Lady_Khat

Seriously, watching this version makes me want to go looking for the other, funny, ones. Did Drew Barrymore write it into her contract that they have to address her personally a least four times per episode? Sorry, but she's not that interesting, especially with her over-the-top reactions. She's fine as an actor, I guess, but not here. The host seems decent enough, if they gave him something to actually work with, he might be all right, and some of the contestants are idiots, but, yeah, that happens with every game show. Can't really hold that against them.

Maybe it doesn't help that I don't know most of the celebrities they have on the show, but I don't think so. I like Jeff Dunham, and despite my disinterest, kept watching until the episode he was in, but then was disappointed yet again, as he never did get called on, and was really barely there. Maybe they should see if he wants to be center square. He, at least, would be able to carry it better.

All-in-all, it's not going to be added to my watchlist any time soon.

After discovering Salmoneus trying to hide as a woman, and letting him live because he amuses her, Xena runs into trouble when her her new second-in-command, Darphus, decides she's too soft, especially concerning her standing command forbidding attacking women and children. Defying her, he leads a party that destroys an entire village, and the warrior princess rescues the only survivor, a baby, which only leads to more conflict between her and her men.

Meanwhile, a man of the village, who was sent before the slaughter happened to get help, finds Hercules, and convinces him to return and offer assistance. What they find upon returning isn't exactly the black and white situation Hercules expects, though, and he and Xena must join forces to stop Darphus's violent rampage.

While Hercules is present, of course, this episode is mostly set up to show the beginning of Xena's change in character, which will, of course, lead into her attempts to atone in her own series, with him really only having a supporting role to the main conflict. Salmoneus is thrown in to offer his typical comic relief, although he does do some important things as well, managing, in his own bumbling way, to aid in Xena's beginning transformation, and convincing Hercules to trust Xena, which he does rather quickly, considering the events at their last meeting.

Some of the plot is a bit unbelievable if you think about it too much, such as the supposedly deadly 'Gauntlet', and, as mentioned, the rather quick buddying-up of Hercules and Xena, but that's pretty much par for the course with this pair, and while the CGI is terrible by modern standards, it was in its infancy back then, and Ares is still much more of a generic background villain than the colourful and generally beloved God of War he will become, but all in all, it's not a bad episode, just the typical 'don't think about it too much' romp through the countryside that both shows are famous for.

This is a perfect example of how too many people trying to run the show will ruin the show.

Andromeda started out as a great idea, take the White Knight, drop him in a universe that desperately needs a hero, throw in the requisite 'Merlin' and a small group of, to some degree or another, reluctant allies, and let chaos ensue. The actors meshed well together, with Tyr there to throw in that little bit of 'frenemy' conflict, and the storylines, for the most part, made at least some sense.

Unfortunately, the lead actor apparently got too big for his britches and decided to start making demands. The Powers That Be decided to humour him, and then it probably should have just been retitled 'The Kevin Sorbo Show'. Wolfe left, Cobb left, they brought Bacic back to play, as I call him, 'Tyr-light' (a fraction of the attitude, none of the attraction, no offense to the actor,) and everything went downhill from there, from the increasingly nonsensical storylines to the apparent need of the writers to see how much trauma they could possibly dump on Harper. And while the last season can be given a 'little' bit of leeway, considering the trouble the studio was having and the fact that it almost didn't happen at all, it was still a ridiculously poor showing.

Moral of the story: When you have a show that people like, don't chase off the guy responsible for it.