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Have you seen The Royal Treatment (2022)?
Yes
No
Haven’t even heard of this movie
Steven L. Sears has so much great commentary in these cast/crew interviews that I just want to upload everything he says. But I don’t want to be biased. Still though, he understands the show in such a way that has always been the way I’ve understood it. Especially the soulmate theme and how these two lead characters literally cannot be without each other because they are fundamentally that of the yin-yang and you cannot separate yin-yang otherwise it is no longer "yin-yang" - which is just inconceivable because everything IS yin-yang. Everything embodies The Way. If that were ever to separate - there’d be nothing at all. That's how the nature of The Way works. He seems to understand that to a degree that's clearly influenced XENA although he communicates it in a much different way to the way I do. But take what he says here for example about Xena and Gabrielle being like the Mehndi in that they run parallel to one another and then intertwine and then part ways and continuing like that for eternity...
I mean this episode sets up the course of events for the progression of their relationship for the rest of the show. They're literal soulmates. But it also highly informs all of the narrative set ups and plot arcs and the progression of X&G's relationship even before this episode was written, so Steven obviously had been conceiving this idea for a long time. Maybe even before they realized that the LGBTQ community anchored on to Xena and Gabrielle's relationship as a WLW love story because he was one of the creators that was attesting to the notion that they would most likely have a large queer female following doing what they were doing with having two lead female characters in constant one-on-one interactions together due to the circumstances of them travelling and fighting in service to the greater good together - which furthermore is high-key due to them feeling like strangers and outsiders in their society. Therefore, unintentionally depicting a very queer narrative. I mean, straight white male or not, Steven was probably the greatest push for Xena and Gabrielle to go in the direction of a WLW romance because he understood that what they were depicting was something a queer audience would anchor on to immediately having come from the background of being a creator for a TV show that had three lead male characters in much the same environmental situation as Xena and Gabrielle were in. Riptide preceded Xena and was about three men living on a boat - of which an audience of primarily queer or gay people anchored on to. So Steven had that unique experience as a creator coming into Xena.
So if there's anybody we should be praising and appreciating for how XENA became "THE WLW SHOW" and Xena and Gabrielle `"THE WLW SHIP" - it should be Steven L. Sears because he was down with it going that way from the start of his involvement with the show and the sincerity and authenticity of which he talks about Xena and Gabrielle in the context of them being lovers and soulmates has made him a beloved member of the creators/cast/crew by the fans much more so over Liz Friedman or Chris Manheim or any female creator's involvement in the show. Steven was the creator that wanted to take the soulmate theme seriously. Steven was the creator that made sure Gabrielle had just as much development as Xena did. The storytelling flowed and thrived as much as it did alongside the WLW/queer representation because Steven inextricably combined them together. He made sure that you couldn't detract from one from the other. He made sure that all of it was a natural organic progression. And like I said - you can rewatch the whole TV show back over and you'll see that you can - because of his extremely creative and insightful contributions to what 'Xena: Warrior Princess' is - interpret it as an EPIC love story without feeling like you have to make sacrifices for or manipulate the main narratives because they all wrap around X&G both as individual queer characters and a queer character dynamic.
Here Steven is basically explaining how much these lead female characters are within and without of each other for eternity in much the same way as I've explained that they're one soul in two bodies whose spiritual essences permeated into each other to the point of not being able to separate one character from the other character even though they can be distinguishable as polar opposites in their characters - which is the true non-dual nature of what 'yin-yang' is.
Steven not only understands the absolutely profound relationship that X&G have between them but he also encourages the depiction of it romantically without weakening the storytelling that's already there and already well-established within the lore of the story and that's something that I wish creators in other TV shows would do that have a fully canon WLW/queer ship but can't seem to integrate the representation of that into the storytelling and narratives without making all of it an inconsistent, frustrating and pointless mess to watch because this is what WLW/queer representation IS. It's got nothing to do with whether it's "canon" or "main text" or "explicit" or whatever. It's to do with how well you can integrate the WLW/queer representation between queer or queer-coded characters into the main focus of the TV show and tightly wrap all that storytelling, lore and development around two lead characters that happen to be of the same gender identity without making either aspect weaker or less interesting or appealing or entertaining or compelling. Just making it so that none of it suffers because it's all important to illustrate and represent and the creators of this TV show do a damn fine job of it.
