Young Hercules
Tags: violence

Plot synopsis:
The show features the efforts of Ares, the god of war, played by Kevin Tod Smith, who attempts often to destroy his younger half-brother to win over Zeus' good graces. Among his group is his nephew Strife (Joel Tobeck), who is the rather weaker member of the team. Strife's mother is Discord, goddess of retribution (Meighan Desmond), who acts more level-headed and power hungry than her counterpart on more than one occasion. The series has two other villains: Hera, queen of the gods and Hercules's stepmother; and Apollo, god of the sun and Hercules's half-brother.
The storyline follows Hercules (Ryan Gosling) as he attends Cheiron's Academy to train in the arts of the warrior under the wise headmaster Cheiron the Centaur (Nathaniel Lees). He makes friends with the future king of Corinth Prince Jason (Chris Conrad) and a thieving former member of a bandit group named Iolaus (Dean O'Gorman), who was sentenced to train at the academy as an alternative to prison for his crimes. Hercules also meets the academy's first female cadet, Lilith (Jodie Rimmer). Other characters of interest include Kora, the inn keeper who unknown to Hercules and his friends is a devotee of Artemis: Goddess of the Hunt. As the series develops, Kora is revealed to have special powers which allow her to do Artemis' bidding. There are hints of romance between Hercules and Kora, although their friendship keeps it all innocent.

Review: Entertaining for Children.
The television series of "Young Hercules" was not a useless one.
From my perspective, it was a good show for the younger audience, especially considering it was called YOUNG Hercules.
The actors did well in their roles and the show was great for kids.
The show was not meant to be as fantastic or awe-inspiring as were the originals, it was meant for younger people.
It is an interesting show when one is twelve or thirteen.
"Young Hercules" was a means of gaining a wider audience.
The story lines had to remain simple enough for children, not complicated as in the adult versions.
So when one comments on how foolish something is, they should really look at it in order to understand it better.
And after all, it is not serious - it's mythology..
Yet another great show that didn't last.
A spin-off/prequel of the equally as great "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys", "Young Hercules" was a fun and entertaining show for young viewers that never really got a chance.
The show was I believe on Saturday mornings and was easily one of the best shows Fox had on at the time.
While Ian Bohen had played Hercules in the YOUNG HERCULES movie and some of the "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" episodes, he was replaced here with Ryan Gosling who did an impressive job with the role.
Also good with their roles was Chris Conrad as Jason, Kevin Smith as Ares, and Dean O'Gorman as Iolaus.
In addition to the rather good acting, the directing and writing were also surprisingly well done.
It would have been cool to have executive producer Sam Raimi direct an episode, but that never happened.
Perhaps if he had been more involved in the show, it would have become more popular and might not have been canceled..
Great show with cute guys.
I have seen this TV show and I really like it.
I enjoy it because it is the adventures that Hercules had growing up.
If you like Hercules Legendary Journeys you should watch this show!This show also has cute guys in it!.
Cute Actors!.
I love to watch reruns of this show!
Ryan looks hot in leather!!
I'm glad to see that WAM plays the reruns.
I known that this show is aimed for younger views but I can't resist watching it every time it's on.
You don't need to be a master in Greek history to understand this show, which is great because I'm not..
An adventurous counterpart made just for the younger population!!.
Young Hercules is a very upbeat and adventurous counterpart to the adult version of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
Unlike Hercules:TLJ, Young Hercules is obviously aimed at younger kids who couldn't be interested to sit for an hour and watch some boring episode of Hercules and get completely confused by watching plot lines twist and turn, people dying, then coming back to life.
Young Hercules offers them the chance to love Hercules and Ancient Greece by giving them action packed episodes that are only a half hour long.
Perfect for anyone who loves Ancient Greece and Hercules, heroes and gods, but doesn't want to be confused, or sit through an entire hour of television of the same thing over and over again.
nice.
part of a fashion about Ancient Greek hero, it can not be original or surprising.
its virtue is the freshness, the inspired manner to create a series for kids in which the adventures are expressions of basic values and the spirit of age.
it is not really serious or dramatic or exotic.
but each of that sins is important for a coherent message.
because it is an introduction in the universe of myth and the art to give the perfect language for present it is not a small detail.
so, an useful series.
for a public who search the emotions of great events, who preserves the resources of imagination and for who the life/word is a conquest of every day.short, a nice work.
interesting as class tool and for the definition of start in life for a great hero..
good intentions.
the Ryan Gosling.
the Ryan Gosling.
as the young Hercules.
because the script and the acting are far to give more.
and the desire to use the success of other series is the worst idea.
the disrespect to the Greek mythology is only a small detail.
the real sin is the ignorance to propose a coherent story.
the fights and the expressions of friendship are not convincing because each is only a drawing.
the good intentions are suffocated by costumes and silly situations.
