Plus there is a wedding episode and Tracy Lawrence plays at Chuck Norris' wedding. Fuck man

Time marches on

Sept 11, 2022 14:08:57 GMT Baker said:

@ness I’m sure there were a few Christopher Lambert purists who refused to accept Duncan. I was the opposite as an Adrian Paul purist who didn’t accept Connor until last week lol.

Some reason I believe there are legit Nature Boy marks out there for Rogers. Like some still won't buy into the Naitch.

Sept 11, 2022 14:35:55 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Sept 11, 2022 3:12:32 GMT Baker said:

Adrian Paul should have played a Jedi in a Star Wars movie.

Honestly this is the most 1996 post in this thread. 

Thanks for the compliment. I hope to be never be out 1996ed. No secret 95-96 are my glory days. Wrestling, tv, sports, life in general....it was the best.

@ness If Nobi's Highlander forum goes back far enough Team Duncan vs. Team Connor fanwarz are guaranteed. If it's a newer forum I expect more reasoned discourse since people tend to mellow out over time. I know I have. 

lol @ the Buddy Rogers purists. I've only come across one in all my years on the internet but this guy was a doozy. It was about a decade ago right around the time I joined PW. An old man on another forum was a huge Buddy Rogers fanboy who mentioned him in nearly every post while pooh poohing basically every other wrestler including that phony Ric Flair. Guy used to go to shows in NY or NJ during Buddy's time and posted a lot of his memorabilia pics from that era. I believe he was sincere.

Neo Zeed It's cool that Walker filmed in your area. That's bound to add a little something to it for you. But I still wouldn't get your hopes up about me doing a Walker: Texas Ranger deep dive lol. Obligatory "Tracy Lawrence was my first concert!" line. It's rapidly becoming a less cool version of my "I was at the ECW Arena when Sandman returned!" line.

11. See No Evil- Going to assume the bulk of this episode took place on May 19th. Tessa's friend is designing a new stadium. Mac & Tess go to visit her at the stadium just as she's being attacked by a serial killer. Duncan hears her scream and saves the day just in the nick of time. How convenient! He chases the serial killer, who is wearing goggles and an aviator hat in the style of a World War I flying ace, through the empty stadium. Serial killer escapes. I'm sorry but Duncan & Tessa attract more trouble than Poirot & Miss Marple combined. It's ridiculous! Tessa's friend might be the blandest character yet. I forgot she even existed for over half of this 48 minute episode and will write no more about her.

Flashback is to Mac dueling on a stage with a guy named Marcus Karolus in 1925. Karolus is our oldest looking immortal yet. He has that dignified silver fox look going on. We have yet another darkside of immortality tale. Karolus used to be a swell guy and an implied a friend of Duncan before turning to the darkside in the 1600s after his mortal girlfriend Lenora turned him into the authorities upon discovering his immortality. The authorities burned him at the stake as a witch. Yikes. I'd be pissed too if I were this guy. But after 300 years of pining for his lost Lenora he snaps and takes it way too far by becoming a serial killer targeting blondes who remind him of Lenora. Yeah, guy has issues. He puts up a real strong fight before Duncan finally takes his head. The Quickening had a little extra oomph too. Makes me think Karolus was more powerful than your average immortal. 

But with Karolus clearly dead how do you explain serial killer terrorizing Duncan's city in the modern day? Turns out he's a mortal copycat known as The Scalper. Reporter Lady is back. She has her first interesting scene yet when she gets Duncan alone and theorizes he must be some sort of secret agent. I was waiting for Duncan to casually tell her he's immortal and she'd laugh it off as Duncan messing with her. That would have been gold. Sadly it didn't happen. Stupid writers.

Officer Tim Reid is also back but a new policeman named Graffini gets more screen time. He's the first one yet Duncan treats with contempt. The others were well-meaning but out of their league. It was another neat little attention to detail in some earlier episodes to portray the recurring cops as more competent than the one offs. In one episode the semi-regular cop figures out the Vietnam vet is innocent almost right away while the other guy (admittedly the killer) refuses to buy it. In the hostage episode the recurring cop is the voice of reason contrasted with the idiotic noob swat team commander whose only plan of action is attack attack attack. Why am I wasting so much time writing about these boring peripheral characters who only drag the story down by trying and failing to ground it in reality? I do not know.

