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Highlander: The Raven

[This review of the entire series contains spoilers.]

Why didn't this spinoff series work? There are so many reasons. Let's start at the top.

I think the lead wasn't strong enough. And that wasn't Elizabeth Gracen's fault. The character of Amanda was a fabulous supporting character and love interest for Duncan. I always liked her a lot and enjoyed every episode she did on the original series. But Amanda was never written to be a lead character. Trying to make her one was a square peg, round hole situation.

Nick, played by Paul Johansson, was clearly meant to compensate. He was certainly a good actor, big and cute and Adrian-like, and he might even have carried it off. But the whole cop/private eye thing? What always worked for me on Highlander was the family of immortal friends: Duncan, Methos, Amanda, Richie. You'd think six years of Highlander would have taught them that it was the immortals that were interesting, not detective plots.

If they had to center the story around Amanda, why didn't they add at least one of the immortals we knew and loved as supporting cast? Methos? Joe Dawson, at the very least? The producers must have started to realize their mistake halfway through, because they brought Joe Dawson back briefly, but didn't use him well. They brought back the marvelous Valentine Pelka as a new character, and wasted him. And the finale wasn't a surprise. Everyone who ever watched the original series knew that Nick was a fledgling immortal from the moment he said in an early episode that he was adopted. Too little, too late.

Highlander: The Raven failed before it even began. Why didn't they think about what they were doing? Why didn't they look seriously at what worked and what didn't?

Why oh why didn't they do a series centered around Methos, the most interesting and popular character in the series?

One out of four stars,

Billie
---
Billie Doux knows that there can be only one. And that's Methos.

1 comment:

  1. One thing that contributed to the disaster that was this series, was that Elizabeth Gracen was involved with a guy that convinced her that everyone else associated with the show was out to get her. Especially the actor playing Nick. She was convinced he was trying to upstage her at every turn. That surely won'r ruin an on-screen chemistry, now will it?

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