Hercules is a hero and his grow up in the series is only the ordinary grow up of a young man from our time.
and imagination of scriptwriter is ill.
so, the great fans of the Kevin Sorbo are the only happy public of this bizarre series..
Ian Bohen was better.
The show wouldn't have been made if Ian Bohen didn't play Young Hercules in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
Ian looks and acts way better than Ryan Gosling.
Ian looks more like the part and Gosling isn't that great of an actor.
If Ian didn't want the part, the show should have been scrapped.
The show would have lasted longer and would have been more popular if Ian had taken the part..
All Myth, All Teen, All Hero!.
Call me biased, but I believe that Young Hercules was potentially the best flower-bud out of the Xenaverse garden that never had a chance to bloom.
When I was little, this was my favorite show, as I was such a fan of Hercules and Xena.
Yes, it appealed more to kids with the half-hour time slot, the modesty in attire and language and the airing on FOX-KIDS, but more and more there became a teen and adult fan-base to it as well and it was destined to go places as shown in a later Hercules episode.
(S05E17- The Academy).
As far as inconsistencies go between the shows as some have pointed out, they do take certain things into account and both shows adapt.
Things such as: Hercules' mentor from the beginning of the series had been a centaur named Ceridion, when later on, during the flashback episodes of Hercules and then on, Cheiron the centaur had been his mentor; Hercules' encounter with a golden hind before meeting Serena in the adult series; encounters with the sand sharks and more than several accounts of the location and pieces of the Cronos stone.
Some do forget, though, that Hercules adjusted itself as well and there are inconsistencies in the show itself (Remember when Ares was just a scary moon dude?
You know...
BEFORE the great, late Kevin Smith?) So yeah, Hercules is growing up.
He's still an unsure kid, growing into his powers and he's running into things that normal teenagers run into as well, including tests and school, all the while trying to maintain the good heart and spirit that his mother taught him to have.
There is a strong Hercules vs.
Ares complex, which again, focuses on family and relationships.
Ryan Gosling (arguably one of the most popular actors of our current day and age), growing into himself as an actor at the time as well, couldn't have been a better replacement for Bohen who decided to back out of the series.
Reprisals of Iolaus, Jason, and Cheiron by Dean O'Gorman, Chris Conrad, and Nathaniel Lees were refreshing at the least and most welcome.Young Hercules had its darker, more serious moments, but at the very heart, it was a light-hearted, feel-good show that was a great adventure for a child, an obsessive teen, or a general fan of the Xenaverse shows!
(I still watch it when I'm looking for a pick-me-up!) Filled with modern gags, old slapstick, moral lessons and packed with all kinds of adventure, Young Hercules is the show with the most potential that never came to be..
They should have kept Ian Bohen and finished out the story line, too..
Too bad Ian Bohen didn't stay on with the series.
Ryan Gosling is a fine actor, but he does not have the quirkiness that Ian Bohen did when he played Young Hercules in "Hercules, the Legendary Journeys." And the chemistry among Hercules, Iolaus, and Jason just isn't quite the same.
But you still got to love Kevin Smith as Ares, the god of Warhe was just so good at being bad.The worst part is that the series just stops mid-stream.
They should have done one more year and wrapped things up.
They could have at least covered the items brought up in "Hercules, the Legendary Journeys" for example: Lilith getting pregnant with Jason's child and Hercules and Nemesis' relationship.
At least the viewers wouldn't have been left just hanging with no conclusions or closures.
They talk about fan/viewer loyaltyhow about reciprocating some of that loyalty to the viewers???
Don't get us hooked just to slam the door in our faces!!
I liked the series very much and would have liked to see it continued.There is one odd part in this series thoughHercules has other mortal half-brothers fathered by Zeus (Pollux, Castor, and Lucius).
In "Hercules, the Legendary Journeys," there was only one other half-mortal/half-god mentioned and it was indicated that they were the only two half-mortals/half gods that existed (Hercules and Aphrodite's son, Deon, in "The Power" Season 2 Episode 22).
So Hercules just forgot about the other three in the Legendary Journeys???
(I know Young Hercules was filmed after The Legendary Journeys, but the writers should have paid more attention to details.).
When this aired on television years ago, I watched a few episodes.
I thought the character of young Hercules was miscast.
Here's why: at the time I was a regular viewer of Hercules The Legendary Journeys.
Ryan Gosling looks nothing like Sorbo or Ian Bohen(whom played young Herc in that series).
It was just really odd seeing Ryan in the role and I couldn't get into it at all.
