Started season 3 this morning and yes this is fucking awesome, to me the dragon head kitana became the star of the show during that drag of episodes in season 2. They start off season 3 with an origin story for where the sword came from and it was fucking awesome.

Then right off the bat second episode guest stars Randall Tex Cobb and this is a great episode, who wants to live forever… when Love must die

Sept 4, 2022 14:56:20 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Started season 3 this morning and yes this is fucking awesome, to me the dragon head kitana became the star of the show during that drag of episodes in season 2. They start off season 3 with an origin story for where the sword came from and it was fucking awesome.

Then right off the bat second episode guest stars Randall Tex Cobb and this is a great episode, who wants to live forever… when Love must die

This is quite possibly the greatest show ever made

Is this like Oz in that in came before more popular shows of it's genre and basically kick started it but doesn't get the credit or love it deserves?

Sept 4, 2022 14:58:11 GMT @ness said:

Is this like Oz in that in came before more popular shows of it's genre and basically kick started it but doesn't get the credit or love it deserves?

Quite possible, shows that had their own conventions and message boards with fan fiction sub forums

I had no idea that I would see Randall Tex Cobb vs Duncan McLeod showdown today, I’m fucking dying right now this is amazing

Yes season 3 episode 2 is the best of the series so far and yes Highlander is the greatest show in the history of television.

Sept 4, 2022 12:24:18 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I feel like the Highlander series could have been fucking massive in the late 80's into the early 90's had they nailed a better sequel movie, instead it went into the straight to VHS market with b-movies. There should have been an epic Highlander trilogy, an NES game, a pen and paper RPG, books and comics that were a bigger deal

Yes.

I've read everything except the first movie and the first series was awful. A shame. They had so much to work with.

Sept 4, 2022 12:46:00 GMT Neo Zeed said:

1. Season 2 episode 10 "Epitaph For Tommy" is the one guest starring Roddy Piper. 

2. Also am I wrong in assuming that this show was the forerunner to the geeky syndicated/UPN mythology shows like Buffy and Charmed? I'm kinda starting to catch that vibe here with some episodes. 

1. What?!? How you just gonna casually namedrop Roddy Piper like that. Don't remember this at all which is weird. Even as a Piper hater you'd think that would have stuck with me.

2. Highlander likely played a part, but X Files deserves most of the credit/blame. Even back in the pre-internet days you had Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Twin Peaks serving as a forerunner to those type of shows.

Sept 4, 2022 14:57:01 GMT Neo Zeed said:

This is quite possibly the greatest show ever made

Sept 4, 2022 15:19:46 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Yes season 3 episode 2 is the best of the series so far and yes Highlander is the greatest show in the history of television.

Whoa. Bold claim. I wanna see you put your money where your mouth is. X Files or Highlander: there can be only one.
====================
Watched the movie last night. Going to hold off on dropping a lengthy review for now so I don't risk spoiling @ness

Post it, it'll give me incentive to watch it quicker. I didn't get around to it today.

Sept 4, 2022 23:08:56 GMT Baker said:

Sept 4, 2022 12:24:18 GMT Neo Zeed said:

I feel like the Highlander series could have been fucking massive in the late 80's into the early 90's had they nailed a better sequel movie, instead it went into the straight to VHS market with b-movies. There should have been an epic Highlander trilogy, an NES game, a pen and paper RPG, books and comics that were a bigger deal

Yes.

I've read everything except the first movie and the first series was awful. A shame. They had so much to work with.

Sept 4, 2022 12:46:00 GMT Neo Zeed said:

1. Season 2 episode 10 "Epitaph For Tommy" is the one guest starring Roddy Piper. 

2. Also am I wrong in assuming that this show was the forerunner to the geeky syndicated/UPN mythology shows like Buffy and Charmed? I'm kinda starting to catch that vibe here with some episodes. 

1. What?!? How you just gonna casually namedrop Roddy Piper like that. Don't remember this at all which is weird. Even as a Piper hater you'd think that would have stuck with me.

2. Highlander likely played a part, but X Files deserves most of the credit/blame. Even back in the pre-internet days you had Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Twin Peaks serving as a forerunner to those type of shows.

Sept 4, 2022 14:57:01 GMT Neo Zeed said:

This is quite possibly the greatest show ever made

Sept 4, 2022 15:19:46 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Yes season 3 episode 2 is the best of the series so far and yes Highlander is the greatest show in the history of television.

Whoa. Bold claim. I wanna see you put your money where your mouth is. X Files or Highlander: there can be only one.
====================
Watched the movie last night. Going to hold off on dropping a lengthy review for now so I don't risk spoiling @ness

Obviously X-Files. Both shows suffer from the same fault in it's format, 22 episodes in a season is just too much and it was hindered by being on network TV. Highlander's highs are special but it definitely has it's lows, there are some really really bad episodes. Season 3 falls off in quality but overall it's at a higher level than the first 2. At this point I think I've just watched too much over the 3 day weekend starting to see all the faults, Adrian Paul definitely has charisma but also has a Chuck Norris Charles Bronson single dimensional element to his acting, where it's like the fewer lines the guy has the better. The show is just not made to be binge watched, it's one of those every once in a while shows, but man sometimes it just REALLY hits the spot. 

I did squeeze in the 3rd movie yesterday the one with Mario Van Peebles as the heel. I remember this movie when it came out my uncle was super stoked about it, but I really have no memory of it, I believe this was the first time I've ever seen Highlander 3. I read that this came out during the middle of season 3 of the TV show so that makes sense that the show seen an uptick in quality seeing as the IP was about to get a major theatrical release. But man the movie was just as bad if not worse than Highlander 2. I really wanted to like this because I know it was one of my old uncles favorite movies(RIP) but jeez they shit the bed here, this could have been so awesome. It's crazy they pissed away what could have been a huge franchise with 2 awful back to back sequels. 

Also have to admit I would be down for a Highlander reboot make it a R rated series with a nice budget on HBO or something get that Queen music. Would be a lot of potential for a story with an Immortal you could do flashbacks to the 80's and 90's even to give it the vibe. I feel like this is all leading to me writing a Highlander fan fiction. 

And one thing out of all of this I must have that kitana with the dragon head on the handle, it would look good mounted in the spot above the window behind my TV in the living room.

So do you think watching it randomly out of order by chance when you caught it on TV (not knowing when it aired) gave it a little extra now that you've seen it from start to finish. Feels like one of those shows going in without warning makes it better.

And I listened to Queen's "Some Kind Of Magic" album from 1986 in the truck yesterday taking little man out to get ice cream, this was like an unofficial soundtrack to the Highlander movie I guess since so much of it was in the film. One of the more underrated tracks that had us jamming that was in the movie:

Sept 5, 2022 13:22:48 GMT @ness said:

So do you think watching it randomly out of order by chance when you caught it on TV (not knowing when it aired) gave it a little extra now that you've seen it from start to finish. Feels like one of those shows going in without warning makes it better.

Definitely might have gave the show a mystique to me back then much like just about anything, like ECW for example didn't come on tv here at all so I only ever read about it in the magazines for a long time and was in fucking love with it through that way. The real ECW could never measure up to what I imagined it to be back then, it was like I was in denial of that when I finally got some tapes and then it came on TNN because it was still awesome in other ways. 

There's just something about the time period that you can't replicate in today's market where everything is super accessible and at your fingertips. I feel ya about ECW it really felt borderline dangerous, almost like I was committing a crime by watching it lol.

Agree with you guys on ECW. I’ll post my movie review tonight.

🤯 just made his way through. I'm not sure if he's a novice or a seasoned vet, but GET IN THIS. I know GOT will never happen, but we're making this one happen. At the very least the movie.

Shit, this thread has me INFINITYx more tempted to check out Highlander than the Dr. Who thread ever had me in checking out Retardis or whatever.

