Highlander: The Series

I really love the movie Highlander, and the entire TV series is streaming on Netflix.

But keep in mind, the only times I've seen Duncan have been Endgame and The Source. I'm not sure if I want to expose myself to more of this guy.

What's more, after The Quickening, End Game, *shudder* The Source, and to a lesser extent, The Final Dimension, I'm not sure anyone but a masochist would willingly seek out more Highlander to watch.

Still, this is a lot of new Highlander I haven't seen, and I loves me some Highlander. Is it worth it? Will it traumatize me further?

From what I hear, the TV series kind of shied away from the whole "the Prize" thing. I mean, it was still an important concept to the show, but Connor McLeod being the last immortal in the movie is just sort of...not mentioned. To me, this sounds kind of weird, and I'm not sure how it could work.

The series basically just doesn't have the Prize coming any time soon. It is the life of an Immortal with no (hem) end game in sight so that the series can explore the high concept of immortal warriors fighting across the century until only one remains in further detail.

The sword fights were, memory filtering notwithstanding, about as good as the movies and the transfer of power from one immortal was a) made more explicitly a transfer of "power" and b) really amped up as a light show.

The basic plot for a self-contained episode was something on the lines of "Duncan MacLeod is going about living the sweet life when he encounters someone in trouble. Turns out an Immortal or two is involved. Duncan flashbacks to the time period where he first met one of the immortals or a situation he came across like this in history (or both) and we get glorious period dress for a bit. Duncan has to find solution to modern day problem based on Aesop or knowledge based in flashbacks. Duncan cuts off somebody's head. Epic Lightning. Princes of the Universe plays."

So if you liked the first Highlander movie, especially the bits where they flashed back to Connor living in the past, but felt they didn't delver enough into the concept of what it is like to have lived as an immortal then this show is for you.

I was a big fan of the show back in the 90s. Being a mid-to-late teenager, I mainly watched the thing for the swordfights. Good times.

The show had more than a little mid-90s cheesiness and such, but it certainly had its moments and was more than worth watching. Plus, Methos was awesome in every way.

Probably worth a watch.

The series is basically one of those typical nineties shows, where a guy has to fight crime with some kind of gimmick, like Renegade or Viper. In this case, it was that it took place in the Highlander universe. And honestly, that was a pretty good decision, as any product that focus to much on the Immortals themselves tend to suck big times. And to be fair, they did quite a few stories that expanded the myths of the original movie and while some were better than others, they never sucked as bad as any of the sequels.

Also, the swordfights were actually better at times, because the guy who played Duncan was a trained sword fighter, as were many of his opponents.

edited 12th Jul '12 4:10:15 AM by eX

What he said. If you can separate it from the movie in your mind, it's alright.

Myself, I can't get past the bastardization of the mythos, or Bill Panzer's unmitigated greed.

A pretty essential part of my childhood, honestly.

Peter Wingfield is awesome. Worth watching just for him.

I really liked the way this series expanded and explored the Highlander universe from the movies. One of the things i really loved about the series was was seeing how even Duncan managed to have friendships with other immortals like Amanda and Fitz and Methos and we got quite a few flashbacks showing how these friendships developed over teh centuries and really giving you a feel for their characters. The writers had the opportunity to explore what it meant to be immortal in more detail than in the films.

Though i found Duncans mortal girlfriend in the first couple series a little bland. When it came to female characters Amanda was a lot better she could hold her own in a sword fight, she possesed a moral greyness that was refreshing plus her bickering with Duncan was more amusing than his angst with the mortal girlfriened. You could tell that Duncan and Amandas friendship was one that had developed over centuries by how well he knew her and how she was able to annoy him in a way no one else could