DVD
Xena: Warrior Princess
Season 4

Starring: Lucy Lawless
Universal Playback
RRP: £34.99
8249704
Certificate: 15
Available 20 August 2007


In this the fourth season of the series, things go back to (almost) normal for our hero Xena Warrior Princess and her bard friend Gabrielle. As they continue on their adventurous travels this series takes them to far away lands, the past and the future as they confront old enemies, make new ones, battle monsters and help mend broken families as well as themselves on journeys of discovery...

Season Four of Xena: Warrior Princess started off dark and pretty much stayed that way, after all causing the death of your best friend and her baby is bound to have some consequences. As the season opens, with Adventures in the Sin Trade (a two parter), both Gabrielle and her child are dead and Xena attempts to travel to Hades to make her peace with the deceased, I'm guessing a "sorry" isn't going to cut it here.

It's not giving much away to say that Gabrielle does eventually return to the show, had she not the fans would have torn the limbs off the writers. And given that much of the shows appeal came from the chemistry between Lucy Lawless (Xena) and Renee O'Connor (Gabrielle) it would have irrevocably damaged the show. So the search for Gabrielle and its consequences drive the first portion of the season.

If Season Four could be said to have a theme it would be one of consequences, not just for what Xena did to Gabrielle, but also in this season most of the characters go through a period of soul searching and transformation and Xena's past starts to catch up with her. However, this was also the season which Xena, as a show, started to run into trouble, not least because of its increasing reliance on parodies.

So we have If the Shoe Fits (Cinderella), A Tale of Two Muses (Footloose), Keys to the Kingdom (Raising Arizona) and The Play's the Thing (The Producers). Bulk that out with a trip to India and a few more stories involving the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey and even Bruce Campbell's irresistible performances make it difficult to think of this season as anything other than significantly weaker and decidedly more uneven in its quality.

Season Four ends on an odd note in Déjà vu All Over Again, by transporting the main characters into a modern setting. The story also had the distinction of being Renee O'Connors debut as a director.

The show still suffers from repetition and especially the variable quality of the acting, though all the cast seem like they are having a ball making the show. This season did maintain its quota of bosoms and swords and with this, and strong female leads, it had some thing for both sexes.

The discs are presented in their original aspect ratio, with no extras and no subtitles. In this day and age of multi-region machines it's hard to know who this box set is going to appeal to, after all the sets have already been out in the States and that was with commentaries, interviews, a remixed sound track and good extras. The box sets would have to be significantly cheaper than their Anchor Bay equivalents to be a bargain.

Charles Packer

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£34.99 (Amazon.co.uk)
   
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£27.99 (Play.com)
   
£34.99 (HMV.co.uk)
   
£29.97 (Asda.co.uk)
   
£29.97 (Thehut.com)

All prices correct at time of going to press.