Sept 5, 2022 13:56:36 GMT 🤯 said:

Shit, this thread has me INFINITYx more tempted to check out Highlander

than the Dr. Who thread ever had me in checking out Retardis or whatever.

Highlander: The Movie Review
*Contains major spoilers

Verdict: 5/10 It was just kind of there. Strikes me as one of those quintessential lazy weekend afternoon movies. 

The Pros

-It was much more palatable now that I knew I was getting Connor and not waiting around an hour for Duncan to swoop in and take the reins.

-Starting with a wrestling match is the ideal way to grab my attention. I unironically believe Shakespeare would have started his plays with wrestling matches had he been writing in the late 20th Century. 

-Queen's music. Arguably the 2nd biggest star of the series (well, at least in the non-Methos episodes). You can never go wrong with Queen.

-The flashback scenes. As I set out to list my favorite scenes I realized they were all flashback scenes. Connor rising from the dead and being banished from his Clan...the drunken duel...everything with Sean Connery...a good scene or two with Connor and his wife played by an unrecognizable Beatie Edney...the Connery/Kurrgan fight on the aesthetically pleasing staircase to nowhere...all good stuff.

-I always like to put myself in the mind of the times. For 1986 movie goers the first 30-40 minutes actually would have been a heck of a mystery. Who are all these weirdos and why are they sword fighting in modern day NYC? Why did Connor rise from the dead? How is he still alive in modern times? Just wtf is going on here?

-It established the mythology of the series. All the 'rules' of the series are laid out here in one succinct speech from Connery. The series went far deeper (as you'd expect from a 119 episode series as opposed to a two hour movie), but the basic premise was established here. 

-Sean Connery, period. The famed Celebrity Jeopardy contestant was only in it for like 20 minutes, but they were my favorite 20 minutes of the movie. He had this infectious swashbuckling joie de vivre that made Connor seem cooler just by association during their training sessions. Though I couldn't help but be amused by Sean Connery, a Scot in a movie called Highlander, playing an Egyptian pretending to be a Spaniard lol.

The Cons

-I love the 80s as much, or more, than Nobi. The 80s aesthetic works for me 9 times out of 10. This is the exception for reasons I'll get to in a bit.

-What was up with Christopher Lambert's accent? Don't know what he was going for, but it sure as heck fire wasn't Scottish.
*Just discovered Lambert was a French speaker who learned English just for this movie. So I'll give him a half pass. Still wouldn't have killed him to at least try affecting a Scottish accent though.

-Connor's modern day love interest was so dull I literally don't even remember her name two days later.

-I don't think it was a particularly well made movie. A lot of the minor storylines went nowhere. In hindsight it felt like they spent a lot of time...just filling time. Why devote so much time to the police investigation that went nowhere? I guess it was to introduce Connor to his new love interest? Even so, why waste so much time on it?

-Then they introduced two new characters in the second half of the film who were largely superfluous to the story. Connor's immortal friend waltzes in for a scene where they reminisce about the good old days. He shows up only once more a few minutes later to lose his head to The Kurrgan....and Connor doesn't even seen particularly upset about it. I assume this was to get The Kurrgan over as an even bigger heel, but Connor (or the writers) didn't sell it the way Duncan would have. We didn't even get a second Who Wants To Live Forever fer cryin' out loud!

-Then we get a flashback to Connor randomly saving a little girl in WW2. The little girl grows up to become his love interest. But they don't really push this story hard and Connor just casually, yet politely, kicks her to the curb after hooking up with the sword expert forensics babe. And WW2 girl is all like "That's cool, Connor. Aren't you just the dreamiest?" Thought that whole thing was pointless.

