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Episodes Disc Two: “Return
Of Callisto”, “Warrior… Princess… Tramp”, “Intimate Stranger”,
“Ten Little Warlords”
Episodes Disc Three: “The
Solstice Carol”, “The Xena Scrolls”, “Here She Comes… Miss Amphipolisd”
Episodes Disc Four: “The
Quest”, “A Necessary Evil”, “A Day In The Life”, “For Him The Bell
Tolls”
Episodes Disc Five: “The
Execution”, “Blind Faith”, “Ulysses”, “The Price”
Episodes Disc Six: “Lost
Mariner”, “A Comedy Of Eros”
Stars: Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor
Guest Stars: Michael Hurst, Bruce Campbell, Ted
Raimi, Tim Thomerson, Kevin Smith, Hudson Leick, Robert Trebor, Melinda Clarke,
Rachel Blakely, Paul Glover, Tony Todd, Erik Thomson, and Karl Urban
Writers: Rob Tapert, R.J. Stewart, Adam Armus,
Chris Manheim, Terence Winter, Steven L. Sears, Nora Kay Foster, Paul Robert
Coyle, and Robert Sidney Mellette
Directors: Michael Levine, Charles Siebert, Garth
Maxwell, John T. Kretchmeir, Gary Jones, Anson Williams, J.J. Scott, Josh
Becker, Charles Haskell, Marina Sargenti, Rob Tapert, Mark Beasley, and Michael
Hurst
Executive Producers: Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert
Feature length: 1040 minutes
Extras: “The Xena Chronicles”, “Trivia”, “Actor/Director – Bios”,
“Photo Gallery”, “Exclusive 30 Minute Interview With Lucy Lawless, Renee
O’Connor And Rob Tapert”, and “Select Episode Audio/Video Commentaries”
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles: N/A
Packaging: Seven-Disc Digipack Gatefold Within A
Glossy Cardboard Slipcase
Chapter Stops: 110
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year of Television Broadcast: 1996-1997/DVD
Release: 2003
Home Video Distributor: Anchor Bay Entertainment
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera
The
second season of “Xena: Warrior Princess” has arrived on DVD and it is not
only a better DVD set than the previous release, but the season two episodes do
a lot to give Xena an identity of her own that takes place in the same world as
“Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,” but does not depend solely on crossovers
to carry itself along. Of course we have a few characters that appear in the
second season of “Xena” played by Bruce Campbell, Michael Hurst, who also
directed an episode of the second season, and Kevin Smith. However the best
episodes in the set are the ones that creatively build the characters and place
them in a historical context even if the history is not all that correct.
Among
the better episodes in the season two are “The Giant Killer,” which has Xena
and Gabrielle interact within the story of “David And Goliath,” “Girls
Just Wanna Have Fun,” features an excellent deity for Xena to face that looks
a lot like the character Tim Curry played in Ridley Scott’s “Legend.”
“The Xena Scrolls” is a cute episode that takes place in the 20th
century and features our main cast playing 1940s characters that discover the
tales of Xena’s adventures and in the process bring some spirits of the past
back to life. “Return Of Callisto” is an awesome episode because it
delineates the basic difference in character between “Hercules” and
“Xena” and it is not just gender. To tell more would be to reveal a major
spoiler, but fans of both shows will know what I mean right away and new viewers
will certainly be surprised by the end. “A Day In The Life” gives a pseudo
reality TV look at the unglamorous and humorous side to the daily adventures of
Xena and Gabrielle. “Destiny” shows us how the Xena earned her reputation
long before encountering Hercules with a character encounter with none other
than Julius Caesar.
All
22 episodes are presented in their original (1.33:1) broadcast aspect ratios
with a brand new English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack mix. The picture
quality is better than the first season episodes overall, but there are still
scenes with a visible amount of grain from the source materials used since
television shows like “Xena” are usually shot on film and then transferred
to and edited on video. The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is an
improvement over the stereo broadcasts, but it is not as full as one would hope
it to be.
There
are a lot of extra features spread out across the seven disc set that include a
season two photo gallery on disc one, and episode commentaries featuring Lucy
Lawless and Renee O’Connor on “Return Of Callisto,” Writer/Executive
Producer/Director Rob Tapert on “Destiny,” and Lucy Lawless, Renee
O’Connor, and Rob Tapert on “A Day In The Life.” Truncated forms of these
audio commentaries can be watched as separate video commentaries that tend to
run just under twenty minutes each for the three selected episodes. It is nice
to see how the Actresses look now and to watch as well as hear them laugh and
share their memories of the previous episodes. Lawless tends to be more
outspoken than O’Connor, who is much more reserved. Rob Tapert is pretty
straightforward in discussing his own directorial debut and where he got certain
ideas for certain shots. Disc six features an extended featurette (36:27) with
new interviews with Lucy Lawless, Rene O’Connor, and Rob Tapert that cover
just about anything one might want to know about the show from how it came into
being, how the Actresses were cast, the lesbian subtext to the series, and the
overall impact “Xena: Warrior Princess” had on television as one of the most
successful syndicated series with a female lead action hero that Tapert thinks
helped to pave the way for other successful shows with super female leads like
“Buffy The Vampire Slayer.”
The
seventh disc is actually a Windows/Macintosh hybrid CD-ROM that contains the
“Xena Chronicles,” which gives an episode synopsis and production crew
summary for all 22 episodes as well as character notes on the mortals, gods,
creatures, and treasures featured in season two. Then there are select Actor and
Director Filmographies that are quite up to date and a season two trivia game.
The first DVD in the set also contains a web link to www.xenadvd.com
however it can be accessed directly on the web without the need for a DVD-ROM
drive.
The
menus are all well rendered and easy to navigate and the discs come within a
Digipack gatefold within a glossy slipcase just like the previous season.
“Xena: Warrior
Princess: Season Two: Deluxe Collector’s Edition Seven Disc Set” is
available on DVD-Video now at retailers on and offline from Anchor Bay
Entertainment.
© Copyright
2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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