Alright. Fine. I'll bump Lonesome Dove up in the queue. This coming week will either be the best or worst time for me to watch it. Put in for a vacation but still not sure if staying home or going somewhere. Anyone up for a PW watch party when the time comes?

About to start Episode 17 of Highlander now. Might watch more than one today.

Sept 17, 2022 21:22:07 GMT Baker said:

Alright. Fine. I'll bump Lonesome Dove up in the queue. This coming week will either be the best or worst time for me to watch it. Put in for a vacation but still not sure if staying home or going somewhere. Anyone up for a PW watch party when the time comes?

About to start Episode 17 of Highlander now. Might watch more than one today.

How's a watch party work for something you actually wanna pay attention to? Or am I the only one who can't multitask focus?

😳

Sept 17, 2022 21:29:39 GMT 🤯 said:

How's a watch party work for something you actually wanna pay attention to? Or am I the only one who can't multitask focus?

😳

Good point. I too am no good at multitask focusing. Scrap the watch party idea.
============
Saw Darius in the opening credits. He's on a lot. Episode opened with a mortal man and an immortal woman having the usual lover's tiff among that pairing. One will grow old and die. The other won't. It's all just so tragic. Woman walked out. Then man got shot by a mystery gunman wearing standard tv murderer gloves. Have a feeling this will be another Detective Duncan episode.

I figure you pause as needed so you're generally ~5 minutes of everyone. That or you treat like a PPV, everyone agrees on a start time and no pausies.

Plan now is to finish Season 1 of Highlander then take a Lonesome Dove break before resuming Season 2.

17. Saving Grace- Begins with a young immortal woman and an old mortal man having the lover's tiff you get with that pairing. The mortal is growing old and will die while the immortal stays young and will inevitably outlive their companion. The woman leaves and the man is shot by a mystery assassin wearing tv murderer gloves.

Turns out the immortal woman is the titular Grace. She's an old friend of Darius and Mac. She seeks sanctuary in Darius' church. She's pretty sure the murderer is her old immortal boyfriend Carlo. We get two flashbacks in this one. First is to Cavalier times where dashing Duncan, in Cavalier garb, senses an immortal nearby after easily beating up a few would be robbers. Duncan ducks into a nearby cabin where a mortal woman is giving birth. Awkward! The midwife turns out to be the immortal Grace. They go outside. Grace is like "Look, man, I'm really tired. Just take my head if you want." Duncan is all "LOL No worries. I'm not that kind of immortal." They hit it off and have a fling for years/decades/centuries...that part was unclear. They eventually have an amicable split, but remain friends over the centuries. 

Meanwhile, back in real time, Duncan invited Grace to hide out on his barge since she's the chief suspect in the murder investigation of her elderly boyfriend. Oh, Grace and her boyfriend are doctors btw.  She's taking a shower when Tessa walks in. Tessa is all like "WTF." Duncan explains the situation and Tess is cool with it because she knows Duncan is a total Boy Scout. I was hoping for a little more jealous Tess. It worked well in that one episode. Naturally Tessa & Grace hit it off. You know Grace is just the bestest because they play Amazing Grace from time to time to really get over how totally wonderful she is. 

Doofus Inspector LeBrun is back. He's looking for Grace. He knows Duncan is hiding her but just can't prove it. One time Tess & Grace flee in a speedboat as LeBrun visits the barge and he somehow doesn't see them despite the fact they're only a few feet away in a presumably noisy motorboat. This guy sucks at his job. Richie is....there....doing gruntwork for Duncan. I do like how Richie has started calling him Boss, but he is such a pointless character right now. 

Carlo isn't nearly as interesting as you'd expect from a creepy immortal stalker who has been following his ex all around the world for well over a century. Flashback #2 is to Sherlock Holmes times (I "remember" them putting the place and date on flashbacks. Does this happen in later seasons or is it a Mandela Effect? Perhaps caused by the opening credits?). Grace is about to go away with her new boyfriend Carlo to his really big plantation in Brazil where she plans on doing research and doctoring the poor people of the Amazon. Grace's ultimate goal is to cure disease which makes her the mortal enemy of Kronos. Anyway, a mustachioed Duncan shows up wearing an Abe Lincoln hat to tell Grace he's heard bad things about Carlo, but Grace is like "Nah. He's cool." Duncan remains skeptical and it's hate at first sight between Carlo & Mac. Carlo naturally turned out to be a domineering control freak. Grace eventually fled. And she's been running ever since.

