Booooooo!
Thanks to Hulu, you can see all the episodes of Young Hercules for free, and they’re worth that, too. The humor reaches near-Battletoads levels of terrible. Just check out the titles like “Lyre, Liar.”
Hey, I can do some Greek-themed puns too:
“A Pita the Action”
“Olive You Very Much”
“Juno What I Mean?”
“The Feta All Mankind”
HILARIOUS!
The jokes in this series are like a mighty Cyclops of myth: you see it coming from a mile away and don’t laugh at all.
QUESTION: where was hunky Jerry O’Connell during all of this? He was big during the nineties, right? He would be my first, second, third and only choice to ever play a young Hercules. He has incredible heart-melting blue eyes and a likeable gee-whiz quality.
I did a double-take when I saw the credits. That couldn’t really be quirky, indie character actor and Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling as Young Hercules, could it? The star of Lars and the Real Girl, which was easily the best movie of 2008, far and away superior to any other film that year? (I am still outraged that it wasn’t nominated.)
Ryan Gosling plays Hercules as a likeable yet quiet loner. Gee, what a stretch for him.
Also, it seems the actor playing the god Aries is named Kevin Smith, same as the stoner-movie director, and I had to double-check to make sure they weren’t the same guy. I’ve had friends that swear by him (the director, that is), but I’ve never understood the appeal of his obtuse and dimwitted stoner-comedies (actually, I understand perfectly since there’s a segment of the audience that finds jokes about the Ice Planet Hoth to be the height of wit, and since my mother may one day read this blog I’m not going to say whether I’ve taken my share of puffs from the giggle-sticks). His films seem custom made for people that enjoy Family Guy, but wish it was more subtle.
Anyway, Kevin Smith’s Aries is the only guy in the series that’s sporting a little beefcake arms. He has triceps of downright Jamie Bamberian proportions.
The episode I immediately went to was “Girl Trouble,” because contrary to my reputation as an ice-queen with a withered black heart, I do enjoy love stories as much as I enjoy CGI monsters. So why not have them together? And the good-natured, macho joshing between three guys that have trouble getting laid who compete over a woman seems believable. At least until you see the girl they’re fighting over, who, in the words of the movie “Spinal Tap,” looks like an Australian’s nightmare.
Speaking of the antipodes, the best part of this series is the constant struggle of the talent pool to hide their Kiwi accents. To his credit, Sam Raimi thought of filming a cheapie fantasy series in New Zealand long before anyone else, and certainly before Peter Jackson stole the credit for that particular idea in the eyes of the world.
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