Saturday, October 15, 2016

Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire

This goofy show follows in the footsteps of Xena, though it is entirely a comedy with much more overt sexuality. Krod (dork spelled backwards) is an incompetent leader of a band of rebels. He wields the Flaming Sword of Fire though he has a habit of misplacing it. "Where's my sword?" His nymphomaniac girlfriend, Aneka, is a Pagan (the actual name of her tribe, it seems). There is also the oafish Loquasto who appears to be some variant of orc though he says he's a Grobble. He is strong, both physically and in odor. The party wizard is Zezelryck (Kevin Hart), who is mostly incompetent and does far too much speaking. Lastly, there is Bruce, the unambiguously gay character. The adventures of this sad band are not the stuff of legend. Success is more often stumbled upon by accident.

The villain, who seeks to rule all the lands and stamp out Krod and the rebels he represents, is Dongalor. He's a portly Dr. Evil. He has a number of lackeys, the most notable being Barnabus, a deadpan fellow who sees the flaws in Dongalor's plots but nonetheless eagerly does his bidding. One funny bit about Dongalor was his illegitimate son. Upon learning that he had an illegitimate son, he suggested that the son might like a boat ride then, under his breath, ordered Barnabus to see to it he drowned.

Surprisingly, this lowbrow show had John Rhys-Davies (Gimli from Lord of the Rings) as a guest star. He was Grimshank the Wizard, a central figure for the first season though he wisely died to avoid further visits to Hessemeel.

The show is produced in Britain and thus 6 episodes constituted the season. I only saw the final three episodes. Though occasionally amusing, the goal mostly seems to be puerile humor and sexual innuendo broken by the sporadic fights. Also, like Xena and Hercules, there is an effort to insert modern conventions into the show, such as singles' night at the tavern. This show is a big step down from Xena and Hercules which were themselves campy fare.
 
I saw this back in July 2009 and, not surprisingly, there was no second season.  Kevin Hart has done quite well since this show.

No comments:

Post a Comment