Xena: Warrior Princess: Season 01 (1995) Reviews

It had already been established before the first season of Xena: Warrior Princess got under way that the titular Xena (Lucy Lawless) had forsworn her former evil and despotic ways, and was determined to make amends for her past by helping innocents in distress. One of those "innocents" made her first episode in the series' debut episode: hero-worshipping young artist Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor), who decided to tag along with the (at first) reluctant Xena and share in her adventures. Perhaps as a strategy to deflect criticism of the series' violence (larger-than-life, to be sure, but violent all the same), the producers began including a final-scene "disclaimer" at the end of each episode, starting with "No babies were harmed during the making of this picture" in episode four, "Cradle of Hope". This device came in quite handy for the season's final episode, "Is There a Doctor in the House?," which the series' American distributor was on the verge of removing from the Xena package due to its violent content: The producers sidestepped this fate with the pithy disclaimer "Being that war is hell, lots of people were harmed during the production of this picture." Appreciating the joke, the distributor backed off. During the 24 initial Xena episodes, several recurring characters were introduced. Among these were vicious warlord Draco (Jay Laga'aia), Xena's ill-fated former lover Marcus (Bobby Hosea), war god Ares (Kevin Smith), Underworld overlord Hades (Erik Thomson) Gabrielle's onetime fiancée Perdicas (Scott Garrison), self-proclaimed King of Thieves Autolycus (Bruce Campbell), burned-out warrior Meleagor the Mighty (Tim Thomerson), Amazon princess Ephiny (Danielle Cormack), clumsy would-be warrior Joxer (Ted Raimi), traveling peddler Salmoneus (Robert Trebor) -- and, worse luck for Xena, her most formidable enemy, the blonde-tressed, merciless female warrior Callisto (Hudson Leick), who turned out to have more lives than the proverbial cat. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi