For Love of the Show
Valentine's Day. All pink hearts and roses. A day for celebrating the love shared between people. When your love is unreturned, I doubt there is a day more depressing on the calendar -- take Joxer's love for Gabrielle. I'm sure the goof is absolutely miserable this evening.
I did have a nice little fluff piece originally planned for Valentine's Day. But recent debates on-line have prompted me to haul out the soapbox once again. I will warn you in advance folks, this one may not be that pretty -- I'm really making this one up as I go along (as opposed to the usual stuff where I only pretend to make it up as I go along).
Come to think of it, there is still a Valentine's connection here. This column is ultimately about love and what it does to people. You think anger and hatred are ugly? They don't hold a candle to what love can do. Trust me.
Those of you who frequent other Xena information sources on-line probably have an idea of what I'm talking about. Tom (you know, of Tom's Xena Page?) recently announced his "retirement" from the on-line fan community, citing disappointment with the state of the series as one of the reasons for his departure. (He gave other reasons, but they aren't really relevant to this piece.)
The announcement rocked the on-line community. The issue (as most fandom issues on-line tend to do) polarized the fanbase. The majority of them simply expressed their surprise at the announcement, sent their best wishes and moved on.
However, the reason Tom gave for his leaving (at least, the one I listed above) created a flamewar of controversy, simply because it added fuel to a fire that was already smoldering.
There is a group of fans out there that has been... complaining (that's the polite term for it) about the quality of this season. The reasons for this kvetching are varied, but most of them boil down to one of two things. Either they are lamenting the "death of subtext" (a subject I have spoken on before) or they complain about how the show isn't what it used to be.
The vast majority of these dissenting voices are "old-timers", who have been with the show from episode one. But that's not really relevant.
Okay, I lied. It is relevant, but not as a blanket generalization about long-time fans and how they need their heads examined (because I personally am enjoying the show as much now as I did when I discovered it over two years ago).
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