-Spiciest take yet. I didn't think The Kurrgan was that great a villain. Oh, sure, he was great in the flashbacks. Evil, menacing, badass look, killed Connery, and claimed to have raped Connor's wife.  There are reasons for Connor & Kurrgan to have a Good vs. Evil showdown for the ages. But modern day Kurrgan was just too darn goofy. Yeah, I said it. And modern day Kurrgan got goofier and goofier as the movie progressed. This is where we get the rare 80s aesthetic fail I mentioned earlier. The Kurrgan lived too long. By the 80s he's all into the goofy heavy metal aesthetic of the era. I guess it was supposed to be badass at the time, but 35 years removed it just comes off across as a guy who was a little too into Heavy Metal Parking Lot...a homicidal Beavis or Butthead.

I'd be shocked if there aren't 20 villains I prefer from the series. I've already got two in Kronos and the Rogue Watcher. Kronos is all "I AM THE END OF TIME!" while Kurrgan is out there quoting Def Leppard in the most Theater Kid way imaginable. Please. There is no comparison. Kronos would have given him five plagues and taken his head just for fun in the time it took Kurrgan to rock out to Judas Priest's Breaking The Law. And the Rogue Watcher was such a hateable little jerk with none of the goofiness plaguing Kurrgan. OVERRATED *clap clap clapclapclap*

-The Gathering was a major disappointment. I'll admit this one's on me though. For a quarter century I just assumed The Gathering was this badass gathering (duh) of all these immortals competing in an epic Kumite with swords. Nope. Turns out it's like 7 guys casually sauntering around the greater NYC area and I think we only get to see 4 of them onscreen. Major letdown. My way is much better.

-The Prize was whatever.

Final Thoughts: I think the movie works best viewed as the prequel to a superior series.

Not gonna read till I'm ready but I read the first line. I can't tell if it's legit or part of the charm.

"It'll never win any major awards but it's essentially A BOYS movie."

I hope I'm right and it's one of those vibes. I think that's the SPIRIT of what makes our boys our boys. We shall see soon enough.

I have made it to the last 2 episodes of season 3. Same formula as the first 2 seasons here, they went all out with the first 4 episodes then went through a stretch of filler before the story finally picked up about midway through and they write them into some reason for leaving the country and going over to France to live in Duncan's barge. Once the show shifts over to Paris it takes on a slightly different tone, different actors, much more European vibes.

With season 3 the first 4 episodes are must watch peak of the series so far. Then it slacks off until episode 9 "Shadows", which was an interesting episode that stood out because it sees dark forces have an effect on Duncan and he starts to tease a heel turn. I liked this episode.

Then business really picks up with a 3 part trilogy of episodes that leads to the intro of Methos to the series. This whole stretch of episodes was golden. Baker has put Methos over pretty hard I had never heard of him before but I did just notice that the character is so beloved to the series that he has his own subforum within the "Highlander The Series" subform on the Highlander message boards.

This was top shelf stuff though, loved the way they built up to Methos, he's fucking over 5,000 years old(Duncan is only 400 years old) Immortal so old that he really lost all memory of where he came from or really just how exactly old he really is. I think that is the best thing this series does was present Immortality really as a curse. But Methos was really interesting and I want to see more of him. He disappears on Duncan at the end of the episode and I haven't seen him yet in the rest of these episodes.

Just getting to see Methos and already I'm awe struck at the possibilities for a fan fiction if this motherfucker is 5,000 years old. Seems like a no brainer they could have made a wicked spin off series with flash backs to Ancient Alien/Atlantis/Graham Hancock shit. You could do an episode where 2 immortals fighting on holy ground is what sunk Atlantis. 

What if Ultimate Warrior was one of these guys?

And he never died of a heart attack. Someone just GOT him. So like there's immortals out there. God dammit dude I wanna see random ass storyline during Washington's day. Fuck he TOTALLY was.

Sept 6, 2022 0:54:19 GMT @ness said:

What if Ultimate Warrior was one of these guys?

And he never died of a heart attack. Someone just GOT him. So like there's immortals out there. God dammit dude I wanna see random ass storyline during Washington's day. Fuck he TOTALLY was.

Aww yeah Neo Zeed. I was waiting for you to get to Methos. Business just picked up. Best character in the show imo.

