Highlander season 3: Methos
Jan. 20th, 2006 03:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabeth:) :) :)
happy happy happy
Methos!
I love Methos.
Live. Grow stronger. Fight another day.
as in, don't fight now if you don't have to.
works for me :)
the Richie subplot looks a bit random, but the common thread is actually TCBOO / only as good as your last win. Older guy, apparent betrayal. Compare/contrast. Was Methos really doing it for Mac's own good? Richie's guy sure wasn't. And at this stage we don't even know for sure that Adam Pierson *is* Methos. Later writing makes it clear he is, but at the start, he could just be a really slick con. It's fun and fascinating.
I kind of love that you never know if you can trust a word the guy says. I mean its all plausible, but is it true? Anyone's guess.
Peter Wingfield... well, I'm only not in his fanclub right now because I forgot to pay them. Again. I sort of tend to remember around conventions, if I'm going to meet him. :eyeroll at me:
He just has presence, you know? He captures your attention and makes it worth your while to watch, gives it nuance.
It also helps the way the episode is set up - 30 minutes without Methos, but Kalas is after him from the first. Makes Methos the payoff. We want to know what this guy is all about. And then when he turns up he undermines all expectation. Looks like a bookish young guy, would look right around a university. Sitting on the floor, drinking beer, listening to his walkman. And yet his flat - bizarre! Art everywhere, the strangest stuff. And books. And a computer. Again, university. Or Immortal. Eclectic, educated, experience. But strange, not like we've seen before. Looks young, which shouldn't be a surprise for an Immortal but is because always before they've had some mature guy be the old guy. And Mac starts out with the idea Methos is vulnerable.
Is he? Well, he looks really good with a sword at his throat. (Not that thats a kink. For me or him. Of course.)(!) And he ran away from the first fight, used the river. And used the police. But that just makes him smart.
Attacking Mac? Blind Faith a few episodes ago, maybe he's just a good judge of character.
Methos is so very ambiguous. We get these clues, and they can be put together so very many ways. Its *fascinating*. And there's the knowledge that, however much we learn about the guy, it will always be the tip of the iceberg. Five thousand years, since he took his first head. Before that it gets a bit fuzzy. He doesn't remember the time of his birth. Even he doesn't know where he comes from. Keeping a diary since writing began, he says. Hieroglyphs and ancient greek.
And the smirk. That little smile that says he knows the joke and maybe he'll share it. Got to love that.
And also his eyes. Green and brown and bits of gold. Pretty eyes.
Pretty man. Striking. Interesting.
I really really love Methos.
And the episode is pretty good too.
Plus, the sword fight of oh heck they waxed the floor. That turned out real pretty. And finding out how Kalas lost his voice, and what it meant to him before. They set him up as a really epic rivalry, and keep raising the stakes. Works really well.
Richie... Does not look as good in Paris. I don't know why. The hair, the coat... Just not ideal. And I know the why for adding that neck cloth, because identical uniforms are unhelpful, but as fashion choices go its second only to the blue&green coat. Right up there with putting him in turtlenecks. What, suddenly he's feeling vulnerable? Got to cover his poor little neck? Looks silly.
Actually, watching these in order, I think I can also see how people could be not a fan of Richie. The story bits he gets are just... he's severely under used. Most of the time this season he could have been removed with nothing substantial lost. Often his story seems like a distraction from the important stuff, like the entire bike race arc so far. I know it also fits together and fits the theme some, but it needs a lot of thinking about. Mostly its like, Richie walks in and tells Mac about thing he's doing, Richie has a thing happen that doesn't at first glance tell a Highlander story, Richie wanders off again. When I was planning a season I realised I had a character that was entirely surplus to requirements, because I pulled her out and it left barely a ripple except in the one story I'd spotlighted her. And a different story fit in the gap, better. If Richie gets pulled from this season, what does it lose? Less than it should. Because his story isn't woven in with Mac except for a couple of rare moments. So I can see how people could dislike his presence, because sometimes its just distraction, and other times he's there basically long enough for writers to give him an excuse not to be there. Or he gets used as plot device to make Mac's life worse, like the ep where Mac went to the island.
But I don't dislike Richie for that. His story, as his story, remains interesting. But not very well woven in.
so, the bike race arc is Richie trying to have a life that has nothing to do with being an Immortal. And be good at something where being an Immortal doesn't come into it at all. And initially Mac is all yaay about it, supports him in it, so it wasn't a stupid thing to do. risky, but not up front stupid.
Its like Richie trying to raise that baby. Mac learned long ago the kind of balance he can afford between the Game and what the rest of us call real life. Sword is part, not all. Richie wants that balance. But his work is working for Mac, in the place where he trains, so it isn't so very seperate from the sword stuff. He wants something for his own life. This season he tries to get it, but it keeps going wrong. Just like Mac tries to get a life with Anne but it keeps going wrong. Because of the whole burden of Immortality bit. Different characters exploring that.
The Kalas arc makes progress and gets worse, the Watcher arc keeps going and also gets worse, Joe even from afar is involved, Richie has the get a life story arc going on, and Mac is in the middle of all of it. And they introduce Methos.
