CRUSHWORTHY: Craig Horner of "Legend of the Seeker"

I don't know what it is about Aussies--they just have a way about them. Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, and Russell Crowe have been charming their way through the box office for the last decade, Emilie de Ravin ("Lost") paved the way for Yvonne Strahovski ("Chuck"), and Simon Baker has the number one new series, "The Mentalist," of the season.

While The CW's "The Legend of the Seeker" didn't exactly live up to the hype of successfully following in the giant fantasy footsteps of "Xena: Warrior Princess" and "Hercules," at least it's Australian male lead, Craig Horner, made a great first impression on American audiences.

Playing the impressionable and heroic young hero in this epic tale of magical kingdoms, Horner easily hooks in female viewers with his boyish good looks. Unfortunately, his bland love interest, creepy mystical mentor, barely evil nemesis, and the plot's flimsy legend are hardly worth tuning in for. Granted, if we were to rewatch "Xena" or "Hercules" today, we wouldn't exactly be as equally entertained as we were back then. But we live in different times now--times where children's books, like Harry Potter, have villains who should not be named and films, like Dark Knight, that have tortured souls for superheroes. Perhaps if the series premiered during the time of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, viewers would be eagerly interested. But police procedurals, eerie paranormal dramas and catty teen mayhem are what rule the networks these days, so it's a tougher market to sell in.

Hopefully, however, Horner will get a leg up from helming his first series at the age of 25, cause even Baker didn't make it on his first try ("Smith" and "The Guardian").