Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Xena episode)

Infobox Television episode
Title=Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Series=Xena Warrior Princess

_Season=
Episode=04
Airdate=October 21 1996
Production=V0202
Filming Date= April, 1996
Writer= Adam Armus
Nora Kay Foster
Director=T. J. Scott
Guests=Ted Raimi (Joxer)
Matthew Chamberlain (Orpheus)
Anthony Ray Parker (Bacchus)
Prev= The Giant Killer
Next= Return of Callisto
Episode list="Girls Just Wanna Have Fun " is the fourth episode of the of the TV series "". [cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=vO_C4ig1h3IC&pgis=1|pages=197|title=Xena, Warrior Princess: The Official Guide to the Xenaverse|author=Robert Weisbrot|publisher=Doubleday|isbn=0385491360|year=1998] This is also the title of a multipath adventure game by Slingshot Entertainment which is based upon this episode. [cite web |url=http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/xenagame.php |title=Xena: Warrior Princess Multipath Adventure |accessdate=2008-05-02 |last=Short |first=Norman |date=October 19th, 2000 |publisher=DVD Verdict] In this episode, Xena and Gabrielle join forces with Joxer and Orpheus to defeat Bacchus, who is transforming innocent girls into bloodsucking bacchae. [cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=pkrhw3kziNQC|title=The Essential Monster Movie Guide: A Century of Creature Features on Film|author=Stephen Jones|year=2000|isbn=0823079368|pages=421|publisher=Billboard Books] The episode features a disco music theme and a lesbian subtext.

Plot

"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" opens with Xena and Gabrielle running into Joxer. Joxer has a package for Xena. It contains the talking head of Orpheus. Orpheus's head informs Xena that Bacchus has decapitated him, and that he must be stopped. They arrive at a nearby town, and Gabrielle goes to a party and dances with a group of Bacchus's bacchae: female vampires created by Bacchus. Meanwhile, Xena defeats two bacchae. Elsewhere, Bacchus plots to turn Xena into an "eternal bacchae."

The next day the protagonists go to the cemetery next to Bacchus's catacombs to collect dryad bones. These bones are the only thing capable of piercing a bacchae's heart and killing them. Xena kills one of the skeletal, winged dryads and procures a sharp bone. Gabrielle then turns into a bacchae; she had been bitten the previous day at the party. Gabrielle escapes into the catacombs and the group gives chase.

They find Gabrielle, Bacchus, and a large group of bacchae in the middle of a ceremony. Gabrielle is about to drink Bacchus' blood from a cup and become a permanent bacchae, but Xena knocks the cup to the ground with her chakram. A fight ensues and Xena attempts to kill Bacchus, but he informs her that only a bacchae can kill him. Xena lets Gabrielle bite her, becoming a bacchae, and then kills Bacchus.

