"Cleo" was produced by Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi, the partners whose production company, Renaissance Pictures, brought us "The Evil Dead," "Army of Darkness," and "Xena Warrior Princess." Having been phenomenally successful with their previous genre-bending projects that combined martial arts, special effects, hip ananchronistic dialogue, slapstick comedy, and ancient history, they decided to turn their creative eye on the future, and take the same formula that had worked previously, and transplant it to a futuristic setting.

"Cleo" had its genesis in a proposed Xena-spin-off called "Amazon High," which would have starred Selma Blair as a modern valley girl (a la Buffy) who was transported back into ancient Greek times and became a leader of an Amazon tribe. When the popular "Hercules" series ended, they opted instead to send the heroine into the future, where she joined a resistance movement led by Amazon-like freedom fighters.

Like its previous successes, "Cleo" is a mixture of styles, genres and influences. In this post-apocalyptic world, mankind has been driven underground, and is struggling to reclaim the planet's surface from huge hovering, sentient machines as well as shape-shifting killer robots, much like the future we see in the "Terminator" films. Yet the action sequences derive more from "The Matrix" films by way of Bridget Lin and Michelle Yeoh, and much of the underground's structure was inspired by a classic sci-fi novella from the pulp era, "Tumithak of the Corridors." The dialogue comes straight from the Valley in LA, with mutant underground denizens reminiscent of Andre Norton's "Star Man's Son."

Filmed in NZ like all of Raimi and Tapert's recent television shows, the supporting cast is a veritable Who's Who of the serious Auckland theatre world - perhaps the only science fiction series ever, where even the extras and walk-ons are trained Shakespearian performers. The stars are Vicky Pratt (who went on to star in "Mutant X") Gina Torres (a successful stage actress who has also gained acclaim for roles in "Alias" and "Firefly") and as the titular Cleo, Jennifer Sky, a former "General Hospital" star with dozens of tv guest star appearances over the last decade. All three leads were popular guest stars on "Hercules" and "Xena."

Interestingly, many of the episodes from the series took traditional sci-fi motifs - virtual reality, an evil clone, mind/body transfer, an unknown traitor among a group, altered memories, mind control..... but these themes were given a typical Ren Pics "spin," playing with them in innovative and intriguing new ways.

Yes, the girls' costumes are pretty sexy. So was Wonder Woman's. So was Tarzan's bride Jane's. So are those of most of the Olympic athletes. But there are plenty of hunky male guest satars for female viewers to watch as well. And yes - one of the main jokes is the whole "fish out of water" thing - Cleo is a college student from modern Los Angeles, not a hero, and so the same anachronistic humor we see in Twain's "Connecticut Yankee" is seen here too.

But the acting in this is truly quite remarkable, as a variety of seroius "issues" and emotions are addressed. And the special effects and martial arts scenes are quite well done *for television*. i.e. we're not talkin' Star Wars here, but quite servicable.

I recommend this series to any fans of Xena or Army of Darkness, or to anyone who's ever wanted an intelligent, literate science fiction series that still managed to kick butt, have a sense of humor along the way, and provide some beautiful actresses in the lead roles.