Spellbinder (1995) which aired on the Disney Channel in 1996, one of the imported Australian series (others included Ocean Girl and Round the Twist) that would eventually be supplainted by the home-grown Even Stevens, Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and Hannah Montana. The title is precursor of those annoying one-word Netflix titles: it doesn't describe anything, and it really should be plural.
But the series was unique: Australian-Polish science fiction-fantasy series about alternative realities. It starred Zybch Trofimiuk as Paul Reynolds, an Australian boy who somehow finds himself in a Medieval world. Everyone is terrified of the powerful Spellbinders, who look and chew up the scenery like villains out of Power Rangers.
Paul meets a girl, Riana (Gosia Piatrowska) and together they find a way back to his world. But now the Spellbinders know that the other world exists, and they want to invade it.
The plotline sounds heterosexist. Except Paul and Riana never fall in love; indeed, when they return to Earth, he introduces her as a "cousin from Iceland." And he has a best friend, Alex (Brian Rooney). When Paul vanishes, Alex is distraught. When he returns, Alex grabs him with an enormous hug, treating him precisely as a lover.
Plus there were very memorable scenes of Paul changing clothes and taking a bath: a chest shot that endures through the years.
Zybch had a few acting roles before Spellbinder, notably Mike Masters, an astronomer's son, in Sky Trackers (1994).
Afterwards he retired from acting, returning for Clean (2005), not to be confused with Clean (2005) about a singer battling drug addiction. This one stars Zybch as Kane, a boarding school boy who "confronts his own mortality" in a "climate of deception and s*xual intrigue, yearning and adolescence." Huh?
In 2024 he was profiled in The Sun: he is now an English as a Second Language teacher, with a wife and kids. The article says that he is "almost unrecognizable," but he looks about the same to me. Could we check out your chest, buddy?
Brian Rooney has 22 acting credits, most recently in episodes of Mr. In-Between (2021) and Wolf Like Me (2023). He's also a Broadway actor with credits including Macbeth, The Cherry Orchard, and Jekyl and Hyde (if it's the same guy).
Sequel after the break
The sequel, Spellbinder 2: Land of the Dragon Lord (1996), aired on the Fox Family Channel in 1998. It sends a girl named Kathy (Lauren Hewitt), into a Medieval East Asian world.
Don't get excited; Ryan Kwanten, playing her older brother Josh, doesn't get a gay-subtext buddy bond. This is his doppelganger. Instead, he fulfills the heterosexism quota by falling in love with a girl.
But at least there was a lot of beefcake.
Anthony Brandon Wong, who played Mek, Kathy's first contact in the Spellbinding World, went on to play the dad in The Family Law. He gets a gay son.
Ryan Kwanten went on to star on the Australian soap Home and Away (1997-2002), then True Blood (2008-14), about vampires coming "out of the coffin" in rural Louisiana. A lot of gay/bi characters, but as far as I can tell, he always plays straight.
But at least his physique has been on display in many movies and tv shows: a lot of backsides, and maybe a d*ck or two.
I never heard of this one but the trailers for both seasons looks good. And yes Ryan Kwanten went from cute boy to hot man and there is plenty of gay action in "True Blood"
ReplyDeleteLooks like Retro-TV is running this (as of Sep 2020) at noon, part of a block of aussie kidvid from that period: Legacy of the Silver Shadow; The Genie from Down Under; Sky Trackers; Spellbinder; The Girl from Tomorrow, and Return to Jupiter.
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