YMMV / Relic Hunter

• Best Known for the Fanservice: The show is well known for having lots of scenes of women in their underwear or men without their shirts on.
• Complete Monster:
  • "Run Sydney Run": Tsarlov is a Russian colonel who, having developed a taste for taking lives during combat, became a Serial Killer after retiring, one who specializes in Hunting the Most Dangerous Game. Together with his henchman, Yuri, Tsarlov abducts people and hunts them down like animals, operating with impunity due to all of the disappearances and deaths being attributed to the Second Chechen War. When Sydney Fox and her assistant, Nigel Bailey, visit Russia in search of the Sword of Ateas, Tsarlov guns down every member of their military escort and kidnaps them, locking Nigel up with another captive named Tatiana. Impressed by Sydney, Tsarlov tries to convince her to become his partner, and when she refuses, he forces her to agree to be his latest quarry by threatening to kill Nigel. After an arduous chase, the two agree to settle things in hand-to-hand combat, which Tsarlov eventually cheats at by trying to pull a gun on Sydney.
  • "Under the Ice": Rollin Harley was one of eight people stationed at an Arctic facility that had unearthed the mummified remains of an Anasazi Native. After discerning that the mummy contained an ancient virus, Harley defrosted it—killing a co-worker who had walked in on him doing so—and then, to see if the disease was still potent and thus viable as a WMD, proceeded to infect all of his other co-workers with it, afterward murdering them when it became clear that the virus was an effective Hate Plague. As Harley was preparing to make his getaway with the mummy, the base was visited by Sydney, Nigel, and two men named Knowles and Simpson. Harley kills Knowles and Simpson, tries to freeze Sydney, and when he discovers that a surviving co-worker named Eleanor was unaffected by the virus due to being The Immune, tries to take off with her and the mummy, overjoyed that he now had both the source and the cure to the catastrophic plague that he was going to reintroduce to the world all in the name of greed.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Core-era Tomb Raider fans, given it came around the time when original games were at their peak popularity and both franchises share numerous similarities.
• Nightmare Fuel: While the reveal of what the villain of "Lost Contact" is is absolutely ludicrous, all of the buildup to it is effectively creepy; we get an intro with distraught First Anglo-Burmese War soldiers burying one of their own while swearing each other to secrecy over what happened between them and an ancient sacrificial bowl; decades later, an expedition disappears after discovering that same bowl, leaving behind nothing but degraded video footage and a trashed and blood-spattered campsite; the sole survivor is borderline-catatonic, inhuman footsteps are unearthed, Sydney and Nigel's companion, Rod, vanishes and leaves behind nothing but a bloody and bent rifle, a nearby village is ominously empty, and the cave where the bowl was found is discovered to be full of skeletons, as well as freshly sacrificed people, including Rod.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • The other cooking students in “Nothing but the Truth” never reappear but are pretty fondly remembered, particularly Johnny (the ex-convict learning to cook for therapy reasons) and Amanda (who gets a decent Bitch in Sheep's Clothing reveal, nearly beats up Sydney while Kicking Ass in All Her Finery, has some fun Polar Opposite Twins dynamics with her sisters, and is played by a Playboy model).'
  • Nigel's Girl of the Week in "Etched in Stone" (a waitress who knows a lot about Swedish mythology) doesn't even get a name, but stands out for her chemistry with Nigel, her Sexy Scandinavian appearance, and her constant Smarter Than They Look moments.
• Special Effect Failure: There's some very dodgy and poorly integrated CG, and the budget (or lack thereof) necessitates some... less impressive versions of Indiana Jones-style traps, like one snake or rat, or a couple of handfuls of cockroaches. The show hangs a lampshade on it once in a while.
  Sydney: There's hundreds of them!
  Nigel: You're letting your imagination get the better of you, there aren't that many!
• Spiritual Adaptation: Wears the influence of Tomb Raider on its sleeve, right down to its similar title and Action Girl Adventurer Archaeologist protagonist.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The triplets in "Nothing But the Truth" get one Identical Twin Mistake scene with Nigel (who flirts with two of them) then don't really get anything else to do for the episode despite more comedy potential there. Even when one of them turns out to be The Mole there's absolutely no development or foreshadowing there, just a random fight scene which could have been done with any of the other (more shifty) suspects. And even though it's implied that the other two sisters weren't involved (and that the one who was guilty was the one both the other two and Nigel considered the most innocent of the three) there's no Motive Rant or anything about how and why she got involved without her sisters, and no indication of their reactions.
• Values Dissonance: Sidney having to repay a favor in the episode “Flag Day” by going on a date with a Dirty Old Man colleague who once groped a student would probably not be Played for Laughs today.

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