The White Rose Emporium On the Big Screen, Small Screen, etc.

The White Rose Emporium On:
The Big Screen, the Small Screen
and Things In-Between

Film

Television

Videos and Documentaries

Robin of Sherwood

Xena, Warrior Princess

Hercules

Babylon 5

Miscellaneous

Buffy, The Vampire Slayer

Charmed

While I put together more items and articles for this area, I want at least to begin with one of my all-time favorite television shows, which just happens to be Pagan-flavored: the Robin of Sherwood series which was produced over a decade ago in conjunction with the BBC.

The series has become known to me (and many other American Pagans) through occasional airing on some of the more open-minded Public Broadcasting System stations throughout the country in the intervening years.
If the concept of a Robin Hood series brings to mind the pale mentions of magic and Paganism of the current syndicated series or the action-adventure/romance of the Errol Flynn movies, then you haven't seen anything yet!
This Robin Hood is the chosen son of the Forest Lord, Herne the Hunter, complete with stag-head mask and priest of the Horned-God. This band of "merry men" finds religion, not in the Christian Church, but rather in the forest. They don't always claim to understand it, but they have an inherent respect and reverence for their Divine-Benefactor, even the habit-clad Friar Tuck and Saracen Nasir. During the course of the series, we see glimpses (and sometimes more) of rituals and rites which many of us will recognize from our own practices.
And those are merely the surface details. Plots throughout the series involve the mythical Swords of Wayland, Silver Arrow and a not-so-veiled reference to the mythos of the Stag King. Robin Hood steals from the rich (and often Christian) and gives to the poor (often Pagan and/or peasant), but he and his band also fight Satanists and workers of dark magick, which serves well to point out the difference between the two groups.
I certainly don't want to forget the great music of the series. If you're famililar with Clannad from their more recent work, you may have missed some of all of their earlier work, which included most of the music for the Robin of Sherwood series. The soundtrack is an absolute must-buy on my list for any Pagan. How can you go wrong with songs like "Herne"? They're etherial, striking, dramatic and natural. Modern and timeless at the same moment. And, indeed, Clannad owes much of their current success to the notariety that the music they did for the Robin of Sherwood series brought them.

If you are very lucky, your local PBS station may still be airing the series (often late at night). The next best thing may be to check out websites and fan clubs for the series, and see if you can get yourself copies of the shows on video tape. I have searched for years and have always been told the series is out of print, and never anything to the contrary. If enough demand can be created perhaps the videos will become more readily available. Otherwise, I would encourage anyone who has copies of the show on video tape to share the wealth, as it were. Or check out the Robin of Sherwood WebSite below for info on obtaining copies through the official fan club. I don't think many a Pagan video library would be complete without some of these classic episodes.

She's a strong, independant warrior, newly-reborn with a heart of.... well, if not gold, at least bronze. She's puts herself on the line for the common man, to right wrongs and help justice along.

Alright, it's not exactly Shakespeare... But, not so far off, after all, perhaps.... Regardless, Xena is the strong female character many of us have been waiting for for years, if not decades or more. She's ultimately in charge of her own life, and if someone else needs help in taking charge of their life, then she's there.
In an age where the glass ceiling is an ever-pressing reality for so many women who are trying to strong, self-reliant and in-charge, it doesn't hurt to see someone (some woman) taking on overwhelming odds at great personal risk and succeeding, and succeeding in spades. This is one of the gifts the modern age has given our daughters and granddaughters: a heroine and role-model to replace Barbie and Snow White. I for one would rather have my children grow up wanting to be wise, crafty and strong, even a bit cynical. I'd rather have them wondering what someone's angle is, being ready for the double-cross, than waiting around for some handsome prince to save them from their troubles.
And if they pick up some handsome stranger along the way, all the better. But better again if they don't decide that he hangs the moon and stars, that they can't live without him.
Take charge of your own destiny, I say! And if nothing else, Xena has done that. From her beginnings as a raider (and a ruthless one at that) to her later drive to help those in need, she's always kept in mind her goals and been able to devise a plan of action to get there. And the few times she hasn't, she learned her lesson the hard way. Hitch your wagon to Caesar's star, and he might just run you over with it!

