Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Season 2: Difference between revisions

     |epnum = 201

     |epname = The King of Thieves

     |firstwatched = 2025-03-24

     |thoughts = Guest starring [[Bruce Campbell]] as... more or less a mixture of Bruce Campbell and Robin Hood. Fun character, glad to know he'll be back.

     |epnum = 202

     |epname = All That Glitters

     |firstwatched = 2025-03-31

     |thoughts = Las Vegas B.C.

     |epnum = 203

     |epname = What's in a Name?

     |firstwatched = 2025-04-01

     |thoughts = When I saw an upcoming episode had a false Hercules played by Kevin Smith, I thought it would lean heavily to comedy. But... I was thinking ''Silent Bob'' Kevin Smith, rather than just another beefy guy who shares his name.

     |epnum = 204

     |epname = Siege at Naxos

     |firstwatched = 2025-04-13

     |thoughts = I thought the guy who played Goth looked familiar, but I wasn't sure if he just had a very typical baddie look. As it turns out it was kind of both ways. He looked familiar because I've probably seen him in such roles dozens of times, just in bits small enough I didn't recognize him as one actor. But he's [[Brian Thompson]].

     |epnum = 205

     |epname = Outcast

     |firstwatched = 2025-05-01

     |thoughts = Return of some characters seen last season, including one of [[Lucy Lawless]]'s earlier characters. They even lampshade it.

     |epnum = 206

     |epname = Under the Broken Sky

     |firstwatched = 2025-05-13

     |thoughts = Salmoneus with a fez? 👍

     |epnum = 207

     |epname = The Mother of All Monsters

     |firstwatched = 2025-05-30

     |thoughts = Just rewatching the last few episodes of [[Cobra Kai]] over the last few days, then this... I guess I can't escape [[Martin Kove]]. These shows really are a treasure trove of lower-budget 80s/90s actors.

     |epnum = 208

     |epname = The Other Side

     |firstwatched = 2025-06-05

     |thoughts = I liked this episode. At times I was wondering: Is the show getting better? Or by now have I just appropriately set my expectations for the show so now the same things land better? Anyway.

     |epnum = 209

     |epname = The Fire Down Below

     |firstwatched = 2025-06-21

     |thoughts = This show likes to have recurring characters, but it also likes to recast everyone. I didn't realize Nemesis WAS Nemesis until Hercules said so.

     |epnum = 210

     |epname = Cast a Giant Shadow

     |firstwatched = 2025-06-23

     |thoughts = The... basic plight of Typhon I find strains my suspension of disbelief. 1) He's stuck there for a hundred years, and not starved to death? 2) He's relatively close to both Echidna's lair and Hercules's hometown (previously established as nearish Echidna's lair), and neither Echidna nor Hercules heard any stories of a giant trapped by the road? Hercules in particular seems to spend most of his time wandering around, so how unlucky to have apparently just missed this road in his region for his entire life.

     |epnum = 211

     |epname = Highway to Hades

     |firstwatched = 2025-06-25

     |thoughts = Almost a direct followup to the most recent episode of [[Xena: Warrior Princess Season 1|Xena]], "Death in Chains". Sisyphus was supposed to die at the end of that one but wasn't because uhh... Death was distracted by another dying guy and can't multitask, apparently?

     |epnum = 212

     |epname = The Sword of Veracity

     |firstwatched = 2025-07-08

     |thoughts = Iolaus go one episode without thinking he's met the new love of his life challenged FAILED.

     |epnum = 213

     |epname = The Enforcer

     |firstwatched = 2025-07-12

     |thoughts = This was probably the most cartoony episode yet. Chariot wheels spinning and smoking, the sharp outline of guys who have been thrown through walls. And though not exactly a cartoon, the Enforcer being 100% inspired by the Terminator is a pretty odd fit for mythical times as well. I say all this in a good way--goofy fun is something this show can do well.

     |epnum = 214

     |epname = Once a Hero

     |firstwatched = 2025-07-15

     |thoughts = Taking some obvious inspiration from the old Jason and the Argonauts movie, as they make explicit in the credits. Fighting skeletons done with CG rather than stop motion, and considering the usual state of CG on this show I feel like it was done pretty well.

     |epnum = 215

     |epname = Heedless Hearts

     |firstwatched = 2025-07-20

     |thoughts = Kind of a weird episode. The "Iolaus seeing the future" and "stopping another bad ruler" stories didn't have much to do with each other, but I guess they didn't think either was enough to fill an episode.

     |epnum = 216

     |epname = Let the Games Begin

     |firstwatched = 2025-07-21

     |thoughts = Aaand the origin story of the Olympic games. Competition so friendly it turns even some crazy warriors friendly.

     |epnum = 217

     |epname = The Apple

     |firstwatched = 2025-07-21

     |thoughts = Bitchin'. The series is fully a cartoon now, so Iolaus surfing on a piece of wood and Aphrodite surfing on a shell and using surfer slang is no longer strange in this world. Some random kids also accidentally discovering surfing... that starts to seem unlikely. Must happen every day? Like, mankind would be unable to avoid surfing, just as they were unable to avoid fire.

     |epnum = 218

     |epname = Promises

     |firstwatched = 2025-07-26

     |thoughts = In this world, monarchy is pretty common. But in this world, monarchy kind of means "The king rules, unless he does stuff Hercules doesn't like."

     |epnum = 219

     |epname = King for a Day

     |firstwatched = 2025-07-27

     |thoughts = That was a pretty good episode. Recently on Xena there was an episode with Gabrielle off by herself, and this is similarly an Iolaus off by himself episode, but their situations are quite different. Iolaus is still an experienced and skilled warrior, just without the Zeus genes making him so unbeatable.

     |epnum = 220

     |epname = Protean Challenge

     |firstwatched = 2025-07-30

     |thoughts = At first when Iolaus left Hercules digging a hole, I thought "Another Hercules-lite episode in a row? Was Sorbo sick?", but no, regular episode.

     |epnum = 221

     |epname = The Wedding of Alcmene

     |firstwatched = 2025-08-04

     |thoughts = If you'd told me this was a season-ender I'd have believed it. Big story for Hercules personally, and a LOT of returning guest characters for just small moments. Including Salmoneus for just a few seconds at the end. He was probably already filming a Xena episode a mile down the road or whatever, so it was no biggie to get him there.

     |epnum = 222

     |epname = The Power

     |firstwatched = 2025-08-08

     |thoughts = Horny as the gods seem, it makes sense there'd be more demigods out there for Hercules to stumble onto. Not a bad take on it, a young man struggling with a reality he didn't know about. Excitement about having powers, confusion about his father lying about it for so long, worry over how to use the power without overstepping bounds...

     |epnum = 223

     |epname = Centaur Mentor Journey

     |firstwatched = 2025-08-09

     |thoughts = They've touched on prejudice against centaurs before, but I don't think they ever made such an obvious metaphor to the civil rights movement of the 60s. Like, centaurs not allowed to drink from the same fountain as humans. Disagreements over whether a march should be violent or peaceful.

     |epnum = 224

     |epname = The Cave of Echoes

     |firstwatched = 2025-08-11

     |thoughts = Cave of Echoes? Echoes of past episodes more like. I was curious what kind of big sendoff they'd give the season, and the answer is... clip show! What is this, [[Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2|Shades of Gray]]? Though I'll admit, the bit where they showed clips for how often rocks fall down on them was pretty funny.