Anyway, The Scalper scalps again. Duncan catches a break by discovering he drives an Indian brand motorcycle. Naturally Richie once supplied stolen parts to a shady motorcycle shop guy. They meet and after some shenanigans Team Mac and Motorcycle Guy cut a deal for Motorcycle Guy to call if the goggle-wearing weirdo returns to his shop. In my head The Scalper is that weird boy standing in line from A Christmas Story having grown up to become a serial killer. Motorcycle Guy calls Richie when Goggles enters his store. Richie stupidly decides to play the hero. Goggles easily ditches him and Richie ends up having a minor motorcycle accident. Duncan sets a trap after scolding Richie. It almost backfires! That actually was cool. It's nice to see Duncan get one wrong for a change. He's not Mr. Perfect after all. An innocent actress almost got it because of Duncan's stupid plan. Only reason she escaped is because she was wearing a wig and her natural hair was the wrong color.

It all builds to....Tessa accidentally running over The Scalper and police taking him into custody. Yep. That's it. We didn't even get a big Duncan vs. Scalper showdown. In a way I appreciate an episode with somebody else getting the big moment. But how big of a jobber was this guy to be a Highlander villain and not even have a big showdown with Duncan?

That was the problem with The Scalper and this episode in general. It was just...boring. Don't ask me how you can make a boring episode about a copycat serial killer who is also obsessed with the 1920s and goes around scalping blondes, but they somehow managed to do it. Also, I'm almost positive Midsomer Murders borrowed heavily from this plot at least once. 

Verdict- Weakest episode in a while, if not the weakest one yet.

Sept 12, 2022 2:52:53 GMT Baker said:

Sept 11, 2022 14:35:55 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Honestly this is the most 1996 post in this thread. 

Thanks for the compliment. I hope to be never be out 1996ed. No secret 95-96 are my glory days. Wrestling, tv, sports, life in general....it was the best.

@ness If Nobi's Highlander forum goes back far enough Team Duncan vs. Team Connor fanwarz are guaranteed. If it's a newer forum I expect more reasoned discourse since people tend to mellow out over time. I know I have. 

lol @ the Buddy Rogers purists. I've only come across one in all my years on the internet but this guy was a doozy. It was about a decade ago right around the time I joined PW. An old man on another forum was a huge Buddy Rogers fanboy who mentioned him in nearly every post while pooh poohing basically every other wrestler including that phony Ric Flair. Guy used to go to shows in NY or NJ during Buddy's time and posted a lot of his memorabilia pics from that era. I believe he was sincere.

Neo Zeed It's cool that Walker filmed in your area. That's bound to add a little something to it for you. But I still wouldn't get your hopes up about me doing a Walker: Texas Ranger deep dive lol. Obligatory "Tracy Lawrence was my first concert!" line. It's rapidly becoming a less cool version of my "I was at the ECW Arena when Sandman returned!" line.

Set the bar high for your first one, Tracy Lawrence is GOAT

So is the movie lightning in a bottle? Have read that it kinda goes off the rails after the og. So movie 1 and the show is the OOOOHHH YEAH THE CREAM OF THE CROP?

For me yes. Ok for the fan fiction I've decided it needs to be Baker's kumite tournament with the idea inspired by Kilgore that it should be at Stonehenge for the ultimate quickening. This should be in the style of The Quick And The Dead movie with Sharon Stone and Decaprio where they build up the characters through the movie until they start taking each other out. Also need to have a Graham Hancock inspired character subplot that uncovers the history of the Immortals going back to the pyramids and gobeki tepli etc and finds out all kinds of backstory on what they are as well as meeting a Methos style 5,000 year old character to reveal stuff about Atlantis and lost civilizations. Lets do this.

Sept 12, 2022 10:03:41 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Set the bar high for your first one, Tracy Lawrence is GOAT

Gonna have to disappoint you again. Left out the 2nd part of that story lol.

