to be found in my
copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology. Were she still alive, Edith would
probably groan at such an absurd character, but, come September, an
awful lot of happy preadolescent boys are going to get hooked on Greek
mythology. B-
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