skteosk Reviews

Highlander: For Tomorrow We Die (1993) Season 1, Episode 15

Enter Xavier

[8/10 · 12 May 2024]

There's a distinct feeling of the show upping its ante in terms of villains. Xavier St Cloud is one of Duncan's most memorable opponents, utterly ruthless and utterly contemptible. He shows his cowardly side in running from Duncan on their first encounter, and clearly prefers to shoot sitting ducks, being prepared to kill a helpless Duncan in the flashback. But he gives Duncan a lot of trouble both in the way they try to out-think each other and in their final battle. If anything, his problem is that he tries to make things too complicated. Unfortunately, the show's aversion to obvious blood and gore makes it hard to tell what's going on at the end.

After St Cloud revives from the gas, he's able to walk around without protection even though there's enough still around to kill his associate in seconds. Is that the way it's meant to work?

Tessa has a decent role as an unwitting pawn of St Cloud, but the show seems to be struggling to know what to do with Richie, who's stuck with another girlfriend of the week, this time an older married woman. Still, the pay-off is better than I expected.

First appearances of Xavier St Cloud and Duncan's WW2 colleague. Georges Dalou: Xavier will be back next season in Unholy Alliance and Dalou in Season 3's Mortal Sins. Second appearances of Darius and Inspector LeBrun; Darius is back next episode and LeBrun in Saving Grace. In a nice subtle continuity moment, LeBrun never uses his shattered arm even though no-one comments on it.

Highlander: For Evil's Sake (1993) Season 1, Episode 14

Some creepy moments but slightly ordinary

[7/10 · 4 May 2024]

As the episode begins, we see a trio of mimes carry out acts of cartoon violence...before really killing someone. Duncan witnesses one of the killings and quickly concludes that they're the work of Kuyler, an Immortal assassin who uses clownish behaviour to get his victims to let their guards down.

There's a couple of nice elements to this. The flashback to Duncan and Kuyler's first meeting has a rather creepy Masonic handshake moment as they face off. We get another flashback, to Duncan and Tessa's first meeting, although it involves yet another case of Duncan facing an evil Immortal during his supposed century off from the Game. (He doesn't have a sword though, which is a nice touch.) And the show finally works out that they can have Duncan interact with the villain on holy ground rather than them fighting whenever they meet.

But essentially it's just your standard season one plot of a bad guy Immortal and an obstructive and rather clueless police investigation. (There's also a subplot about Richie buying Tessa a bust of Napoleon, which fizzles out halfway through.) First appearance of Inspector LeBrun, who'll be back next episode. While he's more suspicious of MacLeod than seems reasonable, by the end he's largely pieced everything together but apparently decided not to try and prove it.

Kuyler's base, filled with mannequins that match his whiteface appearance, is suitably creepy, although the real henchmen among the mannequins are easily spotted during the first scene there.

First appearance of Duncan's barge, which I'm not sure is ever this big again! Both Darius and Sergeant Bennett get mentions. (Yes, he's a sergeant again this episode.) The wonderful character actor Vernon Dobtcheff has a nice small role as a liqueur store owner.

Highlander: Band of Brothers (1993) Season 1, Episode 13

Highlander grows the beard

[9/10 · 27 April 2024]

This is often cited at the point where Highlander really gets good. There have been decent episodes up until now but this one does seem to raise things up a notch. Sadly, its weaker elements revolve around Tessa, who gets first another unnecessarily gratuitous sex scene with Duncan and is then the focus of an incredibly weak final scene which, instead of addressing what's just happened, seems more interested in setting up the status quo for the rest of the season. But she does get one electric scene facing down the villain, so maybe we shouldn't be too critical.

It's said villain who elevates this above what has gone before. James Horan gives Grayson a sense of power and control that we haven't seen before. One of the oldest Immortals in existence and one who has full control over his emotions, at least outwardly, even as he seeks revenge on his former mentor Darius by destroying his life's work. Duncan, controlled in their early meetings while effortlessly defeating Grayson's schemes, nevertheless shows real fear for possibly the first time in their final confrontation, with this seeming like the closest he's come to defeat.

We have our first appearance of Darius, who'll be back in For Tomorrow We Die. If Grayson shows the arrogance of age, Darius shows the wisdom. Perhaps a bit too wise, as his philosophy struggles on contact with the real world. Even Duncan, who respects him immensely, can't bring himself to live the way Darius does.

