Xena Warrior Princess: Animal Attraction, Them Bones Them Bones, Purity

Oh dear, it’s been almost a whole year since my last post on Xena Warrior Princess, so I’ll understand if you’ve forgotten I was even doing this. And looking back, I can see that I started these posts way back in 2018!

But hey, that’s what tags are for. Just press a single button and you can see all my posts on this subject as though I wrote them over the course of a single weekend instead of a number of years.

We’re still at the beginning of season five, in which Xena and Gabrielle have just been resurrected for what feels like the dozenth time – although this time around, Xena has come back from the dead with a little something extra in the oven…

Links and Updates

The last time I did one of these posts, it ended with news of Nicholas Brendon’s death. Now this one begins with news of Anthony Stewart Head’s passing, and – damn. This one hurts. That we’ve lost Dawn, Xander and Giles in such a relatively short space of time is unsettling, especially when everyone was getting excited about the (now cancelled) continuation of the show that made them famous. Hopefully I can kick my Buffy the Vampire Slayer rewatch into gear again soon.

But Anthony Stewart Head wasn’t only known for Buffy – perhaps his second greatest genre role was as King Uther on Merlin, in which he infused downright terrible writing with his gravitas, and never lost sight of a cruel tyrant’s humanity (which made the character all the more disturbing). That specific brand of dickishness was also used to good effect in Ted Lasso, in which Rupert Mannion was clearly a vindictive prick, but with enough charisma to let you understand how he got away with it.

He did the rounds on shows like Doctor Who, Spooks, Bridgerton, Harlan Coban’s The Stranger, Still Star-Crossed, Galavant, Manchild, Little Britain, Dancing on the Edge… that at least, is the material I’ve seen him in. People are talking enthusiastically about something called Repo! The Genetic Opera, though I’ve not had a chance to find out more about it.

In any case, he’ll be remembered best as Rupert Giles, who started as a befuddled and rather nebbish librarian, secretly moonlighting as Buffy’s Watcher, only to almost immediately start demonstrating hidden depths: his softer side with Jenny Calendar, his fatherly instincts to Buffy and her friends, his sarcasm and wit, the glimpses of his younger years as “Ripper,” his expansive intelligence – not only in the arcane arts, but emotionally as well. One never forgets his talk with Buffy at the end of “Lie To Me.” And every now and then, whenever he was pushed to anger, he would become more frightening than any demon or vampire.

Offscreen, there was never any indication that he wasn’t exactly who he presented himself as: a very chill, kind, personable and down-to-earth man. He was a stalwart presence throughout my adolescence, and in a way (and with the full understanding that he actually has real daughters) it feels like I’ve lost a dad.

So, a very sad start to the weekend. Behind the cut you’ll find a heck-load of trailers, and plenty more projects to look forward to…

Woman of the Month: Stacie Munroe

Stacie Munroe from Hustle

The feminist debate on whether or not a woman can (or should) use her sexuality to get what she wants in life isn’t anywhere near over, and most people can’t even agree on what exactly it might involve. Batting your eyelashes to get out of a speeding ticket? Or a full-blown honey trap to trick an old man out of his life’s savings?

I mean, society looks down on gold diggers and trophy wives and sex workers, dismissing them as manipulative, shallow and deceptive. But in fiction, isn’t it kind of fun to watch? And I mean as wish fulfilment for women, not as catering to the male gaze.

Stacie Munroe encapsulates this debate perfectly: she’s a grifter who doesn’t hesitate to use her beauty and sex appeal for a range of different cons. She’s posed as anything from a museum curator to a high-priced escort, and it’s almost a given that any episode featuring her will include the mark getting Distracted by the Sexy that she brings to the table as a crucial part of the con the team are engaged in. (Though in at least one episode she deliberately subverts this by wearing big glasses and false teeth… while still shamelessly flirting with the mark).

And yet there’s no denying that she’s also an incredibly intelligent woman: not only do you have to be a good actress and a quick thinker in her line of work, but she’s fluent in Japanese and Spanish, is the team member who balances the books, and often steps in as Team Mum when the boys are fighting. Her attractiveness is not even remotely the entirety of her character, and yet she’s a quintessential Femme Fatale, right down to the fair skin/dark hair combo.

Perhaps it’s better to say it’s a role she deliberately embodies rather than an intrinsic part of her nature, and the jury is still out (and will probably never get back in) as to whether a self-aware Ms Fanservice could ever be empowering or feminist. There will always be some that insist she’s giving women a bad name and reinforcing a stereotype, while others point out that if using your sexuality works, then go ahead and use every tool at your disposal.