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A few months back, I explained how, against my will, Season 2 of XENA completely won me over (click HERE to see the review). Now that the Season 3 box set has arrived at my doorstep, I realize this is a can of worms I'm not quite ready to open, but here goes.

I'm conflicted regarding just about every aspect of this season: Respectful of the attempt to take chances but disappointed by the results, awed by the higher production values but missing the simpler heartfelt stories, understanding of the fact that people do not always act rationally but completely flummoxed by the lack of character consistency, pleased by the exploration of Xena's dark past except that she was so dark, I stopped caring. The list goes on. You could say this was the start of my love/hate attitude towards the show.As far as the packaging goes, these Xena box sets just get better and better. Season 1 has only 6 discs and hardly any extras. Season 2 has 7 discs and some great audio and video commentary but only on a few episodes. Season 3 has 8 discs and a shitload of extras – interviews for every episode, blooper reels, deleted scenes, production sketches, director's storyboards, and commentary from actors, writers, and producers. It's a shame that this season gets such lavish DVD treatment, though, because for me, this is when everything starts to unravel.

After those brilliant first two seasons, Executive Producer Rob Tapert decided to turn things upside down, and I suppose this has to do with the nature of television. As XENA producer Liz Friedman told The Chakram: “We wanted to shake things up a bit.  Historically, what happens with action shows is that you build your audience for the first two years and then you level off in your third. What we said is, let's take this relationship (between Xena and Gabrielle) and, while keeping it in realistically the bounds of what the relationship is, what can we throw at it?”

Now I have gone back and read and re-read…and re-re-read all the interviews with the writers and producers concerning the Rift between Xena and her sidekick. All of their explanations sound logical and make sense, but it just never comes across that way for me on screen. Maybe it's the limitations of television itself – time, budgets, commercial breaks, whatever. I cringed all the way through Season 3 and am still cringing with this box set.

Season 2's delicate balance between humor and drama gave way in the third year to what I call the Schizophrenic Show. One week you'd have a Rift episode, humorless and unbearably dark. The next week a dumb comedy episode.

I once asked XENA writer Steven Sears about the wild oscillation between drama and comedy. He said because the Rift was such serious business, they had to separate the dramatic and comedic elements. I wish they'd just left one or the other behind or kept that brilliant balance they'd had earlier. It's jarring, confusing, frustrating, and really quite disturbing to muddle your way through such discontinuity.

So what we get in Season 3 is a whole lot of yuck. Rape, murderous children, not to mention some really bad hair – immediately followed the next week by some pretty uninspired humor. 

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