And the last appearance of Randi (although she'll be credited on The Lady and the Tiger, for reasons unknown). She gets some great scenes with Duncan here and it's a shame their repartee and grudging respect won't be built on. It's a shame too the episode doesn't give them a proper farewell: Duncan being teleported to Paris between scenes is a bit abrupt!

And for trivia fans, Peter Diamond who appears as the brigand in the flashback was the very first person beheaded in the Highlander franchise, as the Immortal killed by Conor MacLeod early in the original movie!

Highlander: Eyewitness (1993) Season 1, Episode 12

A bit of a thriller

[7/10 · 20 April 2024]

We get an amusing opening scene of Richie doing an absolutely terrible parallel park and getting out of paying at the meter, before he scores a date with a guest at Tessa's exhibition. They seem to get on well but she doesn't get a name or any dialogue and is just a short-lived plot device to get him out of the way of the main events.

Tessa speaks with a jaded former artist and soon after sees her in an altercation with a man which apparently ends with her plummeting off that rather unlucky bridge from the pilot into a watery grave. She tries to convince the police what has happened but the lack of a body makes it hard.

The audience learn very early on that the culprit is both an Immortal and a senior police officer, but it isn't until the closing minutes that Duncan pieces everything together. As a result, the episode's villain Ballin doesn't get much chance to make an impact, spending all his time until the final confrontation either pretending to be a good guy or skulking around silently. His initial motivation isn't entirely unreasonable: He seems to have discarded Anne in a fairly callous manner but she's pretty much stalking him.

There's a nice satisfying moment when Bennett catches on to Richie tailing the police only for us to realise Duncan is following them too. Randi also has some nice moments as she faces Tessa's hostility and does some self-examination. There's an attempt to draw parallels between Tessa and Anne which works quite well. Unfortunately, the final scene of Duncan and Tessa getting frisky feels like it doesn't know when to end.

Given that Ballin puts in a spectacularly bad performance the first time he and Duncan fight (Duncan breaks his sword, for pity's sake), he puts in a fairly decent showing at the end, although it ends with him swinging desperately as Duncan blocks everything without effort. You just know that...big ball of...lights is there because someone thought it'd make a cool backdrop for a Quickening.

Last appearance of Bennett (who has apparently been promoted?) and it's a good one to go out on, as he finally gets a meaty role after a couple of episodes as a cypher.

Highlander: See No Evil (1992) Season 1, Episode 11

Surprisingly effective

[8/10 · 14 April 2024]

It turns out Tessa does have a female friend after all, but five minutes after we meet her, she gets attacked by a serial killer and has her forehead slashed. (Sadly, either the make-up to depict this was unavailable or it was deemed too horrific, since the wound's covered up for the rest of the episode.) Fortunately, Duncan and Tessa are on hand to chase him off. Duncan quickly realises the killer is copying an evil Immortal who he killed during his, er, century off from the Game and sets out to end things quicker this time.

This involves a fun team-up with Randi, who's starting to suspect Duncan's some sort of undercover operative. Unfortunately, since it's season one, it also involves a lot of padding scenes with police officers who manage to mess up a simple sting operation and then disappear to let the regulars solve everything.

It's a shame that the great John (JG) Hertzler only appears in a one-scene flashback where he rants a lot and gets beheaded. The present day antagonist is a rather flat character who doesn't even get a name in the episode, but that kind of fits. He's a non-entity trying to feel important by stealing someone else's ideas. Presumably the last victim Duncan saved identified Korolus, hence why the Scalper knows so much about his work. (Duncan says the press made a big deal of it.)

Richie gets a motorbike chase but this is very much Tessa's episode. Seeing the trauma Natalie's going through, Tessa decides to act as bait so Duncan trap the killer. So far, so routine, even if it is nice to see Tessa showing some agency. But the climax is what really elevates this episode above the humdrum as, against every rule of the show that we think we know, Tessa gets to save the day and take down the killer while Duncan's distracted. And yet she gets very little joy from doing harm to even an obscene human being. It's a surprisingly mature ending to an episode that improves as it goes along.

We also get a reference to Angie, with Richie speaking to her on the phone: Nice to know she's still around, even if they sound on the rocks!

Highlander: Revenge Is Sweet (1992) Season 1, Episode 10

Sometimes revenge isn't sweet

[8/10 · 6 April 2024]

We open with a flashback to 1989 where Duncan fights an immortal opponent, Walter Reinhardt, which ends with them both injured and Reinhardt toppling from a bridge into the water. (Richie, speaking for the audience, will later wonder what happened to Duncan being out of the game for a century.) We later learn Reinhardt disappeared soon after and Duncan believes another Immortal killed him. (Despite what has been stated elsewhere, it's clear no-one saw a quickening.)