Fast forward 14 years later.
Young Hercules shows up in one of my subscription services.
So I give it a try.
Guess what?
I absolutely loved it!
Better than Hercules TLJ!
Better than Hercules TLJ!
For the exact reason I couldn't watch before, Ryan Gosling.
What's different now?
I rarely watch Hercules TLJ anymore.
Maybe once a year I'll watch an episode or two.
So I didn't find it so odd seeing Ryan in the role this time around.
It turns out he has heaps and heaps of charisma and warmth.
He's very cute and funny and you can already see how talented an actor young Ryan is.
He made this show very enjoyable.
He is the number one reason why I liked this better than Hercules TLJ.
In comparison to Sorbo, he's like a breath of fresh talented air.
His portrayal of young Hercules was never boring.
His acting never wooden.
Can't say the same for Sorbo or his portrayal.
Even Ian's performance was dull in retrospect.
I think he tried too hard to imitate Sorbo's style.
And he's not an actor anyone should ever imitate.
Thus this series wins out over it's predecessor.
Let me be clear, I'm not a Ryan fangirl/boy.
In fact, I've only ever seen him in two movies.
It's just that my perspective has changed given that I'm no longer a regular viewer of Hercules TLJ, and I was able to give Ryan and the show a chance that I couldn't seem to before, and stunned myself at how amazed I was at Ryan's performance, and how much fun I had watching this.
Logically I know this show was meant for teens/pre-teens, however my interest now and then for giving it a try was because it was in the Xena Hercules vein.
I was interested in seeing how some of the same characters were portrayed, and how, if any, it would pre-explain anything that ever took place in Hercules or Xena, story-wise or character-wise.
Now I'm very glad I gave it a try and watched the entire series.
The series itself has 50 episodes.
I had no idea there were that many.
How lovely for me.
They are a half hour each.
Filled action, adventure, mythology, silliness, and those famous wink wink moments as it's predecessors.
And of course the beautiful New Zealand scenery that takes your breath away, plus another amazing sound track by Joe Loduca.The series revolves around Hercules and his friends Iolaus and Jason, and their time at a training academy for warriors.
The three of them have great chemistry and camaraderie together.
The stories are quick, yet neatly wrapped up.
All of them very lighthearted.
You see many of familiar characters, such as Ares, Discord, Strife, Alcmene, Hephaestus, Bacchus, Cheiron, Orpheus, the Centaurs, the Amazons.
You'll also see many of the same actors from Xena and Hercules TLJ, in different roles.
It was kind of fun to spot them.
Plus there were many new characters that were shown.One thing that bothered me was Ares.
They wrote him as over-the- top immature.
He is a little immature in Xena, way more so in Hercules TLJ, but here it's almost ridiculous.
Kudos to the late Kevin Smith for his portrayal, however.
He gave it his all.
He was absolutely wonderful in an episode where he sang, plus another where he played an Ares look-alike.
Don't get me wrong, I liked Ares here too.
It's just that it was a little jarring that the writing for the character wasn't more evenly done.
Another thing I didn't like was the Strife character.
He was, believe it or not, even more annoying here than in Hercules TLJ.
He's a character I could have done without altogether on both shows.
There are some inconsistencies in relation to Herc and Xena, such as The Golden Hind.
In Hercules TLJ, Herc gives no indication that he knew about them before.
Well they made it up here that he did meet up with them.
There's a few things like that throughout the series.
For me it was something I could easily overlook.
This is not masterpiece theatre, OK, just a fun ride!
Other than those few minor complaints, everything else was good.If you watched Hercules TLJ and/or Xena and loved either one of those, and are looking for something similar and lighthearted, I highly recommend this for you.
Ryan Gosling truly made a wonderful and believable young Hercules.
With his warmth and charm, and humour, he's quite adorable to watch.
It's too bad there weren't more episodes.
From what I've read around online, it seems many thought the same as me years ago, that the role was miscast.
But really it wasn't.
It was perfectly cast!
I only wish I knew it then.
I was so upset when this show got replaced..
Young Hercules was a fun show.
This is a prequel to Hercules The Legendary Journeys.Ryan Gosling does a good job of Hercules.
Ian Bohen (who played Young Hercules in flashbacks of Hercules TLJ) looks more like Kevin Sorbo, but Ryan Gosling had more screen presence.
He showed a fun side of Hercules before he fully matured and got older.A lot of familiar characters appear throughout the series - Ares, Apollo, Hephestus, Artemis, Strife, Discord...Obviously this show isn't as violent or serious as Hercules TLJ, it came on Fox Kids so what do you expect?
The action was still fun nonetheless.
They also did a good job of progressing story lines for a 30 minute show.