Did you get to the Rogue Watchers storyline yet? That's my second most fondly remembered storyline behind only The Horsemen.

Was just thinking how crazy it was that a low budget syndicated program got the rights to Queen. QUEEN! One of the biggest bands in the universe! Their music adds so much to the show.

Was also just about to go back and edit my movie post. Instead I'll drop one final thought here. Somehow the Quickenings in the relatively low budget series manage to be more impressive than those in the big(ger) budget movie. Did the technology improve that much in 6 years?

Sept 6, 2022 0:52:07 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Just getting to see Methos and already I'm awe struck at the possibilities for a fan fiction if this motherfucker is 5,000 years old. Seems like a no brainer they could have made a wicked spin off series with flash backs to Ancient Alien/Atlantis/Graham Hancock shit. You could do an episode where 2 immortals fighting on holy ground is what sunk Atlantis. 

YES! SOLD! And not just because Doctor Who (suck it 🤯) did a similar "this is what sunk Atlantis" storyline like 5 times lol. 

Duncan fought in the Revolution in flashbacks through the series that was during his time(1775?) they should have had him take out Washington for his quickening. 

I'm not the biggest historical buff but 5,000 years ago thats like bible times right? This shit is getting deep for real. and super sacreligious haha

This is my new favorite thread on PW

Sept 6, 2022 0:56:02 GMT Baker said:

Aww yeah Neo Zeed . I was waiting for you to get to Methos. Business just picked up. Best character in the show imo.

Did you get to the Rogue Watchers storyline yet? That's my second most fondly remembered storyline behind only The Horsemen.

Was just thinking how crazy it was that a low budget syndicated program got the rights to Queen. QUEEN! One of the biggest bands in the universe! Their music adds so much to the show.

Was also just about to go back and edit my movie post. Instead I'll drop one final thought here. Somehow the Quickenings in the relatively low budget series manage to be more impressive than those in the big(ger) budget movie. Did the technology improve that much in 6 years?

The Rogue Watchers seemed like a storyline that was going early in season 3 or maybe season 2? The guy that killed Darius in the season 1 finale was a rogue watcher right? That was him that came back with Xavier in the 2 parter Unholy Alliance. 

Sept 6, 2022 0:57:21 GMT Baker said:

Sept 6, 2022 0:52:07 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Just getting to see Methos and already I'm awe struck at the possibilities for a fan fiction if this motherfucker is 5,000 years old. Seems like a no brainer they could have made a wicked spin off series with flash backs to Ancient Alien/Atlantis/Graham Hancock shit. You could do an episode where 2 immortals fighting on holy ground is what sunk Atlantis. 

YES! SOLD! And not just because Doctor Who (suck it 🤯 ) did a similar "this is what sunk Atlantis" storyline like 5 times lol. 

Sept 6, 2022 1:03:38 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Sept 6, 2022 0:56:02 GMT Baker said:

Aww yeah Neo Zeed . I was waiting for you to get to Methos. Business just picked up. Best character in the show imo.

Did you get to the Rogue Watchers storyline yet? That's my second most fondly remembered storyline behind only The Horsemen.

Was just thinking how crazy it was that a low budget syndicated program got the rights to Queen. QUEEN! One of the biggest bands in the universe! Their music adds so much to the show.

Was also just about to go back and edit my movie post. Instead I'll drop one final thought here. Somehow the Quickenings in the relatively low budget series manage to be more impressive than those in the big(ger) budget movie. Did the technology improve that much in 6 years?

The Rogue Watchers seemed like a storyline that was going early in season 3 or maybe season 2? The guy that killed Darius in the season 1 finale was a rogue watcher right? That was him that came back with Xavier in the 2 parter Unholy Alliance. 

Probably. He was related to Joe in some way iirc. I hated that guy! lol

Come to think of it I wouldn't be at all surprised if Methos does tell what happened to Atlantis in the series. I'm sure he was there. He's been everywhere and done everything. Literally! Duncan is a mere babe compared to Methos.