Highlander the Series
(1992-1998)
Aired on syndicated broadcasts.
Created by Davis-Panzer Productions.
Starring Adrian Paul, Alexandra Vandernoot, Stan Kirsch, Amanda Wyss, Jim Byrnes
Rating: ******
3/6
Duncan McLeod being hanged in a past life.
A man in his home spends time with his wife
In an activity that keeps them up part of the night,
When a teenage thief starts to burgle their home
And finds it quite quickly he’s not alone.
The man hears a noise quite untoward,
So he throws on some pants he picks up a sword,
Then confronts the young thief who had been much too loud,
He tells him his name is Duncan MacLeod.
He’s from the Clan MacLeod, so he said,
And finished by telling the lad that he’s dead.
The kid puts his stolen loot back on the shelf
And says that he’ll call the police on himself.
Duncan in another past life.
MacLeod seems confused, then looks to his left
And sees a large stranger both graceful and deft,
Also armed with a sword, which he points at McLeod,
And challenges him to a fight ‘cause he’s proud.
So sword against sword, steel against steel,
Swinging and slashing like fast-swimming eels,
The combatants fight well till one loses his head.
The sword-wielding stranger has just become dead.
The teen is still there and hasn’t quite left,
Soon to be amazed by what he sees next.
The neck of the body that lay on the floor
Releases a spirit during a lightning storm.
Ritchie Ryan, the nosy thief.
A lightning storm? It appeared in the house
Belonging to the man named Duncan MacLeod,
Who raises his sword to channel the strike
Into his own buddy that fateful night.
Once Duncan has absorbed the other man’s soul,
He looks as weak as a day-old foal,
Down on his knees as he regains his strength,
His pain continues for another short length.
The teen takes his cue to leave,
And bolts as fast as a Mustang steed,
Running straight into the hands of the Law,
But he knows he can’t tell them what he saw.
Duncan’s explanation.
That’s the beginning of Highlander the Series,
An offshoot from the Highlander movie series,
About the immortals who cannot become dead
Unless somebody chops off their heads.
The Immortals must do battle, one by one,
Until, in the end, there is only one,
And what happens then well it’s still being rewritten
Can the prize really be so fitting?
Duncan is four hundred years old
But could easily pass for a thirty-year old
He’s good to his wife who’s a really nice woman,
Yet in each episode we see him with a brand new woman.
Duncan and his current wife.
How can this be? Well, the women with whom he’s sharing his life
Were people he knew in another life
And have long since died, of old age at the least,
But their losses still manage to cause him some grief.
You see, being Immortal isn’t all games and fun.
It isn’t all smiles with your face in the sun.
It’s a life tinged with sadness and feeling bereft
And once a week having a fight to the death.
The first four seasons were solid, not runny,
While the fifth tried way too hard to be funny.
As for the sixth…well, I didn’t get through it.
Season Five kind of soured the series. It blew it.
Duncan comes back to life for the first time.
I’ll get back to it one day, but I’m in no hurry,
And it’s not something that gives me cause to worry.
I’ll give it four stars for the first four seasons,
And subtract one for the horrendous fifth season.