Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Highlander - TV Series

Highlander The Series - Season 1A couple of years ago, when digital versions of TV shows started to become more readily available, I decided it'd be fun to watch some of my favorite series from start to finish.

One of the shows I've been working my way through is Highlander. Before starting this task, I'd seen a lot of the episodes - most even - but I hadn't watched them in order - it was always the odd rerun here and there.
Highlander The Series - Season 2
I remember loving Highlander when I was in high school, so I was really excited to watch it. And I still love the idea - the prototypical hero who always saves the day, the sword-fighting, the "there can be only one" mythology, and all the fun history flash-back storylines.

Highlander The Series - Season 3Upon re-watching, I realized a few things:
1. There are a lot of episodes - six seasons with 22 episodes each season (except season 5 and 6, which were a bit shorter). (It took me more than a year to get through all of them!)
Highlander The Series - Season 42. Some of the acting is really bad - just really hokey, and I don't like some of the main characters. Specifically, I never really cared for Tessa, and always thought Richie was a little irritating.
3. Some of the episodes and storylines are flat out not good. Super predictable (which can be ok), but also pretty boring.
4. Some of the characters are awesome. I always loved Darius, Fitzcairn, Methos, and (of course!) MacLeod.
5. Some of the storylines are soooo good! I love the whole watchers as hunters storyline from the end of the first season. And everything with Methos and the horsemen is great. And I actually love some of the simple one-episode storylines.

Highlander The Series - Season 5I also loved the series finale. Most of the series finales that I've seen just sort of drop off, without any major sense of closure. Highlander does a two-part "It's a Wonderful Life" knock-off, and then ends with a five-minute montage of images from the whole series set to one of my favorite songs. Awesome.

Highlander The Series - Season 6The song in the finale actually shows up multiple times in the show, and I love it every time I hear it - which is kind of crazy, because I'm not particularly into music - I generally like most things, but rarely really love a song. The song is called "Bonnie Portmore," it's Irish and basically about a tree. Here's a link to the montage - if you're not a highlander fan, just listen to the music and see what you think.

(Plus, the theme song is by Queen! How could you not love that?)


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