By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
It’s hard to remember today, but in 1996, Tomb Raider exploded onto the gaming landscape and became an instant hit thanks to its guns-akimbo heroine, Lara Croft, considered to be the female Indiana Jones even though she was made of triangular polygons. Hollywood moved quickly, relatively speaking, by bringing her to life with a movie in 2001, but before Angelina Jolie, there was Tia Carrere and an overlooked syndicated series, Relic Hunter, that cashed in on the sensation. Amazingly, the show managed to run for three seasons and produced 66 episodes, and today, it’s a fun time capsule of a series.
Relic Hunter Understood The Assignment
Tia Carrere finally got to be the lead in her own series as Sydney Fox, a Professor of Ancient Studies, and technically not an archaeologist, who, alongside her British assistant, Nigel, would track down an artifact each episode, engage in fisticuffs, return the lost item to the rightful owner, and then end with a scene about what happened to it after the adventure. Relic Hunter was as predictable as House, but everyone involved in the series understood the assignment, turning every episode into a schlocky romp that fits in perfectly alongside Hercules and Xena. If not taking yourself seriously was an Olympic Sport, Carrere would take home the Gold.
Relic Hunter tried to bring the feel of a globe-trotting adventure to every episode, but the minuscule budget meant that viewers were treated to episodes taking place in the year 2000, featuring multiple shots of old women pushing carts of vegetables despite being, say, Ireland, or the most stereotypical version of Paris you can imagine. The hoops that Sydney had to jump through to try and justify each adventure reached the point of absurdity early on and then kept going without a single care in pretending to be grounded in reality. All that, and it’s still better than Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness.
From Wayne’s World To World Wide Adventure
The best part of Relic Hunter is that Tia Carrere was able to be the lead, capitalizing on her breakthrough role in Wayne’s World, where she first turned heads with her looks and then impressed everyone with her comic timing. A talented singer who also performed on the Wayne’s World soundtrack, Carrere found herself in the role of “Guest star” on every series you could think of, from Warehouse 13 to NCIS: Los Angeles. It’s obvious from watching her 90s series why she was cast as the lead, but she’s able to walk the fine line between camp and total farce, winking at the audience and being the butt of the joke while keeping everything lighthearted and fun.
Relic Hunter never reached the heights of Hercules or Xena, but in lasting an entire 66 episodes, it was more successful than Tarzan or The New Adventures of Robin Hood, and it’s still better than the recent National Treasure series on Disney+. Not every show has to be a deep treatise on the human condition or a commentary on problems in society. Television can be fun even if the only purpose is to serve as a distraction, and though it’s been mostly forgotten today, Tia Carrere’s one outing as the star of her own series is still fun, provided you don’t think about it, let the low-budget adventure wash over you without a care in the world.
Relic Hunter is available on Tubi.
