There’s far too much out there for me to contain into just 10. Also, I tried to not include shows that I started and haven’t managed to finish yet (like Hex, Downton Abbey), but there are a few that snuck on there that fit the category (Fringe, True Blood).
Lots of times, people will ask me if I’ve seen a certain show, and I usually reply that it’s on my list. And every time I do a 101 Things in 1001 Days list, I include some of the shows on my list to ensure that I’ll actually make myself watch them (which is why I’ve now finally seen Oz, Teen Wolf, and Veronica Mars). But what’s still on my list?
A pair of reviews…
I recently went to Seattle for work (okay, as I’m typing this, I’m still in Seattle, stranded because of cancelled flights and a foot of snow back home, but maybe I’ll be home by the time this scheduled post goes live). I didn’t get much time to explore the city, but I did purchase a few fandom items… because that’s just how I roll.
Also, two of these items might be presents for one of my online friends whose username might be abbreviated L.K. So don’t read this if that’s you or you will be spoiled!
This is a list I had on my Highlander website years ago, but my favorites haven’t changed at all over the years. It was nearly impossible to chose just ten—just ten episodes that I loved more than the others—so I have some extra favorites at the end 🙂
10. Band of Brothers
This episode was brilliant. One of the classics, it presented us with fresh tastes of characters we were just beginning to know. We learned of Darius’ ways, his past. We got a taste of Duncan, the warrior, toying with his conscience. In such scenes as Richie helping to train Duncan, we learned more of immortality and of the noble morals Darius instilled upon Duncan. In a brilliant move, flashbacks were not simply the typical look back at Duncan’s previous conflict with an immortal. Instead, as he was facing a stranger, the very essence of his warrior self reflect present day’s fight. This episode also gives us one of the all-time best baddies out there- Grayson (James Horan).
9. The Gathering
The Gathering is the episode that started it all. It was a wonderfully done introduction to the premise as well as the characters of the HL Universe. We saw Tessa learn of the reality of immortality & the game, and what it meant to both her and Duncan. We saw Richie Ryan (in stunning Green Jacket, LOL!) break into the store and stumble upon the world of immortality which he would one day join. And we saw Conner and Duncan together as teacher and student and as friends through time. It was the perfect beginning, the torch being passed, to an amazing series.
8. Til Death
Oddly enough, this is my only really funny episode on the list, and yet they’re the ones I can easily watch a hundred times without being bored. While Double Eagle bravely paved the way for such episodes, my favorite is Til Death, without a doubt. The premise of married immortals is a wonderful base to a hilarious interplay with Fitz, Methos, and Duncan. One of my favorite baddies(from the Vampire) returns as a hopeless romantic nobleman. Every line is beautifully placed and hilarious, especially when Methos is concerned. “My boat now” and “Opera, opera- he’s got a lot of opera here. Where’s Springstien? Where’s Queen?” are only starters. The agreed-to fight for jealousy had wonderful improved zingers. And the last scene never fails to make me laugh. “I just went with a toaster!” Crash!
7. Indiscretions
More fondly known as ‘The Methos and Joe Show’, this episode was fabulous. The humor weighs with the seriousness perfectly, and the two characters have such wonderful chemistry for their backgrounds and point in the series. It explores areas the rest of the series didn’t even try to hint at, and did so with the sort of bonding, friendship, and morality that we have come to expect from any episode with Duncan. Joe’s daughter, Methos’ past profession and love, watcher verses immortal, poker faces, and hitchhiking-LOL. As Peter put it at the Legacy con in DC, “I came, I saw, I did a Highlander!”
