RE: CALLISTO

i've just gone to the Official Hudson Leick fan club site and read the
horrible news--Leick's contract with X:WP has indeed ended. Callisto
is not expected to return. apparently, everyone involved agreed that
"we had gone as far as we could with this character."

oh, bollocks. i have so much to say about this that it's brimming out
of my ears. Callisto's character is wonderfully rich and full of
possibilities. they could easily have her come back as a recurring
villainess and perennial thorn in Xena's side. HELLO--where would
Batman be without the Joker, the Penguin, Two-Face, etc.? all of those
characters were totally psycho and utterly incorrigible, just like
Callisto, and yet the Batman writers more or less had them living
forever (or at least, for a very extended period of time).

the real problem here is a sorry lack of imagination among the Xena
writers. what, they can't come up with more than a handful of storylines
for Callisto before they've just *got* to kill her off? and not just
once, mind you, but a couple of times. these writers seem to be
inordinately climax-fixated--they're constantly going for the big guns
and killing off major characters, only to bring them back in the next
episode. in other words, they constantly shoot their wad too early.
um, whatever happened to plot development? like, of the extended and
complex and character-driven kind?

this just mystifies me. Callisto is by far the most enjoyable and most
watchable character on this show. people love her. and yet, before we've
even come close to getting enough of her, she's killed off. meanwhile,
Joxer, that poor bumbling annoying idiot (who just happens to be the
BROTHER OF THE PRODUCER, duh), returns time and time again, wasting
valuable air time that could be devoted to Callisto (or Lao Ma).

hellooooo..... are there any Xena writers listening??

donatella

p.s. if you want to read the depressing news for yourself, it's the
lead story in the June newsletter on the Hudson site (www.hudsonleickfan.com).