A Saturday gratitude

I've had a lovely Saturday morning. It's warm enough out that I have the window open and can listen to the birds, but cool and grey enough that I'm snuggled up in a blanket and my favorite hoodie while I do it. I'm enjoying many cups of coffee, some great fannish conversations here and on twitter, and I spent two hours video chatting with my BFF, who I don't talk to nearly enough.

Lately I've felt weirdly listless on weekends, like I almost wanted to go to work because I didn't know what to do with myself. I was feeling bored and unmotivated, and to top it off the last few weekends I've had headaches which make a lot of my hobbies tough. It's nice to be genuinely enjoying the time off.

And my fannish goal is to finish my Orphan Black vid, if not this weekend then by the end of next week.

Xena Curriculum

Note: I made some changes to the curricula in June 2018!

It's no secret that I adore Xena, but I also recognize that it isn't super, um, accessible? Especially to audiences used to higher production value and less camp. So I've put together a set of "curricula" -- episodes to watch -- for varying levels of commitment. A number of people on my reading list have remarked in the last year or so that you'd like to watch or re-watch Xena. Well, now you can just watch the best if you want.

First things first: if you really don't like camp, you probably shouldn't watch Xena. You could maybe try my Top 5, but it probably just won't be for you.

On the other hand, if you loooooove camp but don't want to commit to the longest curriculum, feel free to comment and I can write up another list of favorite funny/campy episodes. My orientation is more toward a few of the dramatic plot arcs, Gabrielle's pacifism arc, and Xena/Gabrielle. Obviously this is a YMMV situation.

Also -- some of you probably know Xena better than me! If you see any lapses in good judgement, please let me know and if I agree I'll change it!

I've included content notes of a kind for some of these -- please feel free to ask for more details about specific episodes:

*r: racism of some sort. Included in this is depictions of groups coded as "primitive" or indigenous, generally played by a mix of indigenous, non-indigenous POC, and white actors -- however, this applies to any episode that the Amazons appear in, and I haven't noted it for all of those episodes, only the ones where I find it most egregious. I also note *r for orientalization of Middle Eastern or Asian characters.

However, it is common for Xena to disproportionately cast Maori actors to play "dumb" villains of the week (as opposed to epic antagonists like Caesar or Ares). I haven't noted this as it is very common and I haven't watched all of these episodes recently.

*dv: partner violence

*c: episodes that are particularly campy *and* not essential to an ongoing plot or character arc.

( Lowest commitment: Top 5 episodes for non (or not-yet)-fans )

( Low commitment: the highlights )

( Higher commitment: most of the important plot and character arcs, as well as the best stand-alone episodes )

( High commitment: all the major plotlines and character arcs; I've just removed what I consider the worst episodes. )