Lucy Lawless: Peach and A Bitter Song

"Featuring the star of Xena: Warrior Princess as you've never seen her!" boasts the video jacket for this double reel of shorts starring Lucy Lawless. I confess I've not seen Ms. Lawless's TV series, but if the cover shot of Xena in some kind of eco-metallic bustier is any indication, I'd have to say that viewers are seeing more of their Amazonian superwoman on the tube than they will in these shorts. In Peach (1994), which is kind of an extended music video involving a piece of fruit, Lawless plays a tow truck driver who hits on a Maori woman whose husband is a dork. To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, does she dare eat a peach? Metaphorically and literally, Peach is entertainment lite. In the second short, A Bitter Song (1990), blink and you'll miss Xena as a tight-lipped nurse who tends a young girl under observation for an undisclosed reason. In hospital, the girl dreams of being rescued by her father, but--as is often the case in matters domestic, especially circa 1956, when the film is set--it's actually her mother who comes to get her. Hence her daggered look when she sees her father on the way home. I guess. This slice-of-life portrait of a Greek family in Aucksland was essentially Greek to me. Aside from the Xena tie-in, I can see no compelling reason to buy this video. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Pitman)