Xena: Warrior Princess (TV Series) Livia (2000) User Reviews

You can't keep a good heroine frozen...

[xenatorres · 10/10 · 17 September 2007]

"Xena" is among the top series to 'recover' from a pregnant lead actress. Being completely unable to hide Lawless' pregnancy, they were forced to make the Warrior Princess a second time mommy. The problem with that is there's no place for a baby in an action show. Cleverly, The Powers That Be froze Xena and Gabrielle in an ice cave so they could awaken 25 years later – without baby Eve.

It was time for the introduction of a new female villain. "Xena" has always been the best series for having the best reoccurring baddies – mostly because the ones we see again and again are always humanized.

Livia (Adrienne Wilkinson) was no exception to the trend established by Ares (Kevin Smith) and Callisto (Hudson Leick) – great actor, believable challenge for Xena and oh so very human.

Adrienne Wilkinson made a wonderful edition to the reoccurring cast of "Xena". Her first major role, Wilkinson had to deal with a lot of firsts in her acting career, but her performance didn't suffer. In fact, Wilkinson triumphed in a role where she could have been easily lost, as many scenes in this episode involved Livia listening to conversations between other characters.

Wilkinson never failed to show the constantly active and working mind of Livia. The way she used her eyes and subtle body movements kept Livia active and interesting to watch, even when two more established characters were talking and she wasn't in the foreground.

Written by Chris Manheim, "Livia" was the perfect farewell episode for one of the strongest writers of the series. Her script was powerful, emotional, yet still action packed. Manheim had a talent for writing the episodes that shook things up with the children of Xena and Gabrielle.

Bloodlines

[ttapola · 5/10 · 29 August 2010]

The episode opens with a battle, where a woman dressed as a Roman horseman cuts her way through men like Xena. Ares then appears and reveals to us that this woman is Livia, historically the daughter of Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus and the soon-to-be empress of Rome. Together they plan to wipe out Eli's followers. Excuse me? Why is a *Roman* woman working with a *Greek* god? Where is Mars, the Roman God of War? The writers are not interested in such bothersome details.

Xena and Gabrielle awake from their tears-of-Celeste-induced slumber *that was supposed to last only a while* and make their way to the village at the foot of Mount Etna to find out that 25 years have passed! Wow! Xena sure is bad at calculus. This is like the original ending of Army of Darkness! They meet Joxer, his son Virgil, and Argo's "daughter" (Gabrielle's actual word) Argo II. Xena & co head to Rome in search for Octavius and Eve. In Rome, Octavius tells Xena that Livia is Eve, but does not know that! But wait, there is more! Octavius loves Eve and is going to marry her. Well, this explains Ares' interest – except that when Xena finds Ares and Livia kissing, Ares tells Livia that if Xena is alive, Eve too might be, and Livia knows the Prophecy. For a moment it seems Ares is playing Livia, but later he admits to Xena that he really did *not* know that Livia is Eve. So all his interest in her has been based on her achievements? How stupid is Ares? As stupid as the writers *need* him to be.

Predictably, the others get captured and Livia stops by to tell that the followers of Eli (a thinly veiled Jesus substitute) must select a champion to fight her "in the arena". So, The Coliseum, is, like, booked? After Octavius and Xena let Livia witness Ares declare to Xena that Livia is nothing to him compared to Xena, Xena ends up as the champion of the followers of Eli. So, the "dramatic" climax pits Xena against her own daughter. There really are no surprises on offer: the fight is choreographed like any standard Xena fight, ends predictably in Xena defeating Livia *and* letting Octavius decide his fate, *and* Octavius spares Livia, who refuses to be Eve, then departs, swearing vengeance on Xena, who prevented her from becoming the empress. "To be continued..."

All this still doesn't explain why the Roman gods allow Ares to roam and act unopposed right at the center of the Roman Empire. Writers don't bother themselves with this dilemma. A look back at the seasons of Xena shows that they pick whatever gods they need for a given episode and ignore the rest even though they have established their existence. Sure, Mars has made no appearance, but *why* would the Roman gods be any less real that Greek or Hindu gods? Also, for a moment, it seemed that the writers would just pretend all the mythological mess caused by The One God never happened, but now they have dived into that cesspool again. Were they aware of the massive contradictions inflicted on the Xenaverse by The One God? If not, they were just stupid and this is bad writing. If yes, then by ignoring this problem they insult the audience's intelligence. Contrast the Xenaverse with the Star Wars Universe that has *coherent* laws of fictional physics (that are *not* Newtonian) and continuity (even though Lucas tries his best to ruin it with his damned retconning). When a fictional world's *internal* coherence collapses, it's hard to care what happens, since the writers have proved that there are *no* rules. The work as a whole then fails to rise above the average TV nonsense. A particular shame in this case as the idea of Xena sleeping for 25 years and having to fight her own daughter is a BOLD one, borderline GENIUS. A 5/10.