One of my minor problems with this series and several of the other "historial" series that are currently running: the costumes! If I see another "warrior" walking around in a skirt that barely grazes her thighs without much of anything on underneath (or over top for that matter), I'm going to scream! I know we're talking Hollywood here, but there comes a point where glamour meets gratuitous T&A, and these costumes are over the line. I know pants aren't considered by a lot of men to be terribly sexy, but if you do it right, it sure could be. And it would be a lot more realistic when the character you're dressing is supposed to be a warrior, let alone a great one! And give these women some semblance of armour, will you?!? Xena's costume comes the closest I've seen to resembling leather armour, and that's a pretty sad statement on the reality factor. Give the ladies some ring mail, at least. Dress them no less for a battle than their male counterparts. (Which, given the historical accuracy of these shows, would probably include ring mail).

But, aside from that one pet-peeve, Xena is all in all a rather good show. Beyond the rather admirable feminist content, you've got more and more Pagan themes showing up, helped out, no doubt, by producer R. J. Stewart, who should be familar to many of us from other avenues. We've had numerous episodes using (in passing or better) the Pagan temples and their priests and priestesses. There is often enough some interaction with the same set of gods used in the Hercules series, in particular, Ares, who, previously Xena's patron, is now something of a nemesis (no pun intended).
And certainly, much of our common tarot lore showed up in one of the most-anticipated episodes of the 1998 season, and indeed, provided a neat way out of a plot predicament that simply required something dramatic to allow the show to continue. Another Xena nemesis, Callisto, show up dressed (quite convincingly, like something right out of the Rider-Waite deck) as The Fool. Ares made an impressive Emporer, and Xena herself, a striking High Priestess. And the lessons of the Wheel of Fortune, and indeed the entire Major Arcana gave the characters a way to move on from devastating conflict and anger.

The interesting question is whether or not those not already familiar with the symbolism picked up on the fact that there was a theme, and what that theme was. As always, what I look for in these things which give outsiders a window into our world, these books, movies and television shows, is what it tells those outsiders about us. Does it make us any more acceptable to those who would reject us? Does it help them to understand us? I can't say for sure that Xena makes any difference. But I would like to think so. I truly hope it does.

Without Hercules, there would be no Xena. That, at least is one redeeming quality of this series. Don't think that I hate Hercules. I have one major problem with it, the same problem I had with it when it first started: while it is set in a Pagan time, with Pagan people, it holds little, if any, reverance for its gods. It's one thing to show Hera as a force to be feared within the life of Hercules and those close to him, to say that She is jealous and vindictive. It's quite another to cast Her as evil, and essentially with no redeeming qualities at all, except as a plot motivator. And that goes hand-in-hand with the downright disrespectful attitude the show has toward its entire pantheon. The gods are "petty", "jealous", "vindictive".

I know that there is a distinct difference between Pagan gods and the Judeo-Christian concept of god. One of those is that (for lack of a better word) our gods are more "human". They have faults and foibles, and are certainly not above a little jealousy or revenge. But neither are they maniacal murderers with no conscience.

Hercules masquerades as mythology, but in reality it is closer to a soap opera or a comic book. If you keep that in mind, it's not too terrible of a show, but something grates against my sensibilities when I see the closest thing most of this modern world knows to my gods portrayed as spoiled, selfish and petty. Zeus is a classic absentee, self-obsessed father. Hera is the wicked step-mother we thought we'd all outgrown after our Cinderella years. And Her priestesses are either maniacal zealots (to match their Mistress) or frightened fools. It comes close to smacking of bigotry (or blasphemy, depending on where you stand in this.)

And beyond that, there is the simple fact that I highly doubt, even being half-god himself, that anyone would have challenged a god or goddess so directly as Hercules and half of the cast of characters of this show do. Talk about being struck by lightning! The only way you'd get away with it is to be a demi-god, but that doesn't stop a lot of these people.