Present day and the mysterious and rather formidable Rebecca Lord enters Duncan's life. It's soon clear she has a connection to Reinhardt but what? As strange events happen around Duncan and both Tessa and Richie end up targeted, the episode builds a mystery as to just how unstable Rebecca is. Duncan isn't convinced she's behind things but Tessa (a character who, at times, acts as though she's never met another woman she likes) can understand why losing Reinhardt would drive her to revenge.

It all builds to a nice climax. Unlike the previous episode, the fact that everything has been constructed to hurt Duncan (as opposed to him just bumping into the villain by coincidence) adds a personal dimension to it. The show's makers have criticised the realisation of it but I found it rather effective.

It's a bit weird to hear "You Want To Live Forever" booming out over the last scene though: Sure, it's a nice moment, but not significant enough for that?

There's also a nice subplot about Richie becoming a used car salesman: Duncan's expression when he announces what his new job is is an episode highlight. He also gets a nice scene where he's forced to make a phone call but manages to tip Duncan off to what's going on by being overly polite!

Second and final appearance of Angie, previously seen in The Road Not Taken. First appearance of Sergeant Bennett, the latest of our interchangeable season one cops and it definitely feels like they're getting worse: He'll be back next episode.

Highlander: The Sea Witch (1992) Season 1, Episode 9

So-so

[6/10 · 31 March 2024]

Richie runs into one of his repertory of shady female acquaintances shortly before interrupting a drug deal in which her boyfriend is killed and she ends up with money and drugs belonging to a local crime lord. Duncan gives them all shelter, then learns that said crime lord is an Immortal he has history with.

This episode never really catches light. Nikki isn't exactly an unlikable character but she has a chip on her shoulder that makes her hard to sympathise with. When Voshin's thugs start roughing her up, it's tempting to cheer them on. Instead, she is allowed to wander off for a new life with the money she stole for reasons the episode never quite manages to make sound convincing. And the subplot of Tessa playing mother to her daughter for about half a scene is somewhat underdeveloped.

Meanwhile, we have our evil immortal of the week. The great Stephen Macht is rather wasted as a character who spends most of his screen time sitting on his boat giving orders. We get a flashback to show what a nasty piece of work he is and why Duncan would want to put him down, but by the time the episode puts them in the same room in the present day, it's nearly over and it's time for them to fight to the death. The episode really should have spent more time building to this confrontation rather than just having them bump into each other by coincidence. We get a key detail that an Immortal doesn't need to personally behead another to receive their Quickening, but to be honest, that feels like mythology that's been shoehorned in for the sake of it: Duncan could easily have beheaded Voshin rather than indulging in fisticuffs, and we don't even really see Voshin when he dies.

Highlander: Deadly Medicine (1992) Season 1, Episode 8

How to make an idea as dull as possible

[5/10 · 24 March 2024]

When Duncan gets injured in a hit and run (which has nothing to do with the rest of the story), it somehow results in a crazed doctor kidnapping him and taking him to his torture basement.

You can tell it's the first season: The show's still asking questions that later seasons will deliberately ignore. The premise is one that will be quietly sidestepped when Anne comes aboard in Series 3.

The opening sequence shows two shadowy characters (one of whom looks like Richie?!) beating a guy up and speeding off. What's going on? Don't bother asking, because we'll never find out.

There's an intriguing idea in here: Duncan is seen critically injured in hospital and when he wakes up unharmed, doctors have questions. Unfortunately, any interest is lost when we're introduced to the episode's villain, Doctor Wilder, who seems to have no motivation beyond "He's a whack job." There's a few lines about changing genes and this might not be so bad if he was inspired by Duncan, but apparently he's been kidnapping people and dragging them to his basement to experiment on them in the name of mental research for some time already. What he's been doing with them and what he's hoping to achieve is another question the episode can't be bothered to answer.

The episode also suffers from the fact Duncan spends three quarters of it unconscious or staggering around barely conscious, with Tessa and Richie chasing their tails and Randi basically acting as protagonist.

Things pick up in the last 10-15 minutes as Tessa provides a good foil to Duncan, Richie decoys the latest rubbish police officer (each one seems to be denser than the last) and Randi once again just misses out on the story of a lifetime. But it's a slog getting there, with a subplot of Duncan being accused of murder being chucked in to not really go anywhere.

Sam from Free Fall makes his second and final appearance.