So, there's a lot to like here :)
happy happy happy
Methos!
I love Methos.
Live. Grow stronger. Fight another day.
as in, don't fight now if you don't have to.
works for me :)
the Richie subplot looks a bit random, but the common thread is actually TCBOO / only as good as your last win. Older guy, apparent betrayal. Compare/contrast. Was Methos really doing it for Mac's own good? Richie's guy sure wasn't. And at this stage we don't even know for sure that Adam Pierson *is* Methos. Later writing makes it clear he is, but at the start, he could just be a really slick con. It's fun and fascinating.
I kind of love that you never know if you can trust a word the guy says. I mean its all plausible, but is it true? Anyone's guess.
Peter Wingfield... well, I'm only not in his fanclub right now because I forgot to pay them. Again. I sort of tend to remember around conventions, if I'm going to meet him. :eyeroll at me:
He just has presence, you know? He captures your attention and makes it worth your while to watch, gives it nuance.
It also helps the way the episode is set up - 30 minutes without Methos, but Kalas is after him from the first. Makes Methos the payoff. We want to know what this guy is all about. And then when he turns up he undermines all expectation. Looks like a bookish young guy, would look right around a university. Sitting on the floor, drinking beer, listening to his walkman. And yet his flat - bizarre! Art everywhere, the strangest stuff. And books. And a computer. Again, university. Or Immortal. Eclectic, educated, experience. But strange, not like we've seen before. Looks young, which shouldn't be a surprise for an Immortal but is because always before they've had some mature guy be the old guy. And Mac starts out with the idea Methos is vulnerable.
Is he? Well, he looks really good with a sword at his throat. (Not that thats a kink. For me or him. Of course.)(!) And he ran away from the first fight, used the river. And used the police. But that just makes him smart.
Attacking Mac? Blind Faith a few episodes ago, maybe he's just a good judge of character.
Methos is so very ambiguous. We get these clues, and they can be put together so very many ways. Its *fascinating*. And there's the knowledge that, however much we learn about the guy, it will always be the tip of the iceberg. Five thousand years, since he took his first head. Before that it gets a bit fuzzy. He doesn't remember the time of his birth. Even he doesn't know where he comes from. Keeping a diary since writing began, he says. Hieroglyphs and ancient greek.
And the smirk. That little smile that says he knows the joke and maybe he'll share it. Got to love that.
And also his eyes. Green and brown and bits of gold. Pretty eyes.
Pretty man. Striking. Interesting.
I really really love Methos.
And the episode is pretty good too.
Plus, the sword fight of oh heck they waxed the floor. That turned out real pretty. And finding out how Kalas lost his voice, and what it meant to him before. They set him up as a really epic rivalry, and keep raising the stakes. Works really well.
Richie... Does not look as good in Paris. I don't know why. The hair, the coat... Just not ideal. And I know the why for adding that neck cloth, because identical uniforms are unhelpful, but as fashion choices go its second only to the blue&green coat. Right up there with putting him in turtlenecks. What, suddenly he's feeling vulnerable? Got to cover his poor little neck? Looks silly.
Actually, watching these in order, I think I can also see how people could be not a fan of Richie. The story bits he gets are just... he's severely under used. Most of the time this season he could have been removed with nothing substantial lost. Often his story seems like a distraction from the important stuff, like the entire bike race arc so far. I know it also fits together and fits the theme some, but it needs a lot of thinking about. Mostly its like, Richie walks in and tells Mac about thing he's doing, Richie has a thing happen that doesn't at first glance tell a Highlander story, Richie wanders off again. When I was planning a season I realised I had a character that was entirely surplus to requirements, because I pulled her out and it left barely a ripple except in the one story I'd spotlighted her. And a different story fit in the gap, better. If Richie gets pulled from this season, what does it lose? Less than it should. Because his story isn't woven in with Mac except for a couple of rare moments. So I can see how people could dislike his presence, because sometimes its just distraction, and other times he's there basically long enough for writers to give him an excuse not to be there. Or he gets used as plot device to make Mac's life worse, like the ep where Mac went to the island.
But I don't dislike Richie for that. His story, as his story, remains interesting. But not very well woven in.
so, the bike race arc is Richie trying to have a life that has nothing to do with being an Immortal. And be good at something where being an Immortal doesn't come into it at all. And initially Mac is all yaay about it, supports him in it, so it wasn't a stupid thing to do. risky, but not up front stupid.
Its like Richie trying to raise that baby. Mac learned long ago the kind of balance he can afford between the Game and what the rest of us call real life. Sword is part, not all. Richie wants that balance. But his work is working for Mac, in the place where he trains, so it isn't so very seperate from the sword stuff. He wants something for his own life. This season he tries to get it, but it keeps going wrong. Just like Mac tries to get a life with Anne but it keeps going wrong. Because of the whole burden of Immortality bit. Different characters exploring that.
The Kalas arc makes progress and gets worse, the Watcher arc keeps going and also gets worse, Joe even from afar is involved, Richie has the get a life story arc going on, and Mac is in the middle of all of it. And they introduce Methos.
So, there's a lot to like here :)