When it comes right down to it, the "journeys" are just fine, but the legend leaves a bit to be desired. I'll stick with Xena.

Curiously, the Hercules site provides some interesting information on the mythology of the people and times it portrays. It has an irreverent attitude, much in line with the show itself, but it's still worth a look. Mythology 101 from Hercules, The Legendary Journeys

Now, you may be asking yourself why one of the hottest sci-fi series in recent years is on my list of Pagan-oriented televison. It's set in space, not in forests in medieval Britain, nor in the villages of ancient Greece. And there's a lot of aliens and technology, not magick or gods.
There's one reason, and one reason only: the telepaths.
This was an intriguing angle back when the series first started, but when TNT commuted its t.v. death sentence, the series writers went into high gear with their telepaths. And, actually, it seems they got a lot right.
As with all (or almost all) popular media, when they mean telepath, they mean card-carrying, you've-got-no-secrets, a-little-telekenesis-on-the-side telepath. But, even knowing that, they've downplayed this just enough that those of us with any smattering of such gifts see a lot in the characters that we recognize.
Early in Babylon 5 history, all telepaths were taken in by the big-brother of telepathy schools, Psy-Corps. If you didn't want to join or take telepathy-killing drugs, you didn't have a long life-expectancy. With political events in Psy-Corps home-world (Earth) not having gone well or smoothly lately, we somehow managed to end up with an entire group of renegade telepaths seeking sanctuary on the Babylon 5 space station.
With many normal humans having known the telepaths of Psy-Corps as interrogators-for-hire, and being themselves renegades from whatever rules and protections Psy-Corps might have offered, this group of telepaths is not the most welcome thing for many of the residents of Babylon 5.
So, we have our telepaths set up for being tracked down by Psy-Corps hunters, and not being given the warmest welcome by their new neighbors. Add to that the general fear and lack of understanding most of the non-telepaths have for the gifted group, and you've got some drama coming.
Most interesting on this front is the leader of the group, Byron.

A curious combination of leader, father and teacher, he is the spokesperson for the group, and thus the target of much of the hatred and fear directed at them. And unlike many leaders, he takes a page from Ghandi's book, almost to the point of being passive (or a martyr). We'll have to see if the approach works.
But, enough about the plot. The core of the reason to watch the show (aside from the fact that the man is not bad looking;) is to experience the interaction among the members of the group and between them and the rest of the characters.
Byron and his group have become a sort of pet project for the station's resident telepath, Lyta. Byron himself has certainly started to become much more for her.

Along the way, we've seen a lot of examples of telepathic communication, empathy and psychic shielding. I'm not sure there's ever been a television series which had any sort of psychics, which seemed to understand the importance that shielding has to anyone with such talents. That shields should (and often must) be maintained constantly, and one must choose to open oneself up to some experiences if shield are not to block them out. Nor is that always (if ever) an easy choice.
There is also a clear sense of the connection between the members of the group. And I'm not talking about the camaraderie between people with similar problems and goals. These people are aware of each other and much of what is going on around them on a constant basis. Their ability is literally a sixth sense. Maybe you can't hear or see the mob coming around the corner, but you can feel them.
Once again, fictional characters become an excellent way for those of us who do not qualify as "mundane" to see how it could be to function as part of a society where "mundane" may be normal, but it isn't considered fiction. If you can imagine it, you're a step ahead. But here, you can see it, and it's nice to have that too.

Update: As predicted, the telepath storyline has ended. We'll have to wait and see what part any telepaths play in the upcoming film and limited follow-up series. For details on the storyline for the telepath episodes in Season 5, check out a great Babylon 5 website (you'll also get a lot of information on the whole series). You can also keep an eye out for repeat airings of the Season 5 episodes. (BTW, I discovered that actor Robin Atkin Downes, who played Byron, has his own official website. It seems his connection to Babylon 5 is far from over, at least as far as the show's fans are concerned. He's appearing at as least as many conferences as the show's current castmembers....)