Highlander: Mountain Men (1992) Season 1, Episode 7

Surprise surprise!

[8/10 · 17 March 2024]

Tessa's simple trip to the mountains to do some sketching ends with her being abducted by three mountain men, whose ringleader has decided she's going to be his bride. Tessa isn't keen on her new role and neither is Duncan, who heads off into the mountains in search of her.

It's Richie's turn to be left behind while the others have an adventure, only appearing in the opening scenes of the episode. This provides a larger role for Tess that many episodes, even if it does consist of being kidnapped again.

The first half of this episode is surprisingly decent. Caleb manages to rise above the cliched gravelly-voiced villain.he might have been by being quite genuine in his insistence that Tessa is under his protection and he aims to charm her into accepting her new role willingly. He and Joshua give different recollections of how they ended up together and it's curious to know where the truth lies. It's a shame this aspect fades towards the end of the episode as he starts roughing Tessa up.

The flashback of Duncan encountering a (possibly Immortal?) hermit doesn't really achieve that much except explaining how Duncan knows which way to go and giving him a dead mentor to avenge, a trope that will be used quite often throughout the series.

But then Duncan enters the A-plot and we get the badass scene of Joshua and Eddie trying to force him off a cliff only for him to casually dive off it, because he knows he can survive it. And then the magical scene when Caleb sees Duncan's sword and his eyes light up at the significance of it, and then Tessa sees Caleb's axe and realises the same. As she says, "You're one of them." It's one of the few times that the reveal of an Immortal has genuinely surprised me and suddenly the stakes are raised and this becomes a personal conflict for Duncan. (Incidentally, I believe this marks the first time the series mentions that Immortals can't have children.)

After the slaughter of the previous episode, it's nice Duncan simply leaves Joshua tied up for the sheriff: Only Cole is considered fair game here. Tessa does a good job getting in Caleb's ear about Eddie but doesn't think through the consequences, although no-one will mourn him. The final fight between Duncan and Caleb is an interesting one, with them using each other's weapons...but it takes more than a good sword to beat Duncan MacLeod!

Highlander: Bad Day in Building 'A' (1992) Season 1, Episode 6

Die hard in a court house

[7/10 · 10 March 2024]

Duncan, Tessa and Richie pay a visit to the court house to deal with some parking fines just as mass murderer Bryan Slade breaks out of custody with the aid of some very suspicious-looking decorators and takes them all hostage. When Slade makes the mistake of picking on the one guy for whom a bullet in the back of the head is just an inconvenience, Duncan goes Die Hard to take out all the crooks.

This actually has a decent premise but unfortunately it has too many elements which are great on their own but don't add much to the plot. There's good gags like Duncan getting another ticket and Richie winding up a thug with stories of a flesh-eating serial killer on the loose. But while Randi has some good cameos, they don't add to much. The conflict between Cominsky and the trigger-happy SWAT commander isn't really resolved. And the stuff with Duncan and the moppet drags a bit. Duncan's reaction at the end doesn't really ring true either.

Second appearances of Cominsky and Randi, last seen in the previous episode and Innocent Man respectively. Cominsky won't be seen again but Randi will be back in Deadly Medicine.

Highlander: Free Fall (1992) Season 1, Episode 5

What's the point?

[5/10 · 3 March 2024]

A distressed woman comes into the shop and meets Richie, before throwing herself off a tall building. When her body disappears, Duncan and company conclude she is a recently activated immortal. But who's the moody long-haired bloke following her around?

The first part of this episode is the best of it. Joan Jett does well at portraying Felicia's apparent confusion and makes a believable ingenue. Which is fortunate, because the regulars are all pretty unlikable here. Richie just comes across as creepy and sleazy, cracking on to an apparently emotionally distressed woman the moment he sees her and not really changing mood for the rest of the episode. Duncan and Tessa meanwhile are in a permanent bad mood, snapping at everyone without any real justification. When Tessa says Duncan won't want a complete stranger staying with them, I wondered what she thinks Richie was. (Richie claims to have worked for Duncan for six months here. Either he's bigging himself up to Felicia or these five episodes have covered a lot of time.)

But once we got the reveal that Felicia is no innocent but the Evil Immortal of the Week, it basically becomes a shaggy dog story without an ending, as we wait an age for the characters to catch up. By the end, quite a few good people are dead one way or another, without any payoff at all as Duncan decides to let one of the vilest villains he'll encounter off with nothing more than a lecture because...Richie fancies her? Were the show expecting a return and never got around to it? (I hear Joan Jett was a big deal, but I don't know anything about her other than that she's in this episode.)