6. Comes a Horseman/Revelation 6:8
The four horsemen. How could anyone not put this in their list of favorites? It was simply amazing. The goodies were heroes, the baddies were evil, and the lines were so blurred and skewed that you’re not quite sure which site to route for by the end. We catch the first glimpses of Methos’ past… and none of us will ever be the same. He was death! Duncan falls into protective mode, and Joe falls back to the sidelines. I must admit, I fell in love with that sweet, brutal Silas- I’d let him have a monkey 🙂 The quickenings are wonderful, especially the series’ first and only double-header. And fabulous acting all around (except maybe Cassandra…) The four horsemen ride again! Good, evil, guilt, judgement, love, hatred *sigh* One of the best, without dispute.
5. Modern Prometheus
More of Methos’ colorful past! In fact, I liked this episode so much I started a fanfic which went back to the flashbacks. Again, the ideas of futile immortality come to center stage. Emotions are gone, death is gone, and Methos and Duncan are pitted against the very concepts of life vs death, loyalty vs justice, and friendship vs friendship. Lord Byron, one of my favorite poets, is as degraded and downcast as Gregor from Studies in light… but as a former student of ‘Doc’ the tides turn and bonds break. Poetry, music, history, and artistic expression all show prominently in this Adrian Paul-directed episode about a doomed immortal- a Modern Prometheus even worse than Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein.
4. Something Wicked/Deliverance
Legend has it that if you took in too much evil during a quickening, you went below. The opposite was said for dear Darius, but this time it falls upon a friend of Duncan’s… and he feels morally responsible to try to make the futile save. Several times in the past, Duncan has ‘gone after’ Richie, and it happens again as the evil overcomes him. He breaks away from Richie, Joe, and home, distancing himself perhaps so he won’t hurt them, perhaps so he won’t be stopped. We see what evil his dark side is truly capable of, and as much as we enjoy the brilliant acting, we long for him to become his ‘boy scout’ self again. After a helping hand and a helping head, Methos lowers him down to the holy hot tub with his father’s sword to combat himself. He realizes that it is not the quickenings that he is fighting against, it is the evil inside himself which has always been there and will always be there. When he is victorious, he knows it is only a matter of time before the real battle is to take place, but now he is himself again to deal with it as it comes.
3. Homeland
Ah, Homeland. What more could I want from an episode? Adrian Paul’s directing, wonderful acting, a homecoming, romance, angst, lost love, clan loyalty/betrayal, Scotland, jokes, and a powerful quickening. *sigh* Duncan returns to a home he was cast away from, which he has not seen in 400 years to replace his first love’s bracelet and avenge his father’s death. We relive the past and feel for him, and I never fail to cry when the first few chords of Bonny Portmore begin. Joe’s being there gives it a modern sense of reality, for we learn much more in the unsaid looks and movements, and we know they understand their places there and with each other. And we realize that there is much more to Duncan MacLeod than we could ever have imagined.
2. Studies in Light
Studies in Light. My favorite episode until the end of fourth season hit. Even if it was early in the series, this episode had a certain je ne sais quoi. We are faced for the first time with an immortal who does not want immortality. His mortality tries to leap out through his art, but it’s such a fine line, and one he cannot cross unless an immortal takes his head. I love his angst, I love his actions, and I love the last scene as Duncan shows him that he doesn’t really want to die after all. The side plot with the dying Linda Plager (versus Tessa) is amazing, as well. To tell or not to tell… to love or not to love. This episode deals with the issues of life and death so strongly and bluntly that it brought me out of my own depression with messages such as my all-time favorite, “Look for the light, instead of the shadows.”
1. Through a Glass, Darkly
I could never say enough about this episode. It’s my favorite for many, many reasons. First and most superficially, Dougray Scott. I could listen to that man say ‘gunpowder’ or look worried and scared all day long and not get bored. He is an amazing and adorable actor. Second, the Methos and Duncan interplay is fantastic. For once Duncan asks Methos for help rather than Joe, and gets it and a few quick retorts as you’re welcomes. Third, the Scottish history. I’m a sucker for the Jacobites and this episode was drenched with it and more: history, traditional music (Will Ye Nae Come Bak Again!), idealism, reality, and the Jacobite spirit. Fourth, the deeper issues of an immortal’s mental insanity. We got a brief taste of it through immortals in the past (Moore/Barnes, Gregor, Cullen) but a trauma so intense that amnesia results is incredible. Methos: “It’s a human trait to remember history as we wish it had been. Ask the Americans, or the Germans” Duncan: “Or the Scots” We finally learn that it is from poor, sweet Warren murdering his own student. It is the first time such an extreme and unimaginable event occurs on the show… and one of the only measures to gauge Duncan against at the end of season five.
