Highlander : TV Series

FlashGordon1969

I have recently begun watching this again -courtesy of a legal link on Youtube. It ran for six seasons and starred Adrian Paul as Duncan MCcloud (cousin of Connor) I enjoyed the series overall. It actually got better as it went along. Unfortunately, Adrian Paul nearly destroyed the whole franchise with the deplorable film The source.

I know a re-boot is now in the making of the film.

Was wondering what others thought of the series?

FrostyJack

The series was good for what it was, a spin off. It suffered some of the same inconsistancies and lack of logic the films did, but was still entertaining enough. The 1st film was excellent but the rest did not make any sense and the last 2 were diabolical. I don't know why they are rebooting it, though could be interesting if they actually make an effort.

FlashGordon1969

I think part of the problem with Highlander is they never fully worked out the concept before they filmed it. They didnt think in terms of sequels in the first film and thus you have connor winning the Prize. Game over After it became a minor hit they tried explaining it in Highlander 2- (Immortals as aliens sounded like Scientology) . The fans didn't need an explanation. But I dont think the third and fourth films(highlander 3 and Endgame) were that bad. The Source was atrocious mainly because it appears done on a shoe string budget and badly directed.

The series managed to avoid getting bogged down in the reasons for this immortality and I think it was consistent enough. What inconsistencies did you mean?

FlashGordon1969

There must be more than one Highlander fan out there-get it?:p

icdg

There can only be one. As far as the movies go, there should only have been one. Highlander is a cult classic (with an amazing soundtrack by Queen) but the sequels are a horrible mess, none of which is quite consistant with the others and Highlander II's plot is simply daft. (Aliens?? I mean, ALIENS????)

The series is a quite different kettle of fish and while it inherited the movies taste for daft accents and quite inexplictly plot wise suddenly moved between France and Canada mid-season every year (although these were the two countries funding it, which was the real reason). About 90% of the episodes had the same plot - Duncan meets immortal, We see flashback from Duncan's past showing when he was mates with said immortal (takes up at least most of between first and second commercial breaks), Duncan and immortal come to blows, there is the standard fight scene, Duncan says "there can only be one" and kills immortal, light hearted scene in Duncan's flat after final commercial break.

Still it was good escapest fun. Here it got a run on Sky One following Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for most of its run on Sundays 21:00, as I recall. Didn't watch the final season and can't recall how it ended, though.

icdg

icdg wrote: »

Still it was good escapest fun. Here it got a run on Sky One following Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for most of its run on Sundays 21:00, as I recall. Didn't watch the final season and can't recall how it ended, though.

It used to be on Sky One on Fridays at 8, followed by Walker Texas Ranger. One of those series I grew up with and continue to go back to every few years.

The anime film which was released a few years back is superb as both a Highlander film and a standalone epic.

tony1kenobi

It was sh*t and that has not changed.

FlashGordon1969

icdg wrote: »

There can only be one. As far as the movies go, there should only have been one. Highlander is a cult classic (with an amazing soundtrack by Queen) but the sequels are a horrible mess, none of which is quite consistant with the others and Highlander II's plot is simply daft. (Aliens?? I mean, ALIENS????)

The series is a quite different kettle of fish and while it inherited the movies taste for daft accents and quite inexplictly plot wise suddenly moved between France and Canada mid-season every year (although these were the two countries funding it, which was the real reason). About 90% of the episodes had the same plot - Duncan meets immortal, We see flashback from Duncan's past showing when he was mates with said immortal (takes up at least most of between first and second commercial breaks), Duncan and immortal come to blows, there is the standard fight scene, Duncan says "there can only be one" and kills immortal, light hearted scene in Duncan's flat after final commercial break.

Still it was good escapest fun. Here it got a run on Sky One following Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for most of its run on Sundays 21:00, as I recall. Didn't watch the final season and can't recall how it ended, though.

I think your plot analysis is a bit simplistic. There was not always a fight and sometimes the stories were a bit more complicated than Duncan falls out with old friend. That's not to say it was not formulaic in a lot of episodes but so were most action series at the time.Anyway, the Legal link is there on Youtube-just key in Highlander Season 1 ,2 or whichever you choose. Though I recommend 3-5.

Monotype

icdg wrote: »

The series is a quite different kettle of fish and while it inherited the movies taste for daft accents and quite inexplictly plot wise suddenly moved between France and Canada mid-season every year (although these were the two countries funding it, which was the real reason). About 90% of the episodes had the same plot - Duncan meets immortal, We see flashback from Duncan's past showing when he was mates with said immortal (takes up at least most of between first and second commercial breaks), Duncan and immortal come to blows, there is the standard fight scene, Duncan says "there can only be one" and kills immortal, light hearted scene in Duncan's flat after final commercial break.

Still it was good escapest fun. Here it got a run on Sky One following Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for most of its run on Sundays 21:00, as I recall. Didn't watch the final season and can't recall how it ended, though.

The plots varied between series. First series was Duncan meets bad guy from his past; gets revenge. Second series - Duncan meets old friend, friend has gone bad. Third series - Duncan meets old enemy who is now good. They even mentioned this in the DVD commentary.

