Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Season 4 (1998-1999)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Produced by Eric Gruendemann
Starring Kevin Sorbo, Michael Hurst, Bruce Campbell, and Robert Trebor

Features:

• Interviews with cast and crew
  
• Running audio commentaries on three episodes involving actors Hurst & Sorbo and producer Gruendemann
  
• SFX featurette
  
• Dailies from an episode
  
• Photo gallery
  
• Hercules Chronicles
  
• Actor, director, and writer bios
  
• Series trivia
  
• Producion drawings
  

Released by: Anchor Bay
Region: 1
Rating: NR, safe for most ages
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Get it!

The Hercules season four box set brings us another batch of quasi-classical action and excitement. This season is the first to bring us the evil counterpart of Hercules from another dimension (along with his requisite goatee), as well as the Fool version of Iolaus, both of whom show up again later in the series. Other good episodes include the moving "Regrets...I've Had a Few" and the hysterical "Men in Pink," which features Autolycus and Salmoneus both in drag. This season has a particularly wide range of emotions, represented carefully in both plot and acting.

Another choice episode is the season premiere, "Beanstalks and Bad Eggs," which guest-stars Bruce Campbell as Autolycus--a fact which should tell you this episode will be unique and hilarious. This one has Hercules and Autolycus climbing a beanstalk to discover the giant Typhoon and his "captive" Lianna. Hercules and Autolycus end up helping Typhoon with his love life, while also keeping Earth safe from the harpies Typhoon also has around his castle in the clouds. Bearing in mind this episode, and others--like where Hercules becomes a pig...yes, Porcules--it's obvious that there's some light-hearted stuff going on and staying on.

The features list is outstanding. Besides having all twenty-two episodes from season four in one handy box, we get a host of interviews with the actors, including Kevin Sorbo, Michael Hurst, Michael Levine, and many others. These play out for eight of the episodes and are good extras for those eight. The three audio commentaries by Hurst & Sorbo, along with producer Eric Gruendemann are a fun and interesting way to learn more about the show in general and the filmmaking/television process. They'll appeal to fans who can't get enough of their heroes and the actors who play them, but that's about it.

Another feature is the well-produced featurette "Bringing Monsters to Life at K.N.B. EFX Group," which will send special effects geeks into paroxysms of joy. Dailies are provided for the episode "Stranger in a Strange World," and they can double as a outtake reel as well. The DVD features list also includes a photo gallery, which would make a fantastic screensaver for Hercules fans. The CDROM features are also quite nice and include an episode guide ("The Hercules Chronicles"), bios of the cast and crew, fascinating production drawings, and a fun, interesting series of trivia.

The video and audio quality here are pretty much on par with the other releases and are decent enough considering the content's small screen origins.

As a classicist, I might be expected to loathe this show and object to the frequent liberties taken with both history and myth. The fact that the show was filmed in New Zealand, for example, makes Greece far lusher than it should be; however, that just lends a further legendary, mythic air to the show, placing the events in a kind of utopian Arcadia, rather than in historical Greece that was sadly lacking in literal heroes of the Hercules type. Viewers should also keep in mind that the myths were themselves not inviolate; we have several versions of most major tales--why not accept the show's versions as merely another version, and an entertaining one at that? You can admit to enjoying a well-produced show full of action, surprisingly good acting, interesting plots, and lovely scenery.

A must for fans of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, this set would please any fan of fantasy shows. Classicists should keep a sense of humor about them and they'll enjoy it, too. The plots of the show just get better and better as the seasons progress, and have something for everyone--action, adventure, "history," humor, and a lot of fun. Definitely worth a viewing.