I suspect the show's makers realised they screwed up with this, so tried to use the DVD extras to rewrite the episode and turn Felicia into a tragic figure who only murders defenceless women and children because they deserve it. This is spectacularly distasteful and doesn't remotely match the episode, so best to just ignore it. Actually, best to pretend that, since the episode ends with Duncan clearly stopping and waiting just a few paces from where Felicia's lying dead, that he went back and took her head once Richie wasn't looking.

Our first female Immortal, and the first time we see someone other than MacLeod receive a quickening in the series. There's still an awful lot of soon-to-be-ignored mythology, as Duncan continues to blather about the Gathering and claims there's a set time for someone to be activated as an Immortal. We get a new police officer character (this one will be back next episode), who has decided by the end of the episode that Felicia is the one beheading people all over town.

Highlander: Innocent Man (1992) Season 1, Episode 4

Back to Immortal v Immortal

[7/10 · 25 February 2024]

Duncan has been summoned by an old Immortal friend, Lucas Desiree, but before he can find him, Lucas is beheaded by another Immortal. The local sheriff arrests an itinerant, Leo Atkins, but it's clear to the audience, Duncan and Sergeant Powell that he's innocent. So Duncan is left both trying to kill Leo and identifying the real killer.

This episode seems to ask a lot of questions that the show will later decide are best off ignored. Powell makes the trip because the police are still looking into the death of Slan Quince in the first episode and another headless body turning up strikes a cord. This is the last we'll see of him, so apparently no-one thought anything of any of the other headless bodies over the course of the next six seasons. We also see Duncan somehow sensing Lucas' quickening from at least half a mile away, which I don't think happens again and is contradicted later.

Tessa is absent from a huge chunk of the episode again as Duncan and Richie go off to Steveston without her. We do get the debut of Randi McFarlane, who's considered important enough to be listed on the opening credits, albeit without any clips of her. She'll be back in Bad Day in Building A.

Garry Chalk, one of those Vancouver actors who seems to be in everything, pops up as a local redneck who leads a lynch mob targeting Leo. Duncan calmly taking out some of them and then facing down the rest provides a satisfying moment.

It's not really a surprise that Sheriff Crowley turns out to be our Bad Guy Immortal of the Week (who else was it going to be, one of the rednecks?) but there's still an electric moment when he and Duncan finally meet knowing exactly who the other one is and how this is going to go. Their inevitable sword fight is unfortunately rather brief, but they exchange some nice barbs along the way.

The ending is a bit strange: Leo sells Duncan his old military medal, saying it's a mistake to hold on to the past, but Duncan slips it into his backpack anyway?

Highlander: The Road Not Taken (1992) Season 1, Episode 3

Old friends

[6/10 · 18 February 2024]

The episode opens with a disturbing if rather cheesy sequence of a man going crazy at a diamond merchants and then collapsing in pain, later dying. It turns out he's an old friend of Richie's, and the way he died reminds Duncan of an encounter with an old friend of his own. Soon, both Duncan and Richie are partnered with old friends to uncover the truth.

With Tessa only appearing briefly at the beginning and end, the focus is split between Duncan and Richie's separate investigations, along with a third thread where we see that the real culprit is the slimy Chou Lin, rather than Kiem Sun, possibly the campest Immortal ever. His motivations don't really go beyond wanting to use his new powers to rob banks, but at least we get that. Richie is rather eager to kill the person responsible for his friend Gary's death, whether he's an Immortal or not. Duncan gets two nice sword fights at the end, one against Chou Lin (who he apparently intends to spare) and one against Kiem Sun (who he actually does spare but at the cost of their friendship). It gives us another sign of the types of episode this show can do, although Duncan's firm insistence that the Gathering is happening will start to feel a bit silly as the show goes on.

We meet Richie's rather cute old friend Angie, who'll be back in Revenge is Sweet, and there's a second appearance from Sergeant Powell, previously seen in the first episode. We get another tidbit of Immortal lore: They can fight on holy ground if they don't intend to harm each other. The show continues to do musical montages, seemingly unaware of how silly they'll look in 30 years.

Highlander: Family Tree (1992) Season 1, Episode 2

Richie looks for his long lost father

[6/10 · 11 February 2024]

Richie searches for his father and ends up crossing paths with a former croupier who, thanks to some frankly insane business practices, has ended up owing $5,000 to some unsavoury types.