This episode was more interesting on paper than in reality until business really picked up over the final few minutes. Team Mac got Grace a fake identity so she could ditch creepy Carlo again. But as she was leaving the church after saying her final goodbyes to Darius the police arrest her for murdering her boyfriend. Then all hell breaks loose when Carlo shows up to beat up the jobber cops, stab the head cop, and kidnap Grace! Mac ends up following them and we get our big Mac vs. Carlo confrontation on underground train tracks. Carlo has a thick sword. This is a pretty wild fight with lots of bells and whistles. Mac gets his foot trapped in the tracks. Carlo gets electrocuted and then decapitated by a passing train as Mac frees himself just in the nick of time. Mac still receives The Quickening since he happened to be in the area. It ends with Mac & Grace saying their sweet farewells. 

Verdict- Ho hum episode until the wild final few minutes bumped it up a notch.

18. The Lady and The Tiger- Oh brother. It's an Amanda episode. Well, I knew it was coming sooner or later.
Rant Time: Ok, so the way I remember it Amanda is a recurring character in the style of Methos. She's an immortal thief who had an on and off relationship with Duncan over the centuries. She pops up from time to time after pissing off some other immortal by stealing their stuff, or being a general nuisance, and Duncan, who retains a soft spot for her, has to save her...over and over again. Then the episode will end with Amanda stealing Duncan's stuff, or screwing him over in some other way. I could not stand Amanda. And to make matters worse, she was the writer's pet. She even got the rub of starring in the failed Highlander spinoff! They were going for 'loveable rogue' where you're supposed to think "LOL oh that Amanda is such a scamp! What WILL she come up with next?" While I'm over here all "Grr! Bloody Amanda! Can't stand that stupid woman!" Anyway, she's the 'Lady' in the episode title.

Episode begins with Team Duncan getting free tickets to the circus from a mysterious benefactor. Amanda turns out to be the mystery gifter. She's in the circus doing a high wire/tightrope act. Flashback to....Victorian England, maybe? Where's my convenient place and date written at the bottom of the screen, dammit?! Duncan’s hair is all matted down. Not his best look. Duncan & Amanda are staying in some aristocrat's house. They're an item at the time. She steals a bunch of jewels and Duncan's horse, framing him in the process. Oh, they're in Germany judging by the names. Guessing Era of the Kaisers? A bunch of Prussian guards or police try to arrest a confused Duncan in his bed. He fights off half a dozen of them with ease and we get a genuinely funny moment where he cuts off one side of the lead Prussian's ridiculous mustache with his sword.

Back in the present Amanda flirts with a smitten Richie while bragging about her previous liaisons with Richard The Lionheart and Rodin the Sculptor. What a namedropper! Tessa hates Amanda on sight and with good reason this time as she shamelessly flirts with Mac throughout the episode and tries getting him to leave Tess multiple times. Jealous Tessa is best Tessa. 

Oh, and some guy in a straightjacket was presumably being driven to prison in a police van when he broke free by karate kicking his guard, kicking open the back window, slipping out of his straightjacket (I don't think it works that way), and then doing some ridiculous acrobatics to get from the top of the police van to one of those trucks hauling a bunch of cars. Then he hotwires one of the cars, drives off the truck, and speeds away. This is the most ridiculous (in a bad way) Highlander scene yet. But fear not. It would get even worse...

Turns out the guy is an immortal named Zachary who was in a relationship with Amanda while they were in another circus together. He's the 'Tiger' in the title. He’s played by a young Jason Isaacs who would go on to fame by playing Lucius Malloy in the Harry Potter movies. Forget the details, but Zach took the fall for yet another Amanda crime and now he's out for revenge. How is he the villain?!? He wants Amanda's head, but Amanda offers him a more valuable head in MacLeod's. We'd later learn he hated Mac because Amanda always teased Zack about Duncan being a better lover than him.

Amanda uses her normal shady shenanigans to set a completely unaware Mac up for the first fight with Zack, who comes flying in over a wall once again doing a bunch of unnecessary flips. Well, he WAS in the circus, but still! What a spotmonkey! They have a good duel until being forced to stop when the other circus folk come running around the corner to see what all the commotion is about. Oh, Zack did murder a sword salesman (is this a real thing?) because he didn't have the money to buy a sword similar to the one he used back in the day. And he also committed a bunch of crimes with Amanda back when they were an item. So he's hardly a saint.