The last series (6) was quite poor and you can see Adrian Paul is sick of it and there's only a short season. Across the whole run, there are some highly entertaining and original concepts in some episodes.
Highlander: The Raven wasn't shown here, as far as I know, but it's very bad, apart from a few later episodes.

JohnK

FlashGordon1969 wrote: »

[...]Anyway, the Legal link is there on Youtube-just key in Highlander Season 1 ,2 or whichever you choose. Though I recommend 3-5.

Sweet Guess I know what I'm watching for the next few weeks :cool:

ejmaztec

FlashGordon1969 wrote: »

There must be more than one Highlander fan out there-get it?:p

"There can only be an endless supply of immortals" seemed to more appropriate with the TV series.:P

FlashGordon1969

To be sure they could have done more with it and often just had a bare plot leading up to the inevitable sword fight. They could have done more on the whole curse aspect of immortality-ie your loved ones growing old /your step kids growing old (immortals were sterile) but didnt.
They could have branched out into the fantasy world. I know they did an episode where they had a demon. They could have gone a bit more Buffy. Perhaps even something on the source of the immortals though, I know the film "The source" was woeful and has now been beheaded in terms of the canon.

Sad Professor

ejmaztec wrote: »

"There can only be an endless supply of immortals" seemed to more appropriate with the TV series.:P

Yeah, this is what really annoyed me about the series. There were immortals all over the f**king place. Duncan couldn't go to the shop for milk without running into one. The thing I liked about the first film was the sense that there wasn't many left.

FlashGordon1969 wrote: »

They could have done more on the whole curse aspect of immortality-ie your loved ones growing old /your step kids growing old (immortals were sterile) but didnt.

Agreed. This is what gave the first film it's emotional core.

I also felt that Paul in the series came across as bit too normal for someone that was 500 years old. I love the start of the first Highlander because Lambert comes across as a total weirdo who practically burns holes in people with his eyes. It added a lot to the believability.

Monotype

FlashGordon1969 wrote: »

They could have done more on the whole curse aspect of immortality-ie your loved ones growing old /your step kids growing old (immortals were sterile) but didnt.

They went into this a bit, but it gets very dull and depressing if you overdo it. You don't want to watch the main character immortal going around half the time saying how terrible their existence is and whatever.

FlashGordon1969 wrote: »

They could have branched out into the fantasy world.

There were two episodes that I liked that concerned parts of a crystal - if you put the parts together they could grant anyone the gift of immortality. I liked these episodes but the DVD commentary said there were considerable complaints about them wandering off into a magical genre.

FlashGordon1969

Heard that same complaints made about the demon-the ones where Richie loses his head, but really what is a script writer to do-just have this constant stream of immortals and no deviation? I wanted a bit more deviation. Be interesting to note how many complaints exactly .Isn't immortality a kind of magic anyway?!;)

I have seen leaks of the highlander movie script-not good I'm afraid ,according to one review but we will have to wait and see. Reviewer only read script.

Shame, I thought they could have done a batman or Star trek on it.

don ramo

they should have an imortal convention, and do a head count while they are there,

i think the watchers would be a good angle to watch the film by, afterall they are the ones monitoring the immortals in the first place, maybe a better story could be told through them,

you dont have to show the watchers, maybe just have morgan freeman narrate us through the film:D, maybe he could pop up once or twice,

highlander one was an instant classic, and as said if they planned it out better they could have made countless classic sequels, instead they made probably the worst sequel that was ever made, the third film was pretty decent though, it must be said,

FlashGordon1969

The Producers have just said it was a first draft so will see.

It sounded woeful:

http://www.cc2k.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1834

FlashGordon1969

Watched quite a few by now and feel they really could have done more with it. Could have added to the mythology beyond the Watchers or gone for a more novelistic approach rather than too many stand alone episodes.

Hope the new re-boot reinvigorates the whole franchise .

MBateson

Looks like The Horror Channel are running this series starting Feb 11 (Sky 319)

Blazer

Best scene ever even today I still find it hilarious and that's a sign of a good film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvnq_W0i3Bs

Flashgordon197

There is a channel-newvideodigitaL which allows you watch most of this series legally via outube so easier to go that route than searching entire youtube library itself. By Channel it means on-line channel. I go through stages of watching a few. I have found that the episodes with Rodger Daltry as Fitz are generally hilarious and thus the comic element of the show (intended) are not to be over looked but my biggest criticism remains-they didn't flesh out the mythology. I suppose after the balls of it they made on Highlander 2 (film) that was understandable.

The Source(film) also branched it out but god almighty it was a dreadful film low budget thrash. Adrian Paul has not done much it seems since the series ended-that film certainly cant have helped!

wampyrus77

Ive watching highlander every week day past 2 months and Know what Duncan never said at the end as he about takes highlander's head, he never said famous line "There can be only one".

MBateson

For fans of the series, the Sword Experience with Adrian Paul is coming to Ireland next month, July 16th.

Details can be found here: www.theswordexperience.com

Paulramone66

Heard just today that Stan Kirsch who played Richie on the series committed suicide. Very sad. He was only 51. RIP

He also had a small part on Friends as a college kid who loses his virginity to Monica