Aaaaand more Highlander

[sholio]

Show ... oh, show.

I didn't write down specific episode reactions this time, so I just have a sort of general squee. After the heaviness of the 2-parter, the humor episodes ("The Ransom of Richard Redstone" and "The Stone of Scone") were a great change of pace. The latter in particular ... omg, SHOW. *helpless giggling*

And "Forgive Us Our Trespasses" -- oh, I love this show and these characters SO MUCH. Amanda and Methos going all out to keep their idiot friend from getting himself killed! Character-arc and thematic continuity with the Horseman episodes! The plot even tied back to Sean Burns' death in Deliverance (particularly poignant in this episode, since it was Methos that dragged Duncan back from the dark side that time). Oh, Duncan, your friends love you so much, you dork. And yet, I can see where he's coming from, too -- he wouldn't be the person they love if he wasn't having to struggle with this burden of guilt, this conflict of ethics.

I also loved that the show not only continued to deal with the emotional fallout from the Horsemen arc, but was fairly subtle about it. Clearly Duncan and Methos are still struggling to repair the trust they used to have, but they're trying. The "forgiveness" line at the end ... ouch, but also, awwww. (Wasn't really sure how to read Duncan's noncommittal reaction to that ... I think he recognizes Methos' point, especially after this episode, but is still having to work through it a bit. But he's getting there.)

Also, since I have the DVDs now, I've started watching the bonus scenes on some of these -- and, hahahaha, the outtake for "Forgive Us Our Trespasses", with Elizabeth Gracen and Peter Wingfield cracking up in the bedroom scene ... "Methos, he'll die!" "Then we'll have our own show!" THEY ARE SO ADORABLE. ♥

Comments

[scrollgirl]

"Forgive Us Our Trespasses" is so complicated and dense. There's so much context you need to appreciate this ep--not just the Horsemen eps and the Dark Quickening, but "Take Back The Night" for Duncan's Culloden rampage. You asked before about whether Duncan's flashbacks make sense when you put them in chronological order: my answer is yes. While there are places where you kinda have to squint, for the most part it's wonderfully coherent. It's like those Impressionist paintings that resolve themselves if you step further back and look at the whole picture. You can see Duncan getting older, more experienced, cannier and more political, at times retreating from society and other times embracing it.

I think he recognizes Methos' point, especially after this episode, but is still having to work through it a bit. But he's getting there.

Yeah, that's how I read it too. He knows where Methos is coming from, but he's not emotionally ready just yet. Getting there! Again, it's fascinating how different Duncan's personality and ethics are compared to Amanda's and Methos'. I don't think it's merely a product of age--while we don't know what Methos was like at 400, we know Amanda was always a bit flexible with the rules. It's interesting that, even with the thousands of years that an Immortal can live, their mortal years--their childhoods--continue to shape who they are.

"The Stone of Scone" is hilarious. Ahaha! I haven't re-watched "The Ransom of Richard Redstone" in a while, but I remember really enjoying it as well.

[sholio]

What's fascinating about "Forgive Us ..." is that it stands on its own as an episode and it is also a fairly complicated follow-up to a number of different threads from past seasons ... but without being especially heavy-handed about it. It's clearly not just fannish over-investment to see the follow-ups to all of these plot threads in that episode, particularly in the Duncan and Methos relationship, but you can easily watch and enjoy the episode without really paying much attention to that aspect of it, I think.

You asked before about whether Duncan's flashbacks make sense when you put them in chronological order: my answer is yes. While there are places where you kinda have to squint, for the most part it's wonderfully coherent.

Yeah .... there are a few places where I'm not convinced the chronology makes good sense in terms of his overall character arc, but in general, it works pretty well in both logistical terms (that is, not having him be in two places at once) and also in terms of his growth as a person.

Another thing I absolutely love about how they handle Duncan is how indelibly Scottish he is, not in terms of personality stereotyping but of how his heritage, his culture, his nation is a deep and important part of who he is. They didn't just slap an accent and a kilt on him and call it good. And it's still an important part of who he is, even after centuries of living elsewhere and even though he's managed to do a pretty good job of letting go of his old prejudices and hatreds.

On that subject ... For the most part, watching the deleted scenes and outtakes, I've been really happy with how they cut the episodes -- one of the points I keep meaning to make in my HL posts is how on most shows, when they have to cut something, the character bits are the first to go ... we've been watching the outtakes on the Fringe DVDs and that's exactly what they do there, as on SGA and other shows. HL in general is pretty good about not doing that -- they keep as much of the character stuff as possible, and cut extraneous bits of plot or trim longer scenes to keep the best parts in. But one bit I really wish they'd kept was just a few seconds from the longer version of the scene in "Deliverance" where Methos hands him his sword and Duncan lapses briefly into his childhood accent and tells him that he doesn't have the right to take it. It was such a neat little Duncan character thing.

Both the humor episodes were great ... and so needed to balance the darkness. I'm continually impressed with how the show handles both its lighter and its darker side. If it didn't have the humorous side, it would still be a good show -- the amount of character and plot continuity is so far beyond what I thought I was going to get with a show of this sort that there just aren't words *g* -- but it would be hard to get through without that leavening of humor to break up the heavy parts. There have been certain points in the series (seasons two and three mostly) where I was really struggling with that aspect of it; there were times when it felt like unrelenting gloom all the time. But they hit a really good mix in seasons four and five; even though I think they've actually been darker in terms of some of the overall plot arcs, the humor balances it out and keeps it from being too much of an emotional bludgeon. And what impresses me is that the funny episodes don't actually feel out of place. The show can do these sudden 180 turns from tragedy and pathos to farcical comedy and back again, sometimes in the same episode, and it works.