I'm afraid watching a show like XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS is a bit like listening to a bad album with two really good songs on it. You have to endure so many episodes before hitting on a good one. But the good ones are so good you end up having to watch the whole lot to be sure you don't miss anything.

To be fair, at twenty-two episodes a year, on a syndicated television budget, Xena did some incredibly groundbreaking things, and that is why I must recommend this Season Two DVD box set. Why the second season? Well, if you like this one, definitely get the first. But as is often the case with TV shows - from CHINA BEACH to ALLY MACBEAL - the second season is when a series really hits its stride.  Actors have gotten to know their characters, everything's still fresh, storylines aren't being rehashed, and producers aren't overly ambitious. Of course, all of these things went terribly wrong in subsequent seasons, but we'll save all that for future Xena box sets.

Each episode starts with composer Joseph Lo Duca's sweeping three-note theme.  Brilliant. Truthfully, it was the music that first hooked me. I scoffed at the promos the entire first season - much too cool to watch a show called XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS! Bleech. Sometime during the second year, though, I didn't touch that dial and actually heard those opening credits. Anything with music that good couldn't be half bad. Of course, we also hear this over the credits: "In a time of ancient gods, warlords, and kings, a land in turmoil cried out for a hero. She was Xena, a mighty princess forged in the heat of battle.Her courage will change the world." Ugh! How cheesy can you get?! I got sucked into this show kicking and screaming. And this is the season that did it.

For those of you who've never seen the show (or are afraid to admit it), Xena is a Greek superheroine who roams the world in your best superhero tradition with her trusty sidekick Gabrielle. As Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor would put it, sort of an overgrown Girl Scout. Ah, but that's just what's on the surface. Once you delve into some of these episodes you'll see there's a lot more to this series. Unlike any other mainstream female superhero, Xena's got a dark past.

Xena creator and executive producer Rob Tapert took his cues from Hong Kong cinema.  As he told Craig Reid for SCI-FI ENTERTAINMENT: "A lot of the female superheroines you see in Hong Kong fantasy and action films have the same kind of steely resolve we gave Xena. In some respects we Westernized her character from films like THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR. A volatile, dark character, yet still very feminine, you never know what she's going to do next." (For you Hong Kong fans, look for these lifted trademarks: the Brigitte Lin glare, DRUNKEN MASTER fire-spitting, the SWORDSMAN pinch, and the THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR hair whip.).

It's during the second season that this character template really comes into play in two of my favorite episodes, Destiny and The Return of Callisto, both of which have audio (and video!) commentary in the DVD box set. Tapert explains that Destiny is the first back story episode that shows how Xena "got spun out in a bad fashion." As the series wore on, there would be one too many back stories, but this was the first and one of the best.

Then there's the return of my favorite villain, Callisto, played with disturbing glee by Hudson Leick. I won't give anything away here, but this episode has my ALL-TIME favorite scene from the entire series - the quicksand scene, in which we first call into question Xena's judgment. Hmm, maybe she doesn't always do the right thing. 

Goooooooood stuff. We have writers Steven Sears and R.J. Stewart to thank for these and other great episodes that laid such a strong foundation for the series.  Too bad that foundation eventually got thoroughly messed up (sigh).

Of course, this show would have gone nowhere without Lucy Lawless' talent and charisma, and during the second year, she was at the height of her powers, keeping just enough of a lid on Xena's vulnerability to draw us in. By her own admission in the DVD commentary, she had by this time "settled into the character." It's the little things that count - the arched eyebrow, the Tarzan-like "A-LA-LA-LA-LA's", the Clint-Eastwood-through-the-teeth drawl, the slightly maniacal pinch spiel ("I've just cut off the flow of blood to your brain."), the sneer - all played to perfection in these episodes. And even though Lawless admits to loathing fight scenes and having "zero interest" in the martial arts, she's as convincing as hell. She is one of the few actresses out there who really looks like she could kick your ass. If she never does another action scene again, all of the studios should at least send their actresses to her to learn how to throw a punch for the camera. Xena paved the way for a whole slew of butt-kicking female leads, and sadly, not one of them can throw a decent punch!

Now don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of throwaway episodes in this box set, but about half of them are indispensable, and that's nothing to sneeze at. Remember what kind of budget we're talking about here. I'm a firm believer in working within limitations. When sky's the limit, it's hard to stay on target. Are you listening George Lucas? When you have to work with what you've got, great things can happen. Did I mention that halfway through this season, Lucy Lawless fractured her pelvis?! The writers scrambled to explain all the body-swapping episodes while she was laid up in the hospital. The result? An episode called The Quest, a Bruce Campbell (he of EVIL DEAD fame) tour de force!

During its second season XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS knew exactly what it was. A fun little show, tongue planted firmly in cheek. And thanks to some great writing, a very sweet show with just the right balance of humor and drama before bigger budgets, sprawling storylines, gutter humor, inconsistent threads, and hit-you-over-the-head-lesbian "subtext" mucked things up. Sheesh, with all the things that later went wrong, it's a miracle anything ever went right. And so much went right that second season. Go pick up this box set. As Lucy Lawless herself has said, "It was like lightning in a bottle."