Possibly this episode's biggest problem is you feel like you've skipped an episode. We get a throwaway line about Duncan and Tessa coming back from the island to explain away the fact he'd apparently retired into seclusion. Fine. But Duncan and Richie had two or three meetings in the pilot where they didn't get on, and Richie and Tess barely even saw each other. Suddenly they're on first name terms and living together like a surrogate family, with Richie fully aware of immortality? What have we missed?

This is an episode which possibly has more resonance in retrospect, once you know the mythology. Duncan must have a fair idea of what Richie's likely to find here, yet he knows he has to go on the journey and thinks perhaps he might find some semblance of family life, just as Duncan once did until his adopted father rejected him on learning of his immortality.

Joe is a likable enough loser and it's pleasing that there's no histrionics, even though Duncan is suspicious of him while Richie accepts him as his father: Instead, Richie works out the truth himself without any confrontation.

It does however have the problem that most of these non-Immortal episodes have. The villains barely qualify as two-dimensional and are hopelessly outclassed: As soon as Duncan turns up, he's the most powerful person in the room by far.

But it does a better job than the pilot of establishing Richie and it sets us up for the fact that not every episode is going to involve Duncan chopping an evil Immortal's head of and we're going to get mortal villains sometimes, so it gets credit for that.

Highlander: The Gathering (1992) Season 1, Episode 1

It begins here

[7/10 · 4 February 2024]

This opening episode of the Highlander series isn't entirely successful in setting things up, having to juggle introducing the three main characters, giving a large enough role to its special guest and fitting in a villain and a final swordfight...plus establishing the basic rules of Immortals for anyone new to the franchise. The most successful element is the introduction of Duncan and Tessa. The fact the first five minutes features some of the most graphic sex you're likely to see on American television of the early 90s was somewhat disconcerting...were they trying to make sure we knew this wasn't for kids? (They have another go about 10 minutes later, and in fact Alexandra Vandernoot spends a large part of her screentime in various states of undress.) But their relationship runs through the episode well: She knows the basics of Immortals but the Game is new to her and she struggles to adjust to this life she's suddenly thrust into. The ending sees Connor make the right decision and give her agency rather than let Duncan leave her for her own good. There's something of a disconnect between the end here and the series which I'll try and look at when I watch the rest of it.

It was a good idea to bring in Christopher Lambert as Connor for a passing of the torch. He and Duncan make believable friends and it's a shame we won't see this relationship again until the poorly received Highlander: Endgame. It does mean we get not one but two scenes of the two MacLeods sparring with their swords (the second accompanied by a blast of the theme tune because reasons), which seems a bit indulgent. I've heard criticism that Connor doesn't win the final fight, but it's Duncan's show so he has to win the day, and Connor actually would have won if Slan hadn't fought dirty.

Third regular Richie is not very well served. He makes a strong debut, reacting in utter bemusement to Duncan threatening to take his head in the mistaken belief he's an Immortal, and shows a somewhat unlikable side as he blackmails Duncan into letting him go. And then he basically disappears for the rest of the episode aside from, for no real reason, spying on the climax.

Slan Quince isn't exactly the deepest of villains: He's Immortal, he's evil and...that's it. Possibly one of his most memorable moments is when he drives crazily through traffic, demonstrating the lack of care some Immortals have for their own lives and for those who won't just come back. Richard Moll makes him a very unlikable character with his limited screen time and it does lead to a passable final fight.

There's no heads flying everywhere but we get more lingering shots of Slan's decapitated body than will be normal for the series. Duncan shows a pleasing level of smart in refusing to give up his sword when Slan threatens Tess. We only get two rather short flashbacks which are both rather distracting despite setting up Duncan's seclusion at the end. The show hasn't started putting up date captions yet either!

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Visitor (1995) Season 4, Episode 2

I'm afraid I have to disagree with the majority

[5/10 · 29 March 2023]

I was sixteen when I first saw this, at a convention shortly after its first broadcast. I found it boring and depressing, and felt it didn't have much to do with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, with the regular actors absent for most of the runtime. I put it out of my mind as much as possible, until I heard it being hailed as one of the all-time Star Trek classics and thought "Really? That one?"

Many people talk about how it provides insight into Ben and Jake Sisko's relationship. I'm not sure why, because they're hardly in it. Avery Brooks' screentime probably doesn't amount to ten minutes, and Cirroc Lofton is in it even less. Yes, I know Tony Todd's character is meant to be Jake Sisko, but there's no connection to the Jake we know. You could turn this into an episode of The Outer Limits with Tony Todd playing any old man willing to change history to save his father without much in the way of rewrites, and it might even work better on a show like that.