There is more to this episode than a small paragraph could explain. But in a few words, I find it heart-wrenching, intriguing, and inspiring.
Prodigal Son
The Darkness
Shadows
An Eye for an Eye
Turnabout
The Vampire
Hunters
To Be/Not to Be
Forgive us our Trespasses
Valkyrie
Watchers
Methos
Double Eagle
End of Innocence
They Also Serve
Here are some of my New Year’s resolutions that relate to fandoms.
Let’s see where I am with these goals this time next year!
Addendum: If you’ve got suggestions for a top ten list you’d like me to write, feel free to post ’em!
I went to see The Day of the Doctor on November 23, 2013 in 3-D in theaters. I’ve found myself unable to write a review about it, though. I really enjoyed it and I loved the experience of seeing it with a bunch of fellow fans. But recent spoilers have made my canon-loving and change-hating brain hurt. And I don’t yet know how events in The Day of the Doctor will influence the Whoverse.
So instead of some review that I may or may not regret one day, I figured I’d turn it into a top ten list.
Spoilers below! Beware!
Everyone’s putting together serious lists of gratitude lately, in honor of Thanksgiving. This has always been my least favorite holiday, miles below holidays like Skyscraper Day and Opposite Day and National Beheading Day (wait, there’s actually a National Beheading Day on September 2? What’s that about and can I at least pretend it has something to do with Highlander?). Anyway, I decided my first top ten list on this blog should be of a somewhat less serious nature…
No, this post isn’t going to be about the obscure Billy Joel song that inspired me to create an original character based off it. This post is about my attempt at watching some television a few nights ago.
I turned on my bedroom television set to its default station: BBC America. I actually had to go with a high-end cable package because LOGO And BBCA are two televisions stations I can’t do without. With BBC America, whenever I turn it on, it’s either Top Gear, Chef Gordon Ramsey swearing, or Star Trek: the next generation. Basically, I like my odds, even though I wouldn’t say its offerings are always British. In fact, my kindred spirit emailed BBC America once asking why an American show was being offered. I expected them to throw out the Patrick Stewart card as justification. Instead, they replied “While we understand this is not a British show, Star Trek is a massive fan favorite around the world – particularly in the UK.” Huh. We’re American. We can watch American shows any time we want. Just because the British also happen to like it is not a particularly valid reason to put it on a British programming channel! LOL
Anyway, when I turned on the television as I was getting ready for bed, the first Highlander movie was on. It was half-over, but on. Like Star Trek: TNG, you have to work to justify why it’s on BBC America (and right after it? a marathon of Star Trek: TNG, naturally), but I was happy to see it.
I watched a bit of it, then thought up a good few lines for a NaNoWriMo piece I’d been working on. So I went back downstairs and wrote them down. I got back to the movie just as the big fight scene was starting. I had awesome timing. I slid into bed and watched Connor climbing up to rescue Brenda… and the next thing I knew, the two were in Scotland. Somehow I’d closed my eyes and slept through the entire fight scene (which is not particularly short, mind you). I was rather embarrassed.
I then proceeded to watch the episode of Star Trek: TNG on next. Having just rewatched the entire series twice, it took me about 2 seconds to figure out which episode it was and to shout out “Nightbird!” with Counselor Troi when Riker asks for requests. But I didn’t make it a minute further before falling back to sleep, this time for good.