Tessa meets up with some elderly circus fanboy (is this a real thing?) who has posters of Zack and Amanda from like 50 years ago. They're still using the same names! And this raises no suspicions? God, I hate this episode. Somehow Mac ends up being a prisoner of the circus folk. I don't remember how this happened. I don't think I want to know. There's a failed comedy scene with Duncan and A Clown which is the absolute nadir of the show so far. I was *this close* to throwing in the towel right then and there before realizing I only had about 10 more minutes of this mess to get through. The things I do for you guys... Duncan escapes because OF COURSE he knows fancy trick shooting equestrian circus tricks. Can this episode please end?

Finally we get the big Duncan & Zack duel after Mac foils Zack & Amanda's plan to steal a.....$10 million book? I don't even know what's going on anymore. This did give us our second genuinely funny scene with Mac intentionally botching a coin flip. Trust me. It was funny in context. But fear not! There were like 50 failed attempts at humor in this one. 2 out of 52 is hardly something to brag about. Wait. I also chuckled when The Clown called Duncan a rube. Rube is a funny word that needs to be used more. Make it 3 for 53. Still a terrible ratio. Anyway, Mac and Zack duel. Mac has it won when stupid Amanda swoops in to behead Zack and steal Mac's Quickening. WTF!?!? That's one of the biggest no no's in Highlander!!! It's so frowned upon that TWO OF THE HORSEMEN didn't even dare do it! If ANYONE else did it this would be treated as a villain move of gargantuan proportions, but of course The Rules don't apply to stupid writer's pet Amanda. 

Verdict- In case you couldn't tell I did not like this episode. I did not like it one bit. Worst one yet by a country mile. Amanda managed to somehow be even worse than I remembered. Have a feeling Highlander will be like X Files (with one exception) where I hate all the comedic episodes. And also all the stupid Amanda episodes. Just checked and good grief! I've got 17 more Amanda episodes to go Serenity Now!

Sept 17, 2022 12:50:15 GMT 🤯 said:

This has sold me and jumped Lonesome Dove ahead of Highlander in line for IPs I need to get around to checking out as a matter of personal importance.

I must admit that Pi referring to Lonesome Dove as an IP has been bouncing in my head for 24 hours and I hate it so much. Marvel assification of art, man.

Sept 18, 2022 20:45:41 GMT Kilgore said:

Sept 17, 2022 12:50:15 GMT 🤯 said:

This has sold me and jumped Lonesome Dove ahead of Highlander in line for IPs I need to get around to checking out as a matter of personal importance.

I must admit that Pi referring to Lonesome Dove as an IP has been bouncing in my head for 24 hours and I hate it so much. Marvel assification of art, man.

Lol, Marvel. It was WWF & McDevitt that instilled the concept of intellectual property in my head as a teen.

Sept 18, 2022 22:41:38 GMT 🤯 said:

Sept 18, 2022 20:45:41 GMT Kilgore said:

I must admit that Pi referring to Lonesome Dove as an IP has been bouncing in my head for 24 hours and I hate it so much. Marvel assification of art, man.

Lol, Marvel. It was WWF & McDevitt that instilled the concept of intellectual property in my head as a teen.

Gotta hand it to The Ultimate Warrior legally changing his name to claim ownership, absolutely advanced lunatic move.

I'd be down for a live viewing of Lonesome Dove even though it feels like just yesterday we finished it. I would at least get in on an episode or two. It's a 4 part miniseries if I'm not mistaken each part is about an hour and a half.

Bake you nailed all my issues with Amanda, every episode she's in is dreadful and it's crazy to me that she ends up lasting the whole run of the series. If nothing else they could have got a better looking actress with more charisma, she's just about as bland as can be.

That last stretch of episodes of season 1 felt like such a grind I was so happy to be done with it and moving on to season 2, where I read the show finally picks up.

Also the Four Horsemen two part was so good it kind of ruined the rest of the show. I just can't look at Methos the same knowing he's a murdering rapist sex trafficker even if it was 5,000 years ago. He was such a cool laid back guy that was a huge heel turn even though I'm glad he turned back face I'll never like him the same way haha.

They followed up that Horsemen two parter with about 4-5 of the goofiest episodes where you can tell they stopped trying or giving a fuck. I noticed in season 6 Duncan cut all his hair off, it's 1998 and suddenly everything that was cool in 93-96 is like it's being purposely dumbed down or cancelled at that point in the 90's. Just when it felt like everything started to suck pro wrestling got awesome to save the rest of the decade.

