Hercules DVD box set in the offing!

I just bought the Hercules: the Legendary Journeys Season 1 DVD box set from a friendly fellow on Ebay, for $49 plus $10 shipping. Seems like a good deal to me, Amazon is selling them for $67 and their shipping isn't much cheaper. And I don't think this is a bootleg or anything like that.

(That's shipping to the Netherlands, you realize. All you lucky Americans get free shipping, wah.)

Big indulgence for me, though. I didn't buy Buffy or Xena or Babylon 5 DVD's. Those are 'better' series, according to my judgmental brain, and I watch them all avidly, but Hercules is my special vice. I'm just helplessly in love with Hercules and Iolaus. Hercules tends to be reacting to Iolaus rather than the other way around, so Iolaus really defines their friendship.

And while the writing is awful sometimes, there are some wonderful grace notes and lots of deadpan humor.

Anyway, the set should arrive in about two weeks. Wha-hey! And ltlj has an excellent description of the extras, which include episode commentary by Michael Hurst. Can't wait.

(Oooh, I hope they get Hurst to do an extended commentary on the later-season Widow Twankey episodes. Maybe as both characters. That would just make my day.)

H: tLJ recs

I said I'd be using this journal for recs, didn't I? All right then. Here's the first, one of my favorite Hercules stories. As with nearly all my Hercules faves, it focuses on the Hercules/Iolaus relationship.

(I know there are people out there who love Ares/Joxer or Iphicles/Ares or Iolaus/Iolaus2. I will defend their right to do so to anyone, vehemently, as long as I don't have to read or rec it, for theirs is a love that passeth my understanding.)

The Old Woman, the Otterkin, and the Eagle's Child, by Pythia. (gen).

This is still my favorite of Pythia's stories. The point of view is what makes this story exceptional, IMO: when Pythia is telling a story in her regular omniscient POV she can be a little long on rhetoric, foreshadowing and explanation. But this story is told solely by Kirkell, an old wise woman of a fishing folk, and the telling grows thereby. Her voice is beautifully authentic; the fisherfolk have their own rituals and culture and Kirkell refers to these glancingly, much as I would when describing something in my own life. The story she tells is rich in detail, unhurried but full of adventure - my favorite kind.

I love the plot, too - she finds Iolaus on the beach and decides to raise him as if he were a son of the folk, not knowing that he isn't entirely his own self and that a certain demigod will be along to restore him. I can't say much more than that without giving away important plot points, so here's a sample:

"Little mother," came the question, filled with patient amusement. "What are you doing?"

"What I must," I replied. Had he forgotten the customs I had taught him? The way to treat a guest and how to acknowledge one who was not of the folk? He grinned at me, and my frown collapsed into confusion.

"Don’t be silly," he laughed. "Put that old thing away. Fetch the festival cups and put some decent mead into them. Herc's not a guest - he’s family."

"Family?" I echoed, glancing from one man to the other as I did so. Looking for my friend, Hercules had said. My friend, not my brother. There was a likeness between them both, but not so close as to think ...

"Oh yeah," that warm voice insisted, and the grin widened as he looked at the man beside him. "He is as kin to me, and all that is mine is his."

Go! Read!

Desktop goodness

Some very tasty Hercules desktop art by dbw here.

And augh! lanning has finished her latest "Identical" series installment, and I can't read it until tonight. This is pain, people. It's not a rec, this, but a commandment. If you care for Smallville at all, go read. In order. (That really matters with this series, trust me.) I will write a proper rec for this later, but "it really is the bee's knees" will have to do for today.