They don't always get everything right. But what they do get right - by the gods does it elevate the TV show into the queer stratosphere and it makes the pitiful attempts of it today look like an amateur's play and the reason why is obviously because they don't really care about it. Not like the 'Xena: Warrior Princess' creators did. Not like Steven did. And I'm just tired of the whole stereotype of male-created and male-dominated TV art/entertainment content being thought of as a negative to queer representation because XENA proves that wrong and I've actually seen for myself some horrifically bad WLW/queer representation created by queer female creators - believe it or not - precisely because they go full-out and full-on with the representation aspect and neglect the storytelling aspect and it's just awful to watch.
The Unborn 2 ~ Rick Jacobson ~ 1994
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From the “Spartacus” audio commentary with director Rick Jacobson and actor Liam McIntyre:
Liam: (excited) Huuu, this is the start... this is the kiss that changed the nation! That started... that started an internet revolution, Nagron, I believe it’s called.
Rick: That’s right.
Liam: There’s all fanfiction and stuff. Well, there you go.
Rick: And look, I think both, Pana and Dan, did a wonderful job with that...
Liam: Yeah.
Rick: ...and really made it a genuine relationship. And that’s one thing I’ve always appreciated in this show, and it also just speaks to the time as, you know, there was no queasiness abouth whether you’re in love with a guy, it was just... love was love, and whether you’re in love with another guy or another girl, it just didn’t matter.
Liam: I like their relationship through the whole... as a progressive... it has this charming kind of youthfulness to it.
Rick: It’s a great innocent and, like you said, genuine relationship.
Liam: Yeah, it’s nice.
Jeremiah Learns To Read (1998)
Story: Jo Ellen Bogart -- Art: Laura Fernandez & Rick Jacobson
Mini Review: Full Contact (1993)
SOURCE
Full Contact is the revisiting of a martial arts revenge story filmed some four years prior – Bloodfist. The remake sees the setting move from Manila to Los Angeles, and Don Wilson replaced by fellow kickboxer Jerry Trimble. Considering it’s a noticeably less ambitious picture, Full Contact holds up surprisingly well.
The story: A martial artist (Trimble) arrives in the city to find that his brother’s been murdered while participating in an underground fight circuit. Under the tutelage of an unconventional trainer (Marcus Aurelius), he prepares to enter the fights to uncover the killer’s identity.
Director Rick Jacobson was, at the time, busying himself with mostly run-of-the-mill action features, so it’s surprising how much he ends up getting out of this. With the help of engaging camerawork and a script that firmly establishes its characters before dropping them into the heat of action, the filmmakers get the most out of their limited resources. Despite the presence of some bad acting (that’s nevertheless counterbalanced by some decent chemistry between Trimble and Aurelius), it feels more like a genuine movie than many other video releases – not to be mistaken for a theatrical feature, but it could definitely be aired on some channel other than SyFy,
Surprisingly, the action content ends up being a minor disappointment. It’s not that the ample fighting is bad – Trimble’s fights are always highlights, thanks to the star’s excellent kicks – but despite having no less than three choreographers working on them, the fights tend to meld together, with not nearly enough variance in fighting styles or combatants’ personalities. The story’s strong enough that this doesn’t kill the film, despite its genre, but it’s ironic that the time I should choose to browse my phone during a karate movie is during the karate scenes.
This one’s not worth buying a VCR for, but if you already own one, give Full Contact a look – especially if you’ve been impressed by Trimble in other movies.