It's crazy the pace that pop culture moved at in the 90's, something that felt so cool in 93-94-95-96 in the blink of an eye felt like a dated relic by 1997. 

Is it sorta accepted in the COMMUNITY that the 4 horsemen are the pinnacle of the journey? Like it's all downhill and while it may be enjoyable, it never gets that point again? Like Endgame?

Sept 19, 2022 12:13:17 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Bake you nailed all my issues with Amanda, every episode she's in is dreadful and it's crazy to me that she ends up lasting the whole run of the series. 

Agreed. I was surprised to discover she's fairly popular among the Highlander fanbase with a lot of people calling her their 2nd (behind Methos) or 3rd favorite character. But even that comes with a catch. She's also extremely polarizing. Seems to be a love/hate figure with no in between. Looks like people either rate her as a 10/10 character or, like us, a 0/10 with go away heat. 

Sept 19, 2022 12:16:47 GMT Neo Zeed said:

Also the Four Horsemen two part was so good it kind of ruined the rest of the show. I just can't look at Methos the same knowing he's a murdering rapist sex trafficker even if it was 5,000 years ago. He was such a cool laid back guy that was a huge heel turn even though I'm glad he turned back face I'll never like him the same way haha.

Just another reason they should have went all in on the Horsemen by having it last the entire second half of Season 5 and ending the entire series on Duncan's biggest victory to date. It was the perfect storm of events resulting in their best villain (Kronos), best character moments (Methos), and best overall storyline (Horsemen). I genuinely see no way they were ever going to top that. Any other big Methos or other Immortal reveal (he was behind the destruction of Atlantis! or the last surviving Atlantean! or the basis of every world religion!) would just come across as a ripoff of the big Horsemen reveal. Any other villain plotting destruction on such a worldwide scale would just come off as a poor man's Kronos. Etc. etc. One of these days I'll elaborate on my plans for how the Horsemen storyline should have went down.

Sept 19, 2022 12:24:07 GMT @ness said:

Is it sorta accepted in the COMMUNITY that the 4 horsemen are the pinnacle of the journey? Like it's all downhill and while it may be enjoyable, it never gets that point again? Like Endgame?

I've seen a few comments to that effect. 
================
Took a Highlander break yesterday. Was busy with other stuff. Plus that Amanda episode did me in lol. Hope to get back in The Game later today.

Plan now is to visit the Rochester area from Thursday-Sunday giving me 3 days to watch the final 4 episodes of Season 1. Let's begin...

We have yet another murderer who lives in a swanky pad. Guessing he's immortal.

Poor Richie. Dude thinks he's ordering fruit and gets seafood instead. French confuses him.

Richie may be a doofus, but he's also a player. Dude is with a new woman on practically every episode. lmao they're playing She Drives Me Crazy by the Fine Young Cannibals. Brilliant shoutout to Xavier St. Cloud.

Flashback to old timey....Spain, maybe? Duncan is drunk! Druncan? He appears to be at a wild party/orgy with the murderer from the beginning.

What episode is this?

en guard you fool

She Drives Me Crazy still slaps my uncle PJ was trippin

Ness what in the world is going on with your av and why have you not changed it to Fitzcairn from Highlander yet

Sept 20, 2022 0:48:02 GMT Neo Zeed said:

What episode is this?

It's called Eye of the Beholder. Duncan and this other immortal were playboys back in the day. Seeing Duncan as a drunk goofball is a nice change of pace. Other Guy must turn evil at some point, but I haven't got that far yet. Got sidetracked with eating and texting. 

Sept 20, 2022 0:54:42 GMT Neo Zeed said:

She Drives Me Crazy still slaps my uncle PJ was trippin

It grew on me just now. Before today I was indifferent to it.

I haven't got to Fitz yet. You like him or no? I vaguely remember him being sort of a male Amanda back in the day in that he was always getting Duncan into trouble?

Getting real Ace Rimmer vibes from this scene where Duncan and his mate dressed like dandies leap onto horseback out a second story window while heroic music plays and their harem consisting of 10 women & a midget are roughly in the area checking on the soldiers they just beat up.

Richie is right for once! He's the only one who sees through fancy man Gabriel Pitone. This is shaping up to be a good episode.