While a series set in the fictional geographic center of evil in the universe automatically has some interesting charaters, for our purposes here, I want to concentrate not on "The Slayer" herself, but on her "trusty sidekick", the soft-spoken Willow. Early in the series, the character of Willow, already Buffy's friend, showed both interest and aptitude in the magical spells that the vampire and demon-fighting allies sometimes needed to fight off or destroy their enemies. Her religious identity was that of a young Jewish girl, uncomfortable with the Pagan connections of the magic, but more so for the sake of her traditionalist parents, rather than her own personal points of view. That was due to change, as increased involvement with magic showed her that she had both the inclination to learn more about the powers of witchcraft, and the desire to incorporate more of its deeper principles into her life.
Overly simplistic plotlines and unexplained theories in the early uses of magic in the series were often subject to derision and disappointment among those of the Pagan community who recognized the potential in the character of Willow and her path. The producers of the show had an opportunity to not only provide an excellent catalyst for and resolution to many storylines, but also a tremendous chance to take the often-shunned life of the witch and Pagan priesthood into the open-minded limelight of a fantasy/horror television series which was tremendously popular amongst teens and young adults. Most of the early episodes failed to capitalize upon this opportunity in any way by glossing over the deeper magical and religious content that would have been easy to incorporate into scripts. (Another case of seeing the glass as half-empty, perhaps, when we so rarely get the opportunity of having a positive witch character in a popular medium.)
But, more recently, the series writers have taken us up on the challenge of increasing the depth of Willow's character in magical and religious practice. Now a college student, Willow has begun attending regular meetings of the university's Wiccan student group. Rather than simply dumping her in with a bunch of fellow witches, they instead opted to show the full variety of beliefs that such a group would really hold. When Willow asks if there shouldn't be more magic-learning and practice involved in their meetings, rather than the feminist support and pro-Gaia bake-sales that the group's leadership has always been so enthusiastic about, she is told that "magic" would feed into an old negative stereotype about what witches are, and that the group is more interested in a future-forward Goddess/woman-oriented image. Needless to say, Willow is a little disappointed.
Later on, though, she does succeed, in the midst of a life-threatening crisis, in finding someone with a similar mindset: a fellow student whose mother was a witch, and who had raised her as a Wiccan, complete with training in magical and psychic practice. The two young women manage to save their lives through a joint magical effort. Future interaction between these two may be the source of some interesting developments on the magical front.
Willow's magic has also been the source of some problems for the characters on the show. Frustrated by her abilities to produce strong, predictable, magical results, Willow decides to cast a spell amplifying her magical powers so that, hopefully, everything she triest to accomplish will really happen. The resulting problems demonstrate an implied moral lesson about the irrresponsible use of magic, when, instead of insuring the success of her future spells, the powerful amplifier spell instead causes her every emotionally-charged statement to become literal truth: Giles can't really understand her, so she tells him that he doesn't "see anything". Pretty soon, he's literally blind. She's frustrated by Buffy's obsession with catching vampire-nemesis Spike, and comments that Buffy and Spike might as well "go and get married" for all of their concern for Willow. The next thing you know, Buffy's picking out the wedding dress and discussing music with her suddenly lovey-dovey, Spike. It takes some unfortunate hours and a run-in with a pack of demons to make Willow realize the error of her ways.
One of my remaining problems with the character of Willow is that she doesn't seem to have realized that there is a religious focus to both her powers and the morals of using them. We have yet to see Willow personally connect with any sort of God or Goddess, leading us to question whether this young woman is more interested in mouthing the words of High Magick from an ancient spellbook than in truly becoming the Wiccan she seems to claim that she is. She lacks the moral compass that exists outside of the magical systems because she lacks any moral instruction outside of her own conscience. I have yet to hear any mention of Threefold Law or Wiccan Rede, despite her attendance of the Wiccan student group. She has, on several occaisions, performed actions that most practicing witches would inherently know were morally trepedatious, grasping for more power or for revenge.
In one particular circumstance, upon learning that her long-time boyfriend, the werewolf Oz (played by the exquisite Seth Green), has cheated on her with the first female werewolf he's ever met, she decides that magic is the best method of revenge and sets out to perform a spell that will consign the wayward wolfman to a life of pain and heartbreak, along with the furry temptress that stole him away. Lucky for Willow's karma, before she can complete the spell, she's attacked by the murderous lady-wolf, and is then defended by the Oz-wolf, until Buffy arrives to rescue them all from the near wolfy massacre. My contention is that any witch worth her sacred salt would know better than to consign a man she deeply loved not a few days before to a life of unending heartbreak, regardless of the mistakes he'd made. The cost to her own spirit would be at least as telling as any revenge she would have, and a price would eventually have to be paid.
This incident brings up the other problem I have with the lack of religious background for the character. Casting this evil spell, she chants the names of demons and dark gods, easy enough for her, I think, because she has never personally identified with any specific supernatural force. Without a commitment to any sort of higher power, she has, over the years, freely practiced magics calling on all sorts of ancient gods and other spirits. Because of this, she has no understanding of the power that calling upon a given set of names and presences can have. She can freely call on truly evil powers because she has no concept of names of gods making any difference in the spell or her life. Her concept of "inappropriate" magic is limited to calling on the wrong god for a given purpose, rather than upon having an ill-intent or calling upon a truly evil power.
It is the religious issue which remains the biggest flaw in the reality of the character. Granted, she is not the main character, and even an hour-long television series can rarely spare the time for a deep philosophical tale, but when they build entire episodes upon the emotional and moral flaws of a young witch, there must be some attention paid to her ethical training and the origins of her powers. When, and if, the writers and producers of the show finally decide to give the poor floundering child something tremendous and imanent to rely upon, they will have finally succeeded in creating a three-dimensional character, a privilege they have already granted to every single one of the other characters in the series. (And if they want some help, I've got a plot-line or two to suggest...)