Our parents were out of town for a few days so my brother and I were staying with our friend Jensen who lived across the street. He was a big Genesis (and NES) guy, but not a wrestling or Highlander fan. Anyway, his mom was a big country music fan who already had plans to attend the Tracy Lawrence concert up the road in Aberdeen, MD. We were basically dragged along. I was fine with this since country music comprised 95% of my music diet at the time (with Harry Chapin, a little Queen, the song American Pie, and maybe Whoomp There It Is depending on the year making up the other 5%), but Tracy wasn't one of my guys. Nowadays the only song of his I can name off the top of my head is Renegades, Rebels and Rogues from the movie Maverick. Guessing that was his big hit around the time I saw him live. Been trying to find the date of this show but records of his concerts during the early-mid 90s are sparse. Guessing it was 1994 though. Sell me on some Tracy Lawrence.

Sept 12, 2022 22:30:13 GMT @ness said:

So is the movie lightning in a bottle? Have read that it kinda goes off the rails after the og. So movie 1 and the show is the OOOOHHH YEAH THE CREAM OF THE CROP?

That seems to be the general consensus with hardcore Highlander fans downright hating the other movies and the Highlander: Raven spinoff featuring Amanda.
===========
My streak ended yesterday. After this post I get back in The Game. Hoping to knock out two tonight. Episode 13 is supposedly a real good one. 

Sept 13, 2022 0:29:11 GMT Neo Zeed said:

For me yes. Ok for the fan fiction I've decided it needs to be Baker's kumite tournament with the idea inspired by Kilgore that it should be at Stonehenge for the ultimate quickening. This should be in the style of The Quick And The Dead movie with Sharon Stone and Decaprio where they build up the characters through the movie until they start taking each other out. Also need to have a Graham Hancock inspired character subplot that uncovers the history of the Immortals going back to the pyramids and gobeki tepli etc and finds out all kinds of backstory on what they are as well as meeting a Methos style 5,000 year old character to reveal stuff about Atlantis and lost civilizations. Lets do this.

I am so in.

Needs to also tie into the Mayan calander somehow maybe Quetzalcoatl was a mighty immortal and they had quickenings at Machu Pichu

Idea: Methos (and other immortals I suppose) are the inspiration behind every ancient religion.

Also my reviews are going to get shorter from here on out unless it's a really good or really bad episode. I mean it this time!

That's why Jesus resurrected. Didn't go for the head.

Thanos was an immortal.

lol at Richie's complete inability to parallel park

Richie putting his own "out of order" sign on a parking meter is such a boss move

Feeling Richie's pain here. I once went to an art museum with an art snob. It was awkward. Give me Bob Ross over that fancy schmancy crap every time.

12. Eyewitness- Opens with Richie doing some of the worst parallel parking since my driver's ed days. He would later hook up with a woman presumably for a one night stand. Good for Double R. Tessa is putting an art show. Duncan is conspicuously absent. Trouble magnet Tessa just happens to be glancing out a window at the very moment a woman she was just talking to potentially gets murdered. She did look away at the worst possible moment.

Rest of the episode is another installment of Duncan MacLeod: Immortal Detective. Officer Tim Reid and Reporter Lady are back. Officer Tim Reid no sells Tessa's claim of witnessing a murderer. No wonder this city is a crime-ridden cesspool. It's also no wonder Duncan and Friends hightail it to Paris soon. Duncan & Tess are rude to Reporter Lady. They would totally be banned from Twitter nowadays. One mustn't offend the priestly caste. But luckily Twitter didn't exist in 1992. Turns out there was indeed a murder. And the murderer just so happens to be another immortal. But get this. He's also the police chief! I have so many questions. Is he a new police chief? Has he always been the police chief? If so, why was he ignoring Duncan?

Anyway, Dead Woman was Immortal Police Chief's girlfriend once upon a time. He ditched her. She followed him around threatening to go public with the existence of immortals. So she had to get it. He tells Duncan she wasn't the first mortal girlfriend he whacked. He stalks Tessa for a while. Duncan makes a few big saves. One time he gets shot and another time he saves a bunch of people from a bomb. The two immortals eventually duel. Duncan beats him without ever being in much peril.

Verdict- Another just there episode. Villain was boring and all these Detective Duncan stories just aren't what I want from Highlander. 