19. Eye of the Beholder- This was an enjoyable episode.

It begins with an older man in bed with a young woman. Feel like we've seen this opening quite a few times. Man wanders off for a minute. Woman accidentally opens a secret room. Bad move. She discovers a bunch of famous stolen art. Man stabs her. Meanwhile, poor Richie is at a restaurant. He thinks he orders fruit only to get seafood because his French sucks. A young woman at a nearby takes pity on him and informs Richie of his faux pas.

Team Duncan is invited to a fashion show. Naturally our murderer from the beginning invited him. He's an immortal named Gabriel who is now a famous fashion designer. Flashback to old timey Spain or France. Duncan & Gabe are surrounded by women at what appears to be a drunken orgy. This episode is already a win in my book because Druncan MacLeod was a hoot. Neat to see the normally straight laced Mac in such an unfamiliar role. A bunch of soldiers try to arrest them for something. They beat the soldiers up off camera and jump out a second story window onto horseback as heroic music plays. A midget is also there for some reason. This whole scene is almost as amazing as Duncan's outfit.

Girl from the restaurant in a model in Gabriel's show. She's replacing the dead woman. Richie hates Gabe on sight and almost immediately suspects him of the murder. Duncan's all "No way! You don't know what your talking about, dumb mortal. Gabe's the man!" And Tessa goes along with her boyfriend because Gabe has a Kavorka Man thing going on. Meaning they're wrong and Richie is right for once! Another nice change of pace.

Mac & Gabe spar with cudgels at one point. With Mac away Richie will play. He does so by adorably impersonating Duncan and Connor(!) with Mac's sword. Duncan just happens to walks in on this. Poor Richie. But it was funny. Then Richie and/or his Girlfriend of the Week find the dead woman's earrings. This leads to Richie sneaking into Gabe's fancy pad. Gabe catches him and is debating what to do about it when RICHIE BURNS HIM ALIVE! Well, that was a bit excessive. 

Gabe is justifiably upset about the whole being burned alive thing. Meanwhile, Duncan is PISSED at Richie for doing what he told him not to do. We get another flashback. Maybe olde timey England since it's a bit more drab than the first flashback. Mac is rogering a Duchess when his Immortal spidey sense tingles at the worst possible time. An understandably annoyed Mac goes to see what's up and finds Gabriel stealing the Duchess' jewels. Now Mac is pissed. Duncan distinctly told Gabe not to steal this particular Duchess' jewels because he had a thing for her. I've come to the conclusion Duncan has a soft spot for thieves. Richie, Amanda, and now Gabe. Gabe gives Duncan a quasi-Marxist speech. While Gabe was never exactly a 'good guy' in the traditional sense, you could excuse him as Good Time Gabe....a rakish hedonist who just wanted to have fun. But nah. He's basically just a greedy bastard whose obsession with beauty has become unhealthy. Anyway, Mac & Gabe duel with fencing swords. Mac has it won but he spares the life of his friend. Gabe now owes him a favor. Mac finally takes advantage of this some 200 years later by telling him not to seek revenge on Richie.

But Gabe wants to meet with Richie anyway. Now it's Richie's turn to be shady. He pretends to be blind so he can steal a cop's gun! Richie meets Gabe. Double cross! Gabe had the police hiding out of sight and somehow framed Richie for the murder. Forget the details here. Girlfriend of the Week is also there. Something happened that made her realize Gabe killed her friend. Gabe is about to kill her for knowing too much when Duncan swoops in for the big save. Now it's Duncan vs. Gabe II- this time to the death. Mac wins a rather slow fight and is visibly upset afterward about having to take the head of his former friend. It ends back on the barge with some bonding between Mac & Richie. 

Verdict- Good episode and the best "Richie" episode in ages. Both flashbacks were a hoot and the villain was interesting in that you got to see him descend from an ACTUAL loveable rogue (take that, Amanda) into just another deranged immortal murderer with a pet obsession. Y'know I'm starting to think the Rogue Watcher had a point. But more on that when we get to him...

Interesting beginning here. Duncan meets a newly made immortal. Haven't seen this aside from Duncan & Connor's flashbacks.

Only bad thing is this guy was nuts even as a mortal so you just know he's going to be doubly mad now that he's immortal.

Duncan was on the internet way back in 1993! Is there anything this guy didn't do? Makes for a nice contrast with the ginormous antenna on Tessa's phone.

This episode isn't doing much for me. Just hoping I can stay awake long enough to finish it.