Buffy, The Vampire Slayer airs weekly on the WB cable network, every Tuesday night at 8PM EST. It is followed at 9PM by the spin-off series Angel.

The very same flaw is, to a lesser degree, present in the WB's witchiest series to date: Charmed.

Charmed tells the tale of three twenty-something sisters who have recently discovered that they've inherented strong magical/psychic powers along the matralineal line of their family. Instead of each of them inhereting the three-fold powers of their mother upon her untimely and mysterious death, each one of the girls has inhereted a single one of the three powers of prescience, telekenesis and the stopping of time. They've also inhereted an ancient grimoire, filled with the spells of each of their witchy female ancestors as written down through the hundreds of years since the very first Hallywell witch.
And we're not talking "Bewitched" here. Their powers are with a purpose: to defend the world against evil magic, particularly in the form of the family nemesis -- the warlocks of the world: evil, power-hungry humans determined to steal "the Charmed Ones'" powers for their own gain, and to the detriment of the rest of the world. Along the way, they've got to deal with real other-worldly demons who would see them dead, and evil freed to rule the world. The Hallywell home rests upon a magical node, the focus of the powers of the elements, making there presence there the only thing protecting this source of magical power from the avaricous demons and warlocks.
The biggest problem the three girls faces is that, despite their lineage, none of them has been trained or prepared in any way for the powers they came to possess or their larger task. Hallywell history proves that the next generation only attains their powers when their mother dies, and the girls' mother, having died suddenly during their early twenties, never even told them of her powers or their family legacy. All they have is the grimoire and each other. And the occaisional help of the "white-lighter" or guardian angel sent to protect them.
I'll admit it: I said when this series started that it was either going to be a disaster or a triumph for the witchy public image. It has not been a disaster. But neither has it been a total triumph. I'm holding the same "glass half-empty" position on it that I do on Buffy's Willow, and, essentially, for the same reasons. The writers and producers of the show have chosen to let us get to know these characters for a few years now devoid of any religious or moral background for their magic-use. In the case of Charmed, we've got the confusingly Christian element of a "guardian angel" (who also happens, curiously, to be dating one of his charges), as well as the thus-far tepid response of the girls to the Wiccans they've met. They certainly (unlike Willow) haven't gone out of their way to meet other witches of any variety. When they've been driven to the Wiccan community for information they needed, we meet women who worship skyclad in a public park. They may be friendly and likeable; they may call upon goddesses and worship at the quarters and cross-quarters of the year, but they're obviously only there to add a freak-factor (and a glimpse of gratuitous T&A) with their public nudity.
When the most adventurous of the three sisters visits a Wiccan bookshop to learn more about their religious origins, neither of the other two show any interest in her experience, short of asking, fearfully, whether their sister has revealed the "real" nature of their witchiness, their tangible powers. In fact, while this visit proved fruitful in emphasizing the plot-point for the episode, the importance of the Autumnal Equinox to the girls' powers and lives, this element and this experience were not, but could certainly have been expanded upon to give the girls a better idea of their religious background and other things important to their future (if nothing else, a good source of herbs and such for their future spells). The books the girl purchased are completely ignored after their first appearance and are never again mentioned to date. Another valuable opportunity to make fictional characters truly three-dimensional that was glibly lost. In fact, a primary factor in insuring that the Charmed characters, while three-fold witches of the network's target demographic, remain a fluffy ratings tool rather than well-portrayed people. I guess maybe that's what separates television from literature, or at least superb television from intriguing but merely adequate television. Get thee to a Pagan consultant, WB writers!

