Page 1 I Page 2

Gone is the mystery lurking just beneath Lucy Lawless' understated stoic Xena of the first two seasons. Instead there's a whole lot of over-emoting and weepiness and all those proclamations of “I love you, I love you, I love you.” Bleech! Worst of all is the culmination of the Rift in the musical episode, “The Bitter Suite.”  I don't want to see Xena singing sappy songs about forgiveness. Call me a hopeless non-romantic – the mush factor just makes me want to projectile vomit. A little subtlety, please!!! 

I should say I feel bad for not liking “The Bitter Suite.”  The production is fantastic, and that it was done for syndicated television is pretty amazing. And I agree that a musical may have been the only way to convincingly get the characters out of the mess they'd made of their relationship. Bottom line is I just don't like musical theater.

Having said that, I do have another major quibble about this episode. I understand that the producers were trying to show emotional trauma within the parameters of a fantastical setting, but for me it was all horribly incongruous. Having read the interviews discussing the Rift arc, the intentions and logic behind character motivations were all there, but maybe something got lost along the way in the execution. 

Even Rob Tapert admitted that this was the case in the opening sequence of “The Bitter Suite” in which Xena tries to kill Gabrielle. He told The Chakram, “You know, if I told you that was a bit harsher than what I, I [sigh]…There are times when you imagine things and put them on paper and work out sequences and storyboards – I did all that for this sequence – and then you see the footage and say, ‘Geez, that was more violent than I thought.' It happened to me at least three times. Once was in the Hercules episode ‘The Gauntlet,' in the beating scene. I thought, ‘Wow, I can't even put that on television.' We've tried different times to push the borders and this was another case where I thought that we made it too horrifying. I don't mind that Xena did that to Gabrielle. I just thought that, at its length, it was too intense, perhaps. It was meant to make [the audience] feel uneasy, but I think they were actually repulsed.”

Repulsed is an understatement. What I find even more disturbing is that he “didn't mind” that his “hero” tried to kill her sidekick by dragging her around by horse! Perhaps I'm just too left-brained to truly understand this episode or season, which are all about, in Tapert's words, “love and forgiveness.”  Sure, love makes us do completely irrational things, and within the realm of fantasy, it might be argued that such exaggerated expressions of love and hate are acceptable. But for me it's the opposite. Because you are dealing with a fantastical setting, there needs to be some kind of character consistency to ground the audience. In short, I watched the third season of XENA thinking that Xena and Gabrielle sure looked like Xena and Gabrielle but that aliens from outer space had invaded their bodies. These were not the same characters from the first two years. Some will counter that, of course, they're not. They've evolved. Maybe, but it's a fine line between character development and character assassination. I'm afraid my brain is just too linear to accept what the producers were trying to accomplish with all the metaphors for heightened emotions. The whole Rift arc made me ill.

Now that I'm done ranting, I would like to point out some things that I did like about this season. And believe me, I only rant because I so loved the first two years of this show.  Some traces of those early years can be found in the perfect, Groundhog Day-inspired “Been There, Done That.” “Fins, Femmes & Gems” is another great comedy installment.  “One Against An Army” is heavy on the mush factor, but it's done so well, I caved. It's one of my favorites. Finally, there are “The Debt” episodes one and two. Minor quibbles about character and Asian stuff, but I think if they'd made this into the feature film it was originally intended to be, it would've been fantastic. The production is astounding. And Jacqueline Kim is probably the only actress on earth who could convincingly deliver such ridiculous lines of Asian philosophy.

For those episodes alone, I'd certainly recommend this box set, and you right-brained folks will probably enjoy it much more than I did. This season gets an “A” for effort, but for all the unevenness, I'm going to have to give it a 3.8 on the Watson Scale.

Page 1 I Page 2