Full Contact (1993) Directed by Rick Jacobson (Ring of Fire III: Lion Strike) Written by Robert King (based on a story by), Beverly Gray (Fire on the Amazon) Starring Jerry Trimble (The Master), Marcus Aurelius (Kung Fu Brother), Denise Buick (Angelfist), Raymond Storti (Amazon Warrior) Cool costars: Pro fighters Howard Jackson, Alvin Prouder, Gerry Blanck, Joe Charles, Dino Homsey, Hyon Lee, Dennis Keiffer, and Jeff Podgurski all appear as onscreen combatants, as do Hiro Koda, Michele and Jamie Krasnoo, Mark Zacharatos, and Rae Manzon. Content warning: Sexual assault, violence against women, homophobic dialogue Title refers to: A set of rules in combat sports that allows you to strike your opponent as hard as you want but not wherever you want. Sort of a misleading name, since the fights in the film have no restrictions. Cover accuracy: The vertical stills do indeed occur. Oddly, while Jerry Trimble rocks the terrible combination of a hoodie and short-shorts, his hoodie in the movie is gray. Number of full-length fight scenes: 15 Copyright Califilm
Ash vs Evil Dead The Dark One - Rick Jacobson 2016
“Like so many of the stories that we’ve done, many many different elements came together to create a script. Mehndi was one of them and it’s something that I was a little aware of. I’ve done a little bit of reading on it. Not a lot. I believe Rob was the one who came to me, however, and said ‘Wow, this is fascinating’, ‘this is, you know, really great, what can you do with this?’
I had already wanted to grab a hold of the reincarnation idea and there are a few elements that fuelled this. One I’m going to have to reference is a song by Paul Williams, which was in The Muppet Movie. And there was a line in this one song that I felt, and I’d always felt this way, described the two characters perfectly. The line was ‘there’s not a word yet for old friends who have just met’. And I thought you know something? They are old friends. They just met. But they’re old friends. So in my mind throughout history and throughout destiny, these two characters’ souls have existed and have met, parted ways, met, intertwined, parted ways. And that fit in perfectly with the reincarnation theory but what was important for these two characters is that those two souls have throughout history intertwined, they’ve come together, they’ve parted ways, they’ve come together again, they’ve intertwined, they’ve parted ways. This has happened continuously and every time it happens in their lifetimes, they recognize each other. Not like ‘oh, you’re Xena, oh, I’m Gabrielle’. No no, they say ‘I know you. I know you and I have to be with you. I don’t know why but I do’.
Now bringing the Mehndi into it. Mehndi was perfect symbolism to this because when you think about it, Mehndi, um, if you’ve done it and if you’ve read up on what Mehndi means, it’s not just drawing. Mehndi has an entire meaning behind it. There’s a whole philosophy and spirituality based on Mehndi. The simplest part of it was the fact that Mehndi has a lot of lines that run parallel to each other and they will intersect, they will form beautiful designs, then they will part again and run parallel. Well, that’s lives. Xena and Gabrielle - those are the lives. Those are the threads of their lives. They run parallel to each other, they intersect, form beautiful designs. Then they might part but they still run parallel to each other. And what really counts is what’s between those lines. There’s the title; ‘Between The Lines’.”
Half the reason why they ended up taking the soulmates motif so seriously and literally was due to Steven L. Sears and his reincarnation idea and understanding of Xena and Gabrielle’s soulmate connection. So, in my view, half the reason why the love story is so damn profound is because of him.
Now he would be the first to scoff at that and say that I’m giving him far too much credit. But that is exactly why he is amazing and deserves that much credit.
‘Between The Lines’ took the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle to a whole other level because we do learn that they actually are true to life soulmates and all of what that informed and involved for them as individual characters as well as together as a couple. And so everything leading up to this episode now felt so much more intense and deep and poignant.
Substantial. And I wouldn’t have been able to write my character study thesis without it. Even though I don’t directly mention it - it’s sort of just embedded within the insightful interpretation that I’ve made about it because this episode doesn’t just tell a one-time storyline about the characters. It essentially informs EVERYTHING about them. Who they are and why - and especially how they are such a great team that navigate their soulmate connection to be just that.
It’s like these two people who seemed to be total strangers until this episode was seen were actually destined to meet and travel together and fall in love because their very soul that they shared fated it so.
And by the gods - I have yet to see or know a relationship that is that damn EPIC on-screen.
Xena and Gabrielle are the WLW representation you expect to be provided - considered canon or not - because this level of storytelling between female characters that can be interpreted as romantic just doesn’t happen anymore. There’s no time or room for it to in the TV art/entertainment industry apparently.