Pacific Blue: while I freely admit the only thing I regularly watch on the USA network is their fabulous La Femme Nikita, I did happen across an interesting episode of their bicycle-beach-cop series, Pacific Blue, the other day. The show seems to generally be "Baywatch on bikes", but took a turn for the deeper realms when it put together the episode "Lucky 13" involving the kidnapping of two "white witches" from a local magic shop by a group of Satanists. We learn that one of the new officers was previously a member of a Satanic group, as the officers set out to find who kidnapped, tortured and raped one of the young women, and where they're still holding the second. The crux of the whole incident apparently the coming celebration of a dark ritual, possibly including human sacrifice of the second girl. The new officer must return to the Satanist fold undercover in order to prevent her murder. Meanwhile, his partner (and roommate) takes a job at the magic shop in order to make contacts who might lead them to the girl's whereabouts.
The formerly-Catholic, formerly-Satanist cop faces the temptation of the old violence and philosophy, as well as the danger of going undercover with would-be murderers. His partner learns the positive side of magic at the magic shop, as well as the seductive nature of the dark promises the other group offers. Granted, we do end the episode with a Christian redemption theme, but not once during the episode are the girls' Pagan beliefs and practices questioned without having that question resoundingly answered. When a superstitous Catholic officers questions one of his fellow officers wearing a "Pagan" symbol when such dark things were going on, saying that people were "killing for that symbol", she points out his own crucifix, so prominently worn, and asks him if he'd ever heard of the Inquisition.
My mention of this episode might seem unfair in the light of the criticism I level at some of the other series I've talked about, but differing circumstances breed different opinions. This is a non-fantasy, non-horror series produced by a network that generally has little to do with the supernatural in its productions and airings. That they chose to produce and air an episode with this kind of content is very much extraordinary, and therefore deserves some attention.
Beyond that, I really reveled in finally witnessing on television the sight of a Pagan priestess character performing some portion of a realistic ritual, and then hearing a second priestess speak prayers that I know would be very much akin to my own in a time of great fear and crisis. That this can happen on television at all speaks volumes about where we have come in the realms of positive images of positive faiths in this new millenium, and where we can go to from here in terms of acceptance of others beliefs as long as they don't focus upon harm and evil intent.

Film	Television	Videos and Documentaries
	Robin of Sherwood
	Xena, Warrior Princess
	Hercules
	Babylon 5
	Miscellaneous
	Buffy, The Vampire Slayer
	Charmed