From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   Okay, since no one is posting since Lucy and  Renee are not doing anything   
   newsworthy, so I will start posting the Xena episode critiques I did several   
   (MANY) years ago. Maybe not every episode everyday, but fairly frequently. I   
   want to give anyone still coming here occasionally to have time to respond.   
   So --   
      
                                                                              Sins   
   of the Past   
   (The first air date)   9-04-1995   
   (I first posted on    11-05-2001)   
      
   Before I get into my critique of this first episode, I have to preface it   
   with a rather lengthy introduction. (For this one only.)   
      
   To begin with, I never saw the episodes of Hercules with Xena in them until   
   they began showing the reruns. In fact, I never watched the Hercules   
   episodes at all.  I remember watching the three (I think it was) Hercules   
   TV 'movies' on the rotating 'Action Pack' series. And the only reason I   
   tuned in was because the extremely HOT Tawny Kitaen was playing Deianeira.   
   When they killed her and the kids off when the TV series began (after all,   
   how could Hercules travel around having adventures with a wife and kids at   
   home?), I lost interest. Also, as I later discovered, I just could NOT stand   
   Iolaus (to me, HE was the Quintessential Irritating Blond - not Gabrielle!).   
      
   {NOTE: Some of the above details could be wrong (selective memory? faulty   
   brain cells? too many years?) because I know that Reneé also played   
   Deianeira, but I just don't remember ever seeing her in that part.}   
      
   What prompted me to start watching X:WP was most likely that I saw previews   
   for the show. And, of course, after that first episode, I was hooked!   
      
   It's odd, (or maybe not-so-odd) but X:WP is the only TV program that I   
   actually remember watching the pilot episode, AND remembering my thoughts   
   and feelings (and there are MANY shows I've really gotten into since - B5,   
   Farscape, Startrek: Voyager, Buffy, et al).   
      
   The main criticism I remember having after watching that first show, was (as   
   I then called them) the 'super acrobatics.' At the time I had no idea they   
   would be part of Xena's 'many skills' (of course lots of the baddies also   
   had similar abilities). But as the weeks went by, I just accepted them as   
   part of what 'Xena' was all about.  And, naturally, I was swept away by   
   Xena's beauty and total hotness.   
      
   As far as Gabrielle, she was kind of cute (chubby cheeks and all) but I   
   never thought of her as anyone particularly special, and if this had been   
   her only appearance, it wouldn't have made any difference to me (but how   
   things changed!!).   
      
   So, now to the main event (I tried to watch 'Sins of the Past' as if it were   
   my very first time, but some of my comments will be colored by things I   
   already know) --   
      
       The first thing I noticed was that for a warrior Xena's voice was rather   
   mellow (in later eps it gets harsher, from all that yelling Lucy was doing,   
   I suppose). And I thought the braid in her hair didn't look very   
   warrior-ish.   
      
       I would have thought that is she wanted to get rid of her armor and   
   weapons, throwing them into a river or over a cliff would have been a better   
   way, but maybe burying them was a spur-of-the-moment decision.   
      
       I didn't understand why Hector and his men had the girls and some of the   
   villagers captured, and then stopped in the woods to give the men a choice   
   to let him have the girls or kill them then take them. Wouldn't they have   
   done all that in Poteidaia when they first captured the girls? If I was   
   taking women to be sold as slaves, I would have them tied together so none   
   of them could run off.   
      
       We got our first look at Gabrielle when she offered to let Hector take   
   her and let the others go, giving us the first clue about her basic   
   character.   
      
       And when Xena was fighting Hector and his men, I noticed that she didn't   
   kill any of them, perhaps part of her 'turning-over-a-new-leaf' philosophy.   
      
       There was something familiar about Draco when Xena went to see him.   
   Later on in the show I realized what it was - he reminded me of Ares (one of   
   those things I couldn't block out). Not only did he kind of look like Ares,   
   but even though he was evil, there was just enough wit about him that he   
   actually was kind of likeable.   
      
       I couldn't help but notice that when Gabrielle and Lila were talking   
   (when Gab was trying to sneak out) that I thought that Lila was actually   
   prettier than Gabrielle, and if the roles had been reversed, I would have   
   had no problem with Willa O'Neill being Gabrielle. But I guess 'they' wanted   
   the strawberry blond Gabrielle to contrast with the dark-haired Xena.   
      
       As I watched I noticed there were the serious scenes alternating with   
   the humorous ones. For example when Xena encounters the blind Cyclops. Then   
   we go to Draco planning on burning the fields of Amphipolis. Then we go back   
   to the Cyclops and Gabrielle ("I hate chatty food.") And so forth.   
      
       And for the first time we see Xena using 'The Pinch' (which I always   
   thought was a poor name for it, even though it won't be until a later ep   
   when we find out what Xena calls it. I suppose it's short for 'Nerve   
   Pinch'). And it still bothers me that she told Hector he had 20 seconds   
   before he dies. Hours and minutes and seconds were never used until clocks   
   were invented a thousand or more years later. Saying "You have twenty   
   heartbeats (or candle flickers)..." would have sounded better to me.   
      
       But it wasn't until I saw Gabrielle lying on the road to Amphipolis that   
   I realized that Gabrielle was going to be the comic relief to Xena's   
   seriousness.   
      
       And when Xena confronts [Cyrene], we get bits and pieces of why Xena is   
   so hated by the townspeople and her own mother. And just when things start   
   to get ugly between them and Xena,  Gabrielle shows up, and again, uses   
   (unintentional) humor to defuse the situation. She said something about   
   seeing Xena doing heroic things. I don't remember anything like that so I   
   guess she was just to try to convince everyone that Xena was good now.   
      
       For a construction scaffold, it sure was flimsy, falling apart so   
   easily. And I think the one part that probably bothered me the most way back   
   then, was Xena and Draco fighting while walking on everyone heads and   
   shoulders. It still looks farfetched and hard to swallow.   
      
       But it was a nice scene when [Cyrene] forgives Xena.   
      
       Xena said she couldn't stay long, so we don't know how much time had   
   passed when we see her sitting at the campfire, but obviously she on the   
   move again.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)