The Play's The Thing

On the first viewing, I missed a lot of dialogue because I was snickering too loudly. :) After it was done I said to myself, "Self, that was one of the stupidest episodes EVER." But I was in pain, I was laughing so hard through the whole thing. If I didn't know how long it takes to get an episode written, into production, and broadcast, I'd put money on the writers (who are new to the Xenaverse, yes?) having downloaded the past couple months' worth of Chakram archives and the other online Xenite
hangouts before firing up their IMacs. The reference to Gabrielle's "golden fleece" had me on the floor - I'm not the only one who screamed "Artemis!!!". After that I had to spend the next scene and a half explaining to my spousal unit just what that meant. (As a matter of fact, a lot of the dialogue I didn't miss from laughing I missed from explaining to said S.U. why I had just been laughing. The whole thing was just one big in-joke.) The only thing was missing was a yellow flower ... though Gabrielle did have flowers in her hair in the opening scene, they were mostly white and purple, unless I missed something.

How do we parody ourselves, Xenastaff? Let me count the ways:

The flowers in Gabrielle's hair at the very beginning. Gee, TPTB think she's a tree-hugging hippie now, too! ;)
Joxer's reaction to Gabrielle's new look. "Did that hurt?"
The whole play. Gods, I could go on for hours. "A message of peace" (as wooden dove gets yanked skyward on its string)... the hot tub, and what Gabrielle and "Xena" were doing as the curtain was pulled back ... the campfire scene ...
"Callisto"'s costume. It looked like something out of Madonna's early-90's leather phase, which I'm sure was the point.. (I wonder if that was Hudson's body double, just like the woman who portrayed Xena was Lucy's body double?)
Joxer's changing "Xena"'s costume. "Eye candy!" For the 8554th time watching this episode, I was reminded of a recent discussion in chakram. :)
Gabrielle was portrayed as a stupid, naive megalomaniac ON PURPOSE. What a switch!

Moments that made me just utterly lose it:

Xena's reaction when Gabrielle ditched her at the very beginning. "You didn't have to take that literally, you know! You could at least look back or something. <sigh> Come on, Argo, looks like it's just you and me."

The whole lineup of Xenalikes and Gabby wannabes at the audition. I was wondering if they'd just chartered a plane at the Santa Monica con or something. ;>

"You could give the play a different title." "Like what, 'Springtime For Warlords'?!"

"It'll kill 'em all!"

"'Buffus the Bacchae Slayer' is playing across the street." (That one just about gave me a coronary!)

"Oooooooooh, a centaur!!!"

"I'm a ... a.... THESPIAN!" ... "That is what she said, right?" "Uh, yeah. I'm sure it was."

"I'm gonna tell my brother!!!"

Things that made me go "hmmm":

In the opening scene, at first I thought Xena and Gabrielle were trying to recreate the "mehndi twin powers, activate" thing, and I was really confused as to why. Upn second viewing I realized they were both just doing yoga, but that one really had me wondering for a while.

So are Gabrielle's mehndi actually tatooed on, as Joxer intimated, or is she just reapplying them to keep that freshly-painted look? And for that matter, why does she still have them? Does Xena still have the chakram symbol on her foot?

"Xena's moment of redemption". Why Gabrielle, I didn't know you were writing fiction nowadays! (Where did THAT come from?!?)

The real fight starts on stage, and what does Gabrielle do? Hides behind a piece of scenery. I get the feeling this is indicative of how things are going to go from now on ... and I don't like it one bit. Sigh.

Assorted thoughts:

I thought Jennifer Ward-Lealand was absolutely brilliant in this. She reminded me of Marcia Wallace.

Once again: Xena, get the bangs back. Either that, or tie all of your hair back. The "Debt" look was great, but this faux-samurai thing just ain't cutting it (so to speak).

I'm sorry, I know I'm in the minority here, but I think ROC looks really cute with short hair, and this is getting reinforced with every passing week. As long as they keep remembering that there was no such thing as mousse in ancient times, we'll be fine. :)

Once again, Xenastaff show us that they have WAY too much fun putting this thing on the air. And while I'm probably not going to be motivated to watch the episode many more times, it was still a fun hour of mindless entertainment. Heck, even my militantly non-Xenite S.U. liked it. :)

Episode Rating: 8

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