Xena: Warrior Princess : season 5 review

2001-2002	22 50 minute episodes
SF elements	gods and warriors, and very tangled mythologies
Review	The fifth season starts off with a bit of a problem -- after all, Xena and Gabrielle are both dead this time, and ascended to heaven. How are they going to get out of that? Well, unsurprisingly, with a lot of complicated leaps and bounds, and quite a bit of deus ex machina , they're both back on earth by the end of the first episode. Although not totally unaffected. Gabrielle has given up the irritating way of peace, and is fighting along with the best of them, which helps pick up the pace a bit. And Xena is going to be a mother again. Bet that will work out well. The season has the usual mix of great and not-so-great episodes, and is all structured around The Pregnancy and The Baby. It gets a bit gooey when the baby arrives, but fortunately a plot device is used to get around that problem. Implausible? What do you mean, implausible? Compared to what happened at the beginning of the season, the plot device used to get over the baby problem has the ring of solid realism to it! As usual, all the historical details are mish-mashed together in an hilarious concoction. All great fun.
Rating: 3.5	[ unmissable \| great stuff \| *worth watching* \| mind candy \| unwatchable \| unfinishable ]