Ok I'm casting my Highlander fan fiction modeled after The Quick And The Dead 1995 western movie, so far for my cast of Immortals for the Kumite I got Donnie Yen, Cynthia Rothrock, the guy that played The Sandman in JCVD prison movie, Zues Tiny Lister, Ramon Cota from Delta Force 2, Julian Sands from Warlock, Rutger Hauer maybe blind like from Blind Fury, Scott Bakula playing a character like who he was in Lord Of Illusion, Lattimore from The Program, Pillman from 1996 ECW, Michael Dudikoff from American Ninja, Meatloaf, Jeff Fahey from Lawnmower Man, Brad Douriff the voice of Chucky, and I came up with a character that is around 10,000 years old played by Lance Henrickson that kills Methos for his quickening to start the show off with a huge shocker ala Psycho. Lets fucking go.

Also David Duchovney as Adam Graham archeologist that discovers the history of the Immortals and uncovers the final Gathering.

Feel like need to squeeze somebody from The Wire in there, maybe Beadie, I like her a lot. She can be the one who finds Joe, who leads her to Duncan who has been in hiding, but trains her and passes the dragon head katana on to her before sacrificing himself some way without being beheaded, creating a self sacrificing quickening for Beadie to pass the torch to her for the Kumite. She's got the underdog vibe, maybe you can throw in ghost Duncan and Connor backing her up like Star Wars Obi Wan stuff. 

And I have finally made it to the Four Horsemen episode. I have not watched it yet. But it's next.

Sept 14, 2022 2:04:49 GMT Neo Zeed said:

And I have finally made it to the Four Horsemen episode. 

Sept 14, 2022 1:52:46 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Ok I'm casting my Highlander fan fiction
Meatloaf

We have our winner. Meatloaf vs. Zeus final. Book it, Gabe.

13. Band of Brothers- Was looking forward to this one. Nobi and some of the fansites I've been reading put it over big time. It has a wrestling-like build. They don't waste any time with boring police investigations, Duncan MacLeod: Immortal Detective, or stupid storylines like Richie becoming a used car salesman. The villain (Grayson) makes his presence known early on and it's all about building to the big Grayson vs. Duncan showdown. Maybe not quite a Wrestlemania level main, but it definitely could have headlined a Summerslam. One of the best S1 episodes yet, if not THE best. It's between this and the pilot for me. Pilot was more straight up fun, but the villain was a bit crap beyond having two neat gimmicks. 

Back around 500 AD immortal warmongering general Darius was wreaking havoc and on the verge of conquering Europe (where he would have reigned for a thousand years according to Duncan) when he killed the oldest living immortal*, who happened to be a holy man. This resulted in a rare Light Quickening. Darius turned his back on war, became a priest, and spent the next 1500 years preaching peace. His best friend and right hand man during his soldiering days was the aforementioned Grayson. Grayson never forgave Darius for going soft and now he's getting revenge by targeting all of Darius' proteges, mortals and immortals alike in the hope of drawing Darius out of retirement for a duel 1500 years in the making. 

*Methos is approximately 5000 years old. This guy was older than Methos. So he would have been born before 3000 BC. That's a long, long time ago.

Darius took Duncan under his wing during the Napoleonic Wars. Mac stayed with the holy man for a while before deciding he couldn't become a peace purist like his mentor. The last straw was Darius letting a guy who just stabbed him to death go off scot free. Duncan was like "Nah, man. Bad guys should be punished." So they had an amicable split with Duncan leaving while still retaining the utmost respect for Darius.

Darius sends Mac a message in the runes of a 2000 year old dead language basically saying "Grayson is coming for you head." Mac shows fear for the first time. Grayson is 1800 years old. Mac doesn't think he can beat him. This alone took the episode up a notch. We've never seen Duncan express so much self doubt before. He has Richie train him. They have a good conversation or two including the first mention of the Dark Quickening. But they sadly didn't go all Rocky IV with it. Throw in some badass Queen montages and there would be no debate over this or the pilot as my favorite S1 episode yet. 

Grayson targets a mortal Darius protege named Victor Paulus who goes around the world preaching peace. Duncan saves Paulus from two assassination attempts. The Duncan/Grayson showdown was always likely. Now it becomes inevitable.