And that's before we get onto Michael Dorn. It's only the second episode with Worf, but instead of learning how he fits into this show, he gets a one scene token appearance and gets used as an off screen plot device pinched from TNG's finale All Good Things. TNG fans encouraged to try DS9 out because Worf's in it now must have turned off in their droves.

But for me, the worst part is the framing sequence. The pre-credits sees Elderly Jake Sisko being visited by young writer Melanie and starting to tell her his life story beginning with "When I was eighteen, my father died." Cue credits. Shock horror, Ben Sisko's dead! Except he's obviously not, because he's the main character. So it's just a case of killing time until the characters find that out. And as it turns out, Jake already knows he isn't dead, he was just being melodramatic to create a cliffhanger.

And so it goes on and on, with Old Jake telling Melanie all this, but it's pretty clear none of it's going to matter. There's no way the show is going to continue with its main character dead or trapped in limbo, and everyone else old and infirm. Sooner or later, a reset button's going to be pressed. But no, the episode carries on expecting us not to realise that, ending with the rather sour-tasting beat of Old Jake giving Melanie an annotated manuscript of his latest novel and playing it as though he's given her a rare and special gift. Except he hasn't. None of this is going to have happened. She's never going to have this conversation with him. In fact, pretty soon she's never going to have existed.

And sure enough, Old Jake sacrifices himself, Ben Sisko gets catapulted back in time and stops the accident that stranded him in limbo from happening, and Melanie and trillions like her get erased from existence just so Jake can have his father around growing up. Yay?

If people found this a life-affirming treatise on the power of a son's love for his father, then fair play to them. Personally, I found the whole thing hollow and selfish.

Charmed: Unsafe Space (2020) Season 2, Episode 19

And next week...oh.

[6/10 · 17 December 2020]

It might be churlish to complain about Covid shutdowns meaning shows don't get to end their storylines, but I'll do it anyway. Presenting this as a "season finale" just underlines how hollow, meaningless and pointless most episodes of modern shows are. There's no story, there's no resolution, there's just a bunch of characters running about from place to place, occasionally learning something of consequence but more often than not just killing time until Episode 22. It's ridiculous that instead of following up on the Charmed One's discovery about Julian, we get about 20 minutes of Macy and Maggie trapped in a marble. It's ridiculous that we get 35 minutes of build-up to them freeing the Darklighter, only for him to promptly get knocked out without barely saying a word. It's ridiculous that after a season of will they/won't they between Harry and Macy, the show is already looking for an excuse to break them up. And it's ridiculous that the massive anti-magic conspiracy we've been tracking all season has been reduced to Macy's boyfriend and his aunt.

Positives? We finally find out the point of Ruby, and Julian is shaping up to be a decent grey area antagonist, whose bad experience of magic has shaped his perspective and is causing him to do arguably the wrong thing for arguably the right reasons. Oh, and Mel gets called out on her political incorrectness. But really, 19 episodes and it still feels like we haven't had anything approaching a story with a beginning, middle and end.

Charmed: Don't Look Back in Anger (2020) Season 2, Episode 18

Therapy

[7/10 · 16 December 2020]

This feels like nothing more than delaying tactics before the finale. Well, there's some good character work at least as both Maggie and Macy have to confront their pasts, with Jordan playing a key role in both journeys. And it's nice to have Ray back and bonding with his daughters. The reveal that Macy met Harry when she was young feels like it could be a game-changer beyond her dismissive belief that he can't have remembered it either...but the episode ends with them kissing anyway.

But the most frustrating thing is the way the sisters' confrontation with Julian (which Macy isn't even there for!) just gets abandoned after a couple of seconds. It still isn't entirely clear if we're meant to see him as the bad guy or not, even though the Charmed Ones seem convinced, and if we are then that's rather disappointing.

Charmed: Search Party (2020) Season 2, Episode 17

Missed opportunity

[7/10 · 16 December 2020]

For much of its runtime, this is an enjoyable romp, but unfortunately it fails to stick the landing. With Harry abruptly imprisoned in a basement, it's left to the rest of the characters to launch a rescue mission in a fun heist style.

We've known for three episodes that Vivienne is one of the villains of the piece, but here the Charmed Ones decide Julian's behind everything on very little evidence. It remains to be seen if they're correct.

But the final couple of scenes are maddening. Having set up the idea of Abigael living with the sisters, which seems full of potential, only to have the idea so abruptly dispensed with that I'm tempted to wonder if there was a last-minute rewrite. And whilst it remains unclear why anyone thought a Harry/Macy romance was a good idea, we're evidently meant to be rooting for them, making his sudden amnesia less of a clever twist and more of an eye-rolling contrivance.

