Miscellaneous > The Sallyport

Oh my... (Highlander)

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Sir Wolf:
and to think he stopped highlander so he could go back to dancing. i saw a commercial of another adrian paul TV movie he's going to be in.. he must be proud

Das Bill:
You know, I always remembered Highlander the series as being pretty cheesey. A few months back I discovered that the entire series is online now, for free on www.hulu.com. (I discovered this while watching Dr. Horrible for the first time, which is also hosted on that site... how's that for tying the thread back to the original post?)

I spent much of my holiday break watching the series. A lot of it is still very cheesey. A lot of it is cheesey by modern standards, but wasn't so bad back when it came out. And a lot of it is surprisingly good. I watched the first couple of episodes for a laugh, and they were bad, but then it starts to get better and better throughout the first couple of seasons. (then it gets terrible again in the later seasons)

I didn't realize it until then, but a lot of my romantic ideals about honor and chivalric ideals were in some small part inspired by that show. I'm almost ashamed to admit that. :) But there are a lot of episodes about putting honor over desire, and I started remembering times of my life that were likely, in a small way, influenced by this (as well as many other things besides Highlander, naturally). I kind of surprised myself, really.

For the record, the swordfighting is still pretty atrocious in the series... but the unarmed fighting is surprisingly quite good. While it was still theatrical, it was very precise, well done, and in many cases correct form (if slightly exaggerated). Go fig.

Sir Edward:

Yeah, it's always interesting going back and seeing something that you haven't seen in a long time and seeing how your views of it have changed, and what still holds up after all of those years.

I was definitely a bit influenced by it as well. A lot of the times, the moral of the story is still a good one, even if the implementation is cheesy. I never really thought of the show as being that cheesy back then, but rather just a fun diversion. Now that I have the DVDs and have watched a little of the first season again, I can see where it's definitely cheesy by today's standards, but like you, I see that some parts are surprisingly good too. I remember that the show took some time to find it's path, and was probably strongest in the middle seasons.

It's funny, I had no interest in katanas until I got hooked on the Highlander franchise. They're still not my area of focus, but to this day I still appreciate their beauty, and synthesis of form and function.

The funny thing is that I'm spotting a lot of the production mistakes that weren't evident back when it originally aired. Having the show on DVD, combined with an HDTV, allows you to see very clearly when they're using the aluminum choreography blades instead of the "Hero" props. Often they're still holding them in the close-ups. :)

Sir Edward:

Oh yeah, I also wanted to say that it's interesting to go back and look at what some of our early influences were, in terms of where we are today with our hobbies, interests, and philosophical beliefs.

A lot of times, we're influenced early on by things that, in retrospect, might be somewhat embarrassing. I know I was influenced by Highlander, but also Star Trek, among other things. Captain Kirk was a great role model. :)

I was already following a path towards Chivalry (without calling it that), and collecting swords, before the Highlander series started. But being a show that involved aspects of these things, to the 19-year old that I was when it began, I suppose it was inevitable that I'd find it fascinating. :)

Das Bill:
One of the things about looking back on the show is that I mainly remembered it for guys running around with swords in trenchcoats, which of course was appealing when I was 13. :) I rewatched it purely out of nostalgia, and I found that quite a lot of it has little to do with swords or swordfighting. In the first couple of seasons, some of the best moments are the character interactions. I also loved that they really spent a lot of time tackling the idea of what it really means to never grow old, to have to constantly restart your life over and over, and to lose everyone around you. There were a lot of really good moments throughout

Now, of course, some of the episodes are just plain silly. Some were outright stupid. After all, its just Highlander, not Oscar Wilde. :) Either way, I definately enjoyed rewatching it.

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