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40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hercules The Legendary Journeys - Season 4, November 13, 2004
I've enjoyed all the seasons of Hercules and this one is no exception. As with the other seasons, the audio and video transfer to DVD is very acceptable. It may not be the best season of Hercules ever, and we don't have anything that compares to the Golden Hind episodes from Season Three. However, this season is still highly entertaining with plenty of creativity and humor from the writers. I even liked seeing Hercules as a pig in Porkules!
I always like seeing Lucy Lawless come back as Xena, and she stars in two episodes, as noted below.
1. Beanstalks and Bad Eggs: Hercules sets out to find the kidnapped Lianna, and finds her caring for the Harpies' three golden eggs.
2. Hero's Heart: The goddess of luck, in an effort to erase one painful incident, erases all of Iolaus' memory.
3. Regrets... I've Had a Few: Death comes for Jaris, an old friend of Hercules.
4. Web of Desire: While burying a trunk of stolen jewels, a pirate captain is attacked by Arachne, half woman and half spider.
5. Stranger in a Strange World: gs: Lucy Lawless: A vortex into a parallel universe reveals different roles for Hercules, Xena, Zeus, Iolaus, and the Sovereign.
6. Two Men and a Baby: Nemesis leaves her six-month old son with Hercules, and tells him that he is the father.
7. Prodigal Sister: Hercules frees a blind boy from slavery. When they find his sister, they find her to be an Amazon warrier who believes she was abandoned by her parents.
8. ...And Fancy Free: Hercules volunteers to be Althea's partner in a dance competition.
9. If I Had A Hammer: When Hercules poses for a museum centerpiece, the resulting sculpture comes to life.
10. Hercules on Trial: When a Hercules impersonator is killed, Hercules is blamed and put on trial.
11. Medea Culpa: On a quest to kill one of Hera's deadly pets, Medea falls in love with Hercules and Jason falls in love with Medea.
12. Men in Pink: When accused of murder, Salmoneus and Autolycus hide out by dressing up as performers in an all-girl dance troupe.
13. Armageddon Now (1) Gabrielle's daughter frees Callisto and asks her to kill Hercules. Callisto goes back in time to kill Hercules' mother.
14. Armageddon Now (2) gs: Lucy Lawless: Iolaus goes back in time to stop Callisto from killing Hercules mother but fails.
15. Yes Virginia, There is a Hercules: Kevin Sorbo, the star of Hercules is missing after an earthquake in Los Angelos. The staff have an emergency meeting to decide how to replace him.
16. Porkules: Hercules is turned into a pig and is befriended by a female pig, Katherine.
17. One Fowl Day: Katherine is turned into a woman by Aprhodite.
18. My Fair Cupcake: Autolycus introduces his former girlfriend, Cupcake, to Prince Alexandros. Actually, Autolycus wants to steal a jewel from the prince.
19. War Wounds: Hercules' brother's wife is killed. Hercules' brother, the king of Corinth, blames Ajax's warriors.
20. Twilight: As his mother is dying, Hercules remembers when he, Jason and Iolaus fought the Parthans invading Caylan territory.
21. Top God: Zeus asks Hercules to help him rule the gods of Olympus.
22. Reunions: Hercules learns the real reason that Zeus asked him to join him on Olympus.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More Bruce, More Comedy, July 13, 2004
In the tradition of Hercules The Legendary Journeys, that was established after it became a regular series as opposed to a run of two-hour made-for-tv movies, humor plays the largest role in this season. Improperly done, this would have fallen horribly flat but, as it stands and taken for what it is, this is easily the wittiest and most creative season of the series as Kevin Sorbo comes into his own as a comedic straight man/action hero.
In the season opener, "Beanstalks and Bad Eggs", Hercules and Autolycus (played brilliantly by Bruce Campbell) are out to rescue Lianna, who had been kidnapped by the giant Typhoon and taken to a castle in the clouds. Upon climbing a giant beanstalk, the two unlikely partners find Lianna in Typhoon's castle, caring for three golden eggs that belonged to the Harpies. Without spoiling the rest, the high points to watch are Autolycus' explanation of the art of love and one of the classic lines of the series concerning the harpies.
The usual mixture of Pop Culture references, legend, myth and fairy tale which, though strange bedfellows are somehow a great combination, permeate this seasons episodes. In "Hero's Heart" we have a standard episode where Iolaus (Hercules' sidekick played by the very talented Michael Hurst) loses his memory and ends up fighting his best friend. Although this has been done to death in the science fiction/fantasy genres, it plays well in the Hercules universe.
There are three homages to modern cinema in this set. "...And Fancy Free" is Hercules The Legendary Journeys' answer to "Dirty Dancing." "My Fair Cupcake" is obviously based on "Pygmalion" which later became the musical "My Fair Lady" from which the title is derived and centers around the character of Autolycus and his former girlfriend. Thirdly, the high point of the season in movie rip-offs, "Men in Pink." A completely undisguised send-up of "Some Like It Hot," is worth the price of the set by itself.
In what becomes in later seasons a reoccurring event, the episode "Yes Virginia, There is a Hercules" introduces us to "reality" as some of the many regular stars of the show take on the interesting task of playing the crew and production staff of Hercules The Legendary Journeys. It seems that after an earthquake in Los Angeles, Kevin Sorbo has disappeared and chaos insues. There are in jokes we only now as casual viewers become privy to in an incredibly enlightening commentary on this one.
There are no lack of continuitous episodes and guest appearances from the sister series/spin-off Xena Warrior Princess but, at this point I felt the two series had diverged in respect to tone. Hercules, and rightly so, will always be heavily influenced by Sam Raimi and his unique sense of humor which is shared by series regular Bruce Campbell who directs a large portion of this seasons best. There are very good reasons that "cross-overs" were rare soon after these episodes though.
When all is said and done, this is money well spent and I just watched them all on a lazy summer day and have no regrets about time spent. I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the series while it was on or even want a little taste of the action and humor of the Spider-man movies. This is the same creative staff.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hercules Delivers Once Again!!!, July 25, 2004
Hercules Season 4 delivered once again with its thrilling episodes. In this season, Hercules returned with his best friend, Iolaus, to face new characters and greater obstacles. For a change, humor was a major element in the adventures of Hercules and Iolaus. The audience is taken on a journey of fun and wild adventures with the main characters. The myths and legends of Hercules also took a new twist with, "Yes Virginia, There is a Hercules" which again was a very humorous episode. The script was well written and will surely leave the audience with enough suspense to keep on watching to see how the following episodes develop. The season ended with "Reunions" as Hercules decided to accept the offer and managed to help some people before Zeus's true motivations became clear. Hera finally got to fight him head on and the results were pretty interesting and eventful. This was a good ending since the audience was brought full-circle, but is urged to continue the journey with the return of Hercules. Season 4 DVD has awesome video and audio commentaries with the cast and crew. In each case, they outlined some of the problems and some of the funnier moments shared on the set, as well as background information on the episode.There is also a CD ROM that includes Director and cast biographies, a trivia game, and a database of trivia called The Hercules Chronicles. The other extras included are a photo gallery and an interesting featurette. I definitely recommend any fan to purchase this DVD box set because of all the bonus features made it worthwhile.
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