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Living With Your Rabid Iolausian

A View From the Inside
(this time)

5. 'S' explains the appeal

(In her own words)

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Dave:

Well, I've written at some length about the "View from the Outside" and I think it's time for a "View from the Inside".

'S' recently wrote an article for a fan club newsletter about Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and she included a short description of why Hercules appealed to her. I asked 'S' whether I could include that description here, and she agreed (although, for some strange unfathomable reason she remains just a little shy about being identified!)

So, without further ado - over to 'S' (whose words I've put in dark blue, for reasons that seemed good at the time).

What's so good about HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS?

This show is not going to appeal to everyone. As a fan of TV who detests as many series as she actually loves I can quite appreciate this. However, I personally came across it sort of by accident. I had been 'intending' to watch it for several weeks after its initial transmission on Sky One, having seen the trailers every week.

I remember thinking at the time that this seemed to be the kind of thing I would enjoy because

(a) it looked amusing;

(b)
it had as its basis Greek mythology, long one of my obsessions and;

(c)
it had a good-looking hero who didn't seem to take himself too seriously.

Week after week went by and I 'forgot' about it. In retrospect, I now believe that this was some kind of defence mechanism because I was already obsessed with two or three other series (both of which have been mentioned in this newsletter!), and I really couldn't afford another one! However, the weekend when [a friend] and I were tiling the kitchen (and she was also doing the garden - in the rain!), proved to be my undoing.

During intervals in which I was waiting for the paint on the kitchen door to dry, I sat down and watched Sky One. It was 7:00pm (ish) and guess what was on? Yeah - HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS. It also happened to be an episode entitled 'Pride comes before a Brawl', the significance of which only hit me later, once I appreciated just why I didn't enjoy quite as much the episode the week after, but loved the next few, only to find myself feeling quite bereft during an episode entitled 'The Gauntlet'. This is when I admitted (to myself), my growing obsession with the series and realised the reason for my dissatisfaction with 'The Gauntlet' (amongst others) was because of the lack of a certain character. Yes, I had fallen (hook, line and sinker), for - not the hero of the piece, oh no! - his partner (or 'sidekick') who didn't appear in 'The Gauntlet'!

But it wasn't even that simple. Analysing it over many weeks (during which I painstakingly researched and reviewed every episode - and what a chore that was as you can imagine!), I came to the conclusion that, although I was absolutely and irrevocably head over heels for lolaus, the blond sidekick to Hercules, what was even more compelling was the deep friendship which the two actors responsible for portraying Hercules and lolaus portrayed so incredibly well. Not surprisingly, I later leamed that they actually did have that kind of chemistry, which enabled them to play the roles of two men who had been best friends since childhood, and to play that easy relationship with such ease and such honesty that anyone watching would instantly believe it to be so.

Dave:

By the way, just in case anyone was wondering, pseudonyms do count in copyright declarations!

And don't blame me for that pseudonym - it was one that 'S' selected for herself! Or do I mean that Anne selected for herself? I'm starting to get confused now!

The above article was scanned from a typewritten document, subjected to OCR, and checked by me. Any remaining spelling or punctuation errors are entirely my fault.