Girl Zorro: initial thoughts
I have finally watched the first episode of Queen of Swords, aka “90s Girl Zorro.” I hereby declared this series to be awesome. Please note that “awesome” and “good” are not always synonymous.
The series is, literally, a female “Zorro.” I understand there were lawsuits. Neither the acting nor the writing is anything resembling stellar-the plot relies on people conveniently not noticing that The Queen of Swords showed up immediately after the heroine, Tessa, returned to California from Madrid, and just happens to be concerned about the same family as Tessa, and only Valentine Pelka (chief villain) and Paulina Galvez (Marta, Tessa’s servant/girlfriend/best friend) really turn out anything that could be justifiably called “real acting.” (Before anyone says “what about Peter Wingfield?” well, if he was in this episode, it was a 2 second cameo that I missed.)
Yet, it’s quite fun, though not really in a campy or even “so bad it’s good” way. This could change!
Like most of the heroines in 90s adventure TV, Tessa is cocky, competent, and skilled in her chosen field. I can’t help but think that this trend explains a lot about my love of campy 90s TV, no matter how much these things may fall into clichéd gender traps. And about 2/3 of the lines were from women, mostly talking to each other? In a swashbuckling adventure show! Also, the two main characters (in this episode, at least, I suspect non-Tessa character focus will shift) are Hispanic women, who practically don’t exist in US TV. At least, not with lines and without being the Gangster of the Week’s Girlfriend/dead sister.
I kinda can’t wait until Tessa learns that the guy who spent the episode hitting on her and thinks changing a kid’s execution to a whipping is a love token is the one who killed her father.
The series is, literally, a female “Zorro.” I understand there were lawsuits. Neither the acting nor the writing is anything resembling stellar-the plot relies on people conveniently not noticing that The Queen of Swords showed up immediately after the heroine, Tessa, returned to California from Madrid, and just happens to be concerned about the same family as Tessa, and only Valentine Pelka (chief villain) and Paulina Galvez (Marta, Tessa’s servant/girlfriend/best friend) really turn out anything that could be justifiably called “real acting.” (Before anyone says “what about Peter Wingfield?” well, if he was in this episode, it was a 2 second cameo that I missed.)
Yet, it’s quite fun, though not really in a campy or even “so bad it’s good” way. This could change!
Like most of the heroines in 90s adventure TV, Tessa is cocky, competent, and skilled in her chosen field. I can’t help but think that this trend explains a lot about my love of campy 90s TV, no matter how much these things may fall into clichéd gender traps. And about 2/3 of the lines were from women, mostly talking to each other? In a swashbuckling adventure show! Also, the two main characters (in this episode, at least, I suspect non-Tessa character focus will shift) are Hispanic women, who practically don’t exist in US TV. At least, not with lines and without being the Gangster of the Week’s Girlfriend/dead sister.
I kinda can’t wait until Tessa learns that the guy who spent the episode hitting on her and thinks changing a kid’s execution to a whipping is a love token is the one who killed her father.