Tessa was offered a job in Paris early in the episode. Duncan tells her to take it and packs Richie off with Tess. Tessa is no dummy. She knows Mac sent them away because of the Grayson business. Spoiler Alert: Mac wins. So we'll be in Paris from now on. Reporter Lady is also back. She has another amusing one on one conversation with Duncan. She's at her most tolerable when it's just her and Duncan and Mac is messing with her. She thinks Duncan is basically James Bond working for some top secret government agency. Despite being a serious episode the humor that did exist in this one was actually pretty good by Highlander standards.

Duncan & Mac fight twice. First time is interrupted. Second time is a real doozy. Grayson has Mac on the ropes, even cutting him once or twice. Mac borderline feigns surrender only to block the fatal strike before making his comeback for the upset victory. That was honestly borderline shady. I'm gonna call in the Council of Immortals for a final verdict.

Grayson was an interesting villain because of how un-Highlanderlike he was. Most Highlander villains are gloriously over the top in that classic Doctor Who sort of way. Grayson isn't your typical insane ranter and raver, but comes across as more of a highly competent middle manager type. For example he has his lackeys whack Darius' mortal proteges. Dude ain't gonna get his hands dirty over mere mortals. Plus his name is Grayson, for crying out loud! What kind of name is that for an 1800 year old former warlord? Other really old immortals have names like Methos, Kronos, Caspian, The Kurgan, Silas, Darius & Cassandra. Then you've got....Grayson. One of these is not like the others. His only 'cartoonish' villain move was sending Duncan a figure of a headless Redcoat in a reference to Duncan's time in the Napoleonic Wars and that's honestly a great dick heel move. 

But our man presumably named after the Master of the Stopball does have a(n admittedly skewed) sense of honor. Duncan doesn't think he'd attack Tessa or Richie. Grayson later puts Duncan over and even offers him a partnership. "Not forever. Only a hundred years or so." Of course Mac declines. Grayson wouldn't be THAT bad (as far as evil immortals go) if not for the whole "destroying Darius and all his proteges" thing. 

Verdict- A better montage away from being the undisputed best S1 episode yet. Still probably is, but a Queen montage would have sealed the deal.

Yes this was definitely one of my favorites from season one. I keep hoping Grayson will come back from the Immortal dead at some point through the series. I made it up to an episode on season 5 that tied into the Darius storyline, its the episode with Ron Pearlman as the Immortal preaching for all Immortals to put down their swords and stop fighting. Duncan is totally against this but Pearlman reminds him of Darius teachings and I thought that was really cool that the storyline was reaching that far back in the series. I did read that the actor that played Darius actually died shortly after the filming of season 1.

I'm in love with the whole concept of these Immortals being evil but turning good or being good and turning evil due to what kind of energy they absorb from the quickenings.

I have to say though at this point I'm not real crazy about the Watchers storyline. I guess I don't hate it I mean it did give the show something that it needed but at the same time I'm not gaga over this whole angle either, though I do like Joe.

I loved the scene where Grayson was offering Duncan a job that was just a really good scene

Neo Zeed I read the same thing about Darius and I’m with you on The Watchers. Joe rules and the evil Watcher was a great villain, but I was never crazy about the whole Watcher concept. You mean to tell me these immortals, who are paranoid by nature, don’t know they’re constantly being tracked and followed by these nosy mortals? Give me a break! Even back in the day I found the idea of Watchers completely unrealistic.

Sept 14, 2022 2:18:50 GMT Baker said:

Sept 14, 2022 1:52:46 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Ok I'm casting my Highlander fan fiction
Meatloaf

We have our winner. Meatloaf vs. Zeus final. Book it, Gabe.

For Meat Loaf I have him as a heel named Lodewicus the Brute born in 1207 in Jeruselum and one of the Knights in the Knights Templar in the crusades possibly some sub-plot involving Immortal related backstory with the holy grail, possible face turn before being beheaded early on in the tournament by one of the bigger heels. 

Tiny Lister I'm still deciding, was thinking of making him one of The Moors born in 665 AD or maybe a pre-historic warrior that goes back to 3,920 B.C. Shit is getting deep. 

omg yes I'm at the mime episode!

Lots of people these days freak out over clowns but mimes are 10 times creepier

Duncan & Friends should move back to Seacouver pronto. It may have Baltimore levels of crime, but at least there are no homicidal mimes. Or any mimes for that matter. Always go where the mimes aren't.