Charmed: The Enemy of My Frenemy (2020) Season 2, Episode 16

So...what's left?

[9/10 · 14 December 2020]

To be honest, it's more of a novelty than it should be to see the Charmed Ones all working together. But the demon power play seems to take a turn here, as eminence gris Godric changes sides again and decides to get rid of Abigael. The result is her and Parker ending up on the same side, although apparently we say goodbye to Parker for the time being. Them just walking away from their confrontation with Godric is a bit of an anti-climax though.

It works better than Harry and Jordan's infiltration, which looks like it's going to achieve more than it actually does. Well, we get the return of Nadia, who we haven't seen in ages, and the discovery of her involvement with "Jimmy".

Are we meant to have forgotten that Jordan has a girlfriend though?

Charmed: Third Time's the Charm (2020) Season 2, Episode 15

The only thing we have to fear is dying

[8/10 · 11 December 2020]

This is surprisingly successful, given that a good chunk of it takes place in the sisters' head. The scenarios they imagine are at least vaguely plausible and also rather nightmarish. Guest star Celeste manages to alternate between ally and antagonist in a believable manner.

Everyone suddenly starts calling the bad guys "the Faction" without any prompting. Where did that come from? And if these creatures are the innocent victims of the Faction's experiments, do they really deserve the Charmed Ones slaughtering them without compunction?

Charmed: Sudden Death (2020) Season 2, Episode 14

Forward motion

[8/10 · 10 December 2020]

Splitting the characters up again and none of them really achieve anything, although there are pointers for the future. Maggie's obviously chasing a wild goose (and the episode keeps getting confused as to who's supposed to know Parker's alive and why) but it does lead to her first face to face encounter with Parker, which is pleasingly unsatisfying. Meanwhile, Macy gets to do some science stuff which could have implications for Harry, while Harry and Mel get the action and learn that the significance of a character earlier in the season is that they weren't actually significant at all...

We do end on the reveal of who the real Big Bad of the season is. It's a surprise, although many viewers will probably scratch their heads trying to remember who the character is.

Charmed: Breaking the Cycle (2020) Season 2, Episode 13

Still waiting for something to happen

[7/10 · 9 December 2020]

This episode promises a lot and doesn't entirely deliver it. We're teased with the return of the Darklighter, but he's a no show except in Harry's head. It also feels like we're meant to assume that these new bad guys are Nadia's people without it being made entirely clear. Is anything going to be made of the fact Harry saw Abigael using Macy's powers?

The Charmed Ones meanwhile are going on a journey that's big on cryptic warnings and low on events. The reveal that the Power of Three has destroyed other sisters in the past falls a bit flat because it's unlikely to happen to our trio. (It might explain what happened to Prue though...) Oh well, at least Macy finally gets her powers back.

Last episode Mel met a cute bartender, this week it opens with them in bed together. Bit of a shortcut.

Charmed: Needs to Know (2020) Season 2, Episode 12

And today's message is...confused

[5/10 · 8 December 2020]

It is really hard to know what to make of this. Both its plotlines are deeply unsatisfying. The stuff with Helen feels like someone remembered they'd left that plot coupon behind earlier in the season and felt the need to do something with it. The result is rather hollow and just confuses the mythology. I spent half the episode expecting a twist where they'd got the Helens mixed up but it really was that straightforward.

Meanwhile, the show seems to have backtracked on its moral of "No-one has the right to judge Macy for being evil" from last season, but the choices Macy makes here, especially one concerning Parker, don't seem any better.

And it seems the show is still incapable of giving Mel an interesting love interest. Maybe Ruby will get past her rather bland debut here, or maybe she'll be unceremoniously dropped after half a season.

Charmed: Dance Like No One Is Witching (2020) Season 2, Episode 11

Yeah...and?

[6/10 · 7 December 2020]

This one never really comes alight, unfortunately. Harry's illness doesn't make any real impact: We're pretty sure he's not going to die, so it just turns into another excuse for Macy and Abigael to butt heads. Macy's romance with Julian just about manages to progress and we meet his formidable aunt.

Elsewhere, Maggie and Jordan are suddenly chasing down the clue that Ray gave to Mel last week. It feels a bit like we've missed an episode and again this seems to be solely set-up. Nadia obviously has a reason for doing what she does, but when we don't know it, it's hard to care about the stakes.