Young Hercules: The Complete Series, aged well for many reasons

Yes, it really has been 17 years since Young Hercules was on television. It aired on the Fox Kid’s Network from 1998 to 1999, starred a young Ryan Gossling and was Executive Produced by Sam Raimi and Robert G. Tapert and was nominated for three Daytime Emmy Awards.  The entire series is out on DVD now and it has aged great, the humor is intact and its packed with action that is accessible to children aged 5 and up.

Sam Raimi’s style of kinetic filming, pop culture humor and quick dialogue are one of the reasons why Young Hercules is still very entertaining. The stunts have lots in common with wire fighting that you’d typically see in a Chinese martial arts film. You’ll see people impossibly balancing on one leg of a table, splitting a ladder and using half of it to get around and so on. This was the pure ‘kids’ version of the Hercules television series that were syndicated in the mid to late 90s with the other two being Xena and Hercules.

Young Hercules is not too serious, packed with tongue in cheek dialogue, humor, some hammy acting and lots of action. The action combines sword play with various forms of combat, namely martial arts. Back in the late 90’s having this much martial arts, in a children’s show was rare.  As the new millennium came around it was more prevalent, but the acting was much hammier and those shows didn’t have as much wide audience appeal.

Young Hercules can legitimately be enjoyed by any age over five. Some of the scenes may be too scary for kids under five, but of course it all depends on your child. I started to watch one episode and just like a potato chip it turned into three. They’re only 20 minutes each and they all move at a very quick pace, by the time you realize it you’re enjoying an episode, it ends and another one starts.

This is a show that parents can get because they liked it back in the day, their children will like it and everyone can watch it without worrying about the content. Because it’s good for kids there is usually a lesson taught in each episode about how to be a friend, family and such. Parents might grimace at how some of the special effects have aged, but just remember that this was a television show in 1998.  Young Hercules also had bigger aspirations than some of its live action compatriots from the same era.