Theme

"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" has a lesbian subtext. [cite book |title=How Xena Changed Our Lives: True Stories by Fans for Fans |last=Stafford |first=Nikki |year=2002 |publisher=ECW Press |location=Toronto, Ontario |isbn=1550225006 |pages=184 ] According to "The Audience Studies Reader" by Will Brooker and Deborah Jermyn, while in some episodes a lesbian subtext is implied, in "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" the lesbianism is so strongly suggested that it could be considered "maintext." [cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=MzlGK4BRGTUC|title=The Audience Studies Reader|author=Will Brooker, Deborah Jermyn|year=2003|isbn=0415254345|publisher=Routledge|pages=191] Andrew Leonard of "Salon" described the episode as the "disco lesbian vampire" episode and stated that it provided "tacit consent to a lesbian reading of the Xena-Gabrielle relationship." [cite web |url=http://archive.salon.com/july97/21st/article970703.html |title=Who Owns Xena |accessdate=2008-05-02 |last=Leonard |first=Andrew |date=July 3, 1997 |publisher=Salon] A DVD Town reviewer felt that the general lesbian eroticism in "Xena:Warrior Princess" was "amped up" in this episode, noting Gabrielle's "sexy clothes" and her looking at Xena with "hungry eyes." [cite web |url=http://www.dvdtown.com/reviews/xena-warrior-princess-season-2/2356 |title=Xena: Warrior Princess: Season 2 |accessdate=2008-05-02 |last=Feng |first=Yunda Eddie |date=Sep 20, 2004 |publisher=DVD Town] Heather Findlay of "Girlfriends" magazine itemized several scenes with a lesbian subtext. Gabrielle wandering into an all-female bar ("wink-wink"), becoming a vampire ("apparently Friedman studied that topos in her [sic] woments studies classes"), and "kissing" Xena ("oh, wait, that was a bite"). [cite web |url=http://www.mirrorblue.com/annex/girlfriends498/index.shtml |title=Xenaphilia |accessdate=2008-05-02 |last=Findlay |first=Heather |date=April 1998 |publisher="Girlfriends"] The book "Queer" by Simon Gage, "et al". stated that although the series is now canceled, the "lesbian vampire disco" episode lives on in "lesbian video player everywhere." [cite book |title=Queer |last=Gage |first=Simon |coauthors=Lisa Richards, Howard Wilmot, Boy George |year=2002 |publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press |isbn=1560253770 |pages=41 ]

Reception

Rob Lineberger of DVDVerdict.com felt that "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" was "innovative" and "strange." He felt several aspects were notable including Orpheus's head being "paraded" around on a scare crow body, the use of a techno soundtrack, and Gabrielle being seduced by the Bacchae. [cite web |url=http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/xenaseason2.php |title=Xena: Warrior Princess, Season Two |accessdate=2008-05-02 |last=Lineberger |first=Rob |date=May 3rd, 2004 |publisher=DVD Verdict] Ilya of DVDFuture.com gave the episode a grade of B. [cite web |url=http://www.dvdfuture.com/review.php?id=487 |title=Xena Warrior Princess - Season Two |accessdate=2008-05-02 |last=Ilya |publisher=DVD Future] "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" received a 5.5 rating when it first aired on October 21 1996, and a 5.2 on its second airing on June 9 1997. A Play.com review deemed the episode a "classic" "Xena" episode. [cite web |url=http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/3322213/Xena-Warrior-Princess-Season-2/Product.html |title=Xena: Warrior Princess - Season 2 (6 Discs) |accessdate=2008-05-02 |publisher=Play.com]

Two technical aspects of the episode were singled out for praise. First, a "Hollywood Reporter" article cited the winged skeletons in "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" as one of the television show's special effects highlights. [Magic Wands, The Hollywood Reporter, January 4-10, 2000] Second, the supervising sound editor Jason Schmid won the one-hour series sound editing award at the Motion Picture Sound Editors' Golden Reel Awards for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." [cite web |url=http://www.variety.com/vstory/VR1117435061.html?categoryid=38&cs=1 |title=Sound choices: 'Daylight,' 'Hunchback,' 'Xena' |accessdate=2008-05-02 |last=Paulos |first=Tally J. |date=Apr. 1, 1997 |publisher=Variety] At the Burbank XenaCon II, Robert Field, film editor for "", mentioned that there were several bloopers brought to his attention by fans. Most were continuity errors and Field showed some clips of some of them. They included a propane tank from "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" [cite web |url=http://www.whoosh.org/epguide/girls.html#whimper |title=Whimpers from "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"|accessdate=1998-12-16 |publisher=Whoosh Webmaster] , and Brad Carpenter, the outgoing "Director of Merchandising" at RenPic, mentioned that they were "Still Trying" to get the dancemix CD made. This CD would hopefully contain the Rave music played in the episode .

References

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751485/ Girls Just Wanna Have Fun] at imdb.com
* [http://www.tv.com/xena-warrior-princess/girls-just-wanna-have-fun/episode/33827/summary.html Girls Just Wanna Have Fun] at TV.com
* [http://www.whoosh.org/epguide/girls.html Girls Just Wanna Have Fun] at [http://www.whoosh.org/ Whoosh.org]