#2 Highlander (1992 - 1998)

I sorta had/have an obsession with this show. First off, yes I am fully aware that it's a reeking mass of slowly melting cheese. It plays very fast and loose with historical accuracy, blah blah blah. I know, I do really, but...I still love this freakin' show. I can't help it. I know that it's ri-goddamned-diculous and I don't care.

Slan the Cat, probably one of the top five idiotic villains

Unlike the original movies that purport to follow (badly) the life and times of Connor Macleod of the Clan Macleod the show follows those of his cousin (and leaves it to the follow up movies to fuck up all resemblance to canon, I could do an entire post on the asinine so-called canon of Highlander alone). The pilot nicely introduces the main characters to the viewer and Connor - in a nice segue for the movie fans - Duncan, his kinsman and fellow immortal played by Adrian Paul, Tessa Noel Duncan's long time live-in girlfriend, and Richie Ryan a street waif.

Richie breaks into Duncan's antique shop while he and Tessa are gettin' down to brass tacks so to speak. At the same time another immortal played by that one dude from night court named Slan the Cat breaks in. Duncan mistakenly thinks Richie is the invading immortal 'cause he's gone all tingly and sees Richie before Slan. Richie bolts but sticks around to see some of the fisticuffs until the cops scare Slan away. Intrigued and smelling a quick exhtorted buck Richie hangs around and watches Connor try to kick Slan's butt and end up in the bay.

...blah. Whatever, the pilot is arduous but in the end Duncan triumphs, Tessa is pissed that hostile immortals are showing up (evidently the two enjoyed a decade of not being fucked with prior to this which is ridiculous and impossible to believe) and Connor tells Duncan to keep an eye on Richie so Duncan kind of adopts/employs the little waif.

Cue further adventures. Seriously the set ups are like clockwork, annoying immortal shows up, explanatory/expository flashbacks occur depicting a situation that closely parallels the episode's B story. Duncan then wacks the baddie of the week while teaching Richie or himself an important lesson about being immortal and life in general. It's like a super bloody after school special, complete with orgiastic groaning and lightning effects.

There are some interesting departures from the clockwork though, namely the introduction of the Watchers a super secretive bunch of jumped up historians that stalk immortals for kicks and the character of Methos. The genesis of Methos is interesting, they originally had the character of Darius - a super ancient monk immortal that lived on holy ground to avoid the game - but tragically the actor passed away suddenly leaving them with a gap in the arc. So they plugged it with Methos, the first immortal (it's later revealed that he spent his angry teen years so to speak running around killing people and calling himself Death. Yes, that death.) Methos has many of the more interesting arcs and side stories, he's also clearly my favorite character and pretty much the only reason I still enjoy the show in spite of it's poorly aged vintage.

Sweet sword dude, not as sweet as that jacket...

Seasons 1-3 are awkward to watch, 3 is the best of the lot as the super stylish vibe fades away and the fashions etc finally get away from the eyesores of the early 90s. A lot of these early episodes focus on the relationship between Duncan and Richie and their whole schtick which is nice to watch. However the way Richie leaves the show and the comeuppance the 'villain' receives are best left unsaid. Suffice to say the producers envisioned a much different opening to the following season than what they ended up with, budgets being what they were derailed their initial plans IIRC.  I would strongly encourage any Stan Kirsch fans to check out the film Shallow Ground . It's a quite interesting horror/thriller in its own right and Kirsch gets to play a pretty interesting and somewhat nefarious character.

Famine, Pestilence, War & Death

The show was pretty decent in seasons 4 and 5 but seasons 6 is just a string of back door pilots for a spin off starring a female immortal. Which is annoying as in the end they chose the incredibly irritating, shallow, and morally questionable character of Amanda to star in the spin off. Honestly choosing that character might actually have worked if they brought Methos with her, they had a weird brother/sister buddy cop movie vibe going on in some episodes, buuuut they didn't. And the less said about 'The Raven' the better.

The show was canceled in '96, probably justly so ratings were waning and while Adrian Paul did an excellent job of keeping in shape he was showing just the tiniest bit of age. All in all it's a great guilty pleasure and the two part horsemen arc is still pretty awesome in spite of the awful wigs and such they inflicted on the cast for the flashbacks.

Note: There is a short follow up 'episode' like 20 some minutes called Reunion or some such available from  Davis Panzer's website. It's a pseudo-reunion between Methos and Amanda, I don't recall if Joe is in it and a friend has evidently perma-borrowed my copy. I do recall that while there is  an off screen fight between immortals there's no quickening and hilariously when the victor returns they're covered in loads of gore compared to any of the films or the shows. Many lulz. 

Availabiltiy:

Netflix - Yes, all seasons are available on instant, a few are only available on instant

Hulu - Yes 

Amazon - Yes, clickable link below