#GoldenOldies – Highlander: The Series

Cast: Adrian Paul, Stan Kirsch, Jim Byrnes, Alexandra Vandernoot, Elizabeth Gracen, Peter Wingfield, Valentine Pelka

There can be only one…

Some pick Christmas flavored series or heartwarming movies, suited for the season to be jolly. I spent my winter holiday in the company of BBC’s Sherlock and Highlander: The Series marathons.  

As I re-watched episode after episode of the fantasy-action packed series, created as an alternate sequel to the 1986 movie starring Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod, I recalled the remake struggling in limbo. Yup, the one Ryan Reynolds was set to star and now swimming in the murky waters of producers and execs Hell.

Now, I must confess I am in denial after the sixth season minus the two part finale, I also deny the existence of Highlander: The Source and cope with Highlander: Endgame – mostly because of Bruce Payne but the 1992 extravaganza holds a dear place in my heart and I admit I’ve seen this series multiple times. In fact I haven’t watched it at first in English but in French on M6 TV station. I also watched it on RTL and even if I can’t speak German for dear life, let alone understand it as well as I’d like to, thank the Heavens for the French re-runs. Yes, I saw it in English as well. You might ask yourselves why I watched it so many times – 4-5 times. On M6, I saw it twice, on RTL one time, on PRO TV one time and I do believe I caught glimpse of this series on the national TV station Prima.

What makes me come back to Highlander? Besides my eternal 90’s blues – really, I will deliver weekly golden oldies from the days when jeans were made to cover the butt and be comfortable and loose jeans shirts and black fitted T-shirts were the “style”.

Duncan MacLeod  took the mantle from his kin, Connor and had fun with it for six seasons and two movies. He was the eternal boy scout, always good and righteous. He fought for good, was chivalrous and let’s be blunt he was very easy on the eye. Especially during those training montages when he was sweaty and wasn’t wearing a shirt. Duncan’s story was full of grief, struggles, fun, meeting interesting mortals and forging friendships with fellow immortals. And there were the fighting scenes. By the time the series was in full swing glory, the sword fighting scenes were the best fun break during school days. Advantage to those of us who had wooden rulers. Those were the days before smartphones, wi-fi and Internet taking over our daily routine. The bigger the baddy, the more spectacular the sword fights were choreographed. Grayson aka one Hell of a charismatic villain set the stage for a breath taking sword fight. It put Duncan as the underdog in a fight against a seasoned warrior who had centuries of skills behind him. A student of Darius.

This is what the TV series brought into full gear and the movies have failed to deliver. Secondary characters raising and gripping attention from Duncan, the hero and the main focus of the show. Sure, Adrian Paul raised eyebrows, made the ladies swoon and in time delivered some memorable scenes. The show lived with the help of the characters who showed up in Duncan’s life. His lovers, past and present, his friends, mentors, his enemies.

Darius (Werner Stocker) had gravitas and added a significant weight to Duncan’s moral compass.  A smart move from the writers of the shows was the moment he was introduced and the immortals universe broadened. There was a world outside of Seacover.

“Highlander” also saw many rising stars like Jason Isaacs, Marion Cotillard and Nicholas Lea showing up. Even if Connor didn’t make a comeback after the pilot, Duncan’s world revolved around immortals, mortals and Watchers.

The introduction of the Watchers was also a good starting point in adding to the Immortals Universe, the secret society watching and recording the lives of the Immortals without making contact with them. The Watchers gave us Joe, Duncan’s watcher and friend, Horton aka the scum –ok,ok, a renegade Watcher hell bent on exterminating Immortals – and Methos, the sarcastic Watcher going by the name of Adam Pierson who in fact was the oldest immortals known around. He was also one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Methos was a character who developed a fan base because of the acting skills of Peter Wingfield and his delivery of a young sarcastic man who happens to be a 5000 Immortal. The best thing the writers had done was to allow this character to live in the show. His witty banter worked perfectly with Duncan’s holier than thou attitude. Besides being a character who reminded the younger audience of our days of Grumpy Cat, Methos had a dark secret. What a surprise! He was Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Methos, Kronos, Silas and Caspian had terrorized the world back in the Bronze Age and for two episodes we had the climax of the this series. Valentine Pelka as Kronos had charisma and villainy enough for a full season of schemes and machinations but the Horsemen came back and drifted into the sunset after two episode. To this day, I understand that the cost for a season of having the Horsemen on board and flashback scenes would have bleed the production but this would have been a wiser choice than the sixth season.

Richie Ryan (Stan Kirsch) was the sidekick, turned out the be an Immortal with whom the writers had fun developing until one episode when everything went down the drain. I  tend to see the episode ‘’Archangel’’ the beginning of the end and I swear if the two part finale Not to be/ To be would have come after the Horsemen arc, it would have been a fitted end of the series. Ritchie had potential even as a rising grey area character, have some bad deeds added to his resume but create a back door for redemption.

Amanda (Elizabeth Gracen) had an interesting development. When we first meet her she could barely held her ground during a sword fight – I doubted her skills and hoped at some point, like Methos, she pretended sometimes to be more of a clutz to distract her adversaries and take their heads – but no. Up until she got her spin-off show Highlander: The Raven – or the dubious reason there was a sixth season for Highlander – she was running to Duncan to save her head. In the Raven, we witness an upgrade in her skills, the type that comes after intensive training. The woman had skills and she was lethal. If The Raven would have had a second series we might have been indulged with more but alas the times were changing.

Today, Highlander The Series remains a cult TV show and a reminder of the 90s TV series epicness and fun. It lives in our memories of coming home from school and turning on the TV.

If there’s a chance for a remake –and clearly wipe from our conscience the Source movie – I tend to believe a TV series treatment would be a far better way than a remake of the first movie. This franchise grew more as a TV series with the help of the first movie from 1986 than the movies delivered after Mulcahy first foray into the Quickenings.

With Queen, Kansas, Bonny Portmore, long coats, katanas and broadswords, leather jackets, sass and swagger, my winter holiday was a trip down memory lane. Hey, you might never know when I’ll revisit again this series and maybe, just maybe, a TV network will take on a Highlander series.