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beccaelizabeth... which is rather a surprise.
I watched a bunch of episodes and wrote a bunch of reviews on the laptop, for the weather here can't decide if it will storm or not and I've been keeping the computer off a lot.
Opinions evolve as I watch the Paris episodes.
Highlander: Raven: Rogue
Nick sans face fuzz looks awful.
I think his hair is flatter too.
His face looks peculiar.
The storyline, with partners, betrayal, all that twisty history stuff, I like that.
I do wonder how come Myers gets to be so very much the big deal when Amanda really isn't getting her flashbacks.
What has this story got to do with Amanda?
Solid Nick story, lacking Amanda story.
Holy ground and talking about being Immortal, suggests he found out the rules at some point in the last 4 years. Which makes him fair game, instead of a newbie needing a Teacher.
So he was lying to his partner and tells Amanda the truth? Weird.
Did she just punch him? Did she stand on holy ground and punch him? She bloody did!
I thought the prohibition was against violence, not just killing!
I'm typing this on the laptop because the first rumbles of storm happened outside, so the big computer is off. I've got nearly 4 hours left on this machine. I'm not looking forward to recharging when I'm not sure of the weather. I better remember to upload *everything* to the memory stick first.
My head hurts, but the temperature seems to be a lot more tolerable. This I can live with.
The chocolate probably didn't help. Chocolate mini rolls I think went a bit off in the heat.
Mortals and aging, 10 year difference making or breaking a career.
"I thought being a cop was who I was. It wasn't. It cost me my marriage, my partner, it almost cost me my life, but it wasn't who I was. It was just what I did."
oooh, the episode has a very pointy point! Nifty!
You know, lately, this series has not sucked. I no longer regret having spent money on it. Given that I don't like half the eps, maybe not so much money, but anyways.
Oh good, she tries to stop him. Partner betrayal sucks.
... where did that shot go?
Nick's clothes *suck*. I'm sorry, but that is really ugly.
Are they recycling Highlander's Paris wardrobe? Because the coat on the bad guy looks familiar, and that jumper on Duncan would look pretty familiar too.
Rooftop struggles! Yaay!
Why do they always go splat in Hanged Man position?
The TV has gone green and purple a lot. Last day of it! Ha!
"I paid good money for you"
"Your money's wasted"
Yaay! Myers fired them!
Well with the way they behave, about damn time.
Partners stuff again.
"They took away my life. I want it back. All of it."
Like she is part of 'his'.
Oh dear, she shot him.
So she's dead then.
eewm ogibe wure garritte
hah! now that's a kick ass chick! no victim here. Big fight!
But now she splats, oh dear.
... that sword really obviously didn't fit under that coat.
I have to say, what is with the scarves? I tried not to mention it but it makes her look like a drag queen.
Now *Nick* is all about restricting information on Immortals?
"I trust him with my life. I just don't trust him with yours."
huh.
That actress chick has really terrible hair.
Keeping this on my lap leads to increased warm. This is not of the good.
Is that guy Martin Hyde or is he just really similar?
The music on the Quickening is radically unmatching.
I quite like Myers.
"You cannot interfere"
"I'm never wrong"
yeah, Amanda giving it as orders doesn't really work. Nick isn't an orders kind of guy and she knows it. Plus *he* knows she isn't much for rules. He needs reasons, and there is no good reason either in or out of character to not be giving them. Most dissatisfying.
Oh joy, the air blower is totally working now. I think there are actual breaths of cool going on here.
3.30 on the laptop.
I want to write, but I also want to keep watching Raven. Huh. weird. I didn't want to watch Raven before.
Highlander Raven Inferno
this was an Immortal story, with Amanda involved, with flashbacks. It seems uncharitable to be annoyed that we flashbacked in the flashback and got, what, five minutes of reruns? Highlander footage, much of which had already been used in this series. But we got Rebecca this time. Trouble is, this time, she was entirely irrelevant. That whole flash was filler. Because it didn't relate to problem of the week.
Talia, and politics turning into capitalism.
Twice now, different teams.
Amanda is going the other way, from money to ethics.
Liam and Nick = boyfriends!
okay, okay, friends. but the way they were bumping into each other and so comfy physically, it just looked boyfriendly. you know, with slash goggles.
what do you mean catholic priests don't do that?
I liked that whole conversation. It was a bit like when Gregor and Richie talked about the same thing, before Richie knew he was Immortal, only a grown up conversation with philosophy in it.
Also, the actual reason Immortals don't do more is that they keep on not making famous people Immortal, so Immortals stay in the shadows.
Byron was famous, and he did tons, some of it while Immortal.
The ever so convenient oh didnt I mention I was in the bomb squad is somewhat balanced by it being the wrong wire.
The Quickening neutralising the nerve toxin was bloody cheating. I mean, okay, if the vial was death and the Q is life, cancelling out is poetry. But in science world, what happens when there is a Quickening is that glass things break. The nerve toxin would be released, death following death. But that would not fit the secret world thing, so that doesn't happen.
I quite liked this episode, enough that that bit of convenience jarred.
Amanda and Nick are characters now, and have been for a while. Liam is a sweetheart, already. There's some actual story happening. Is all good.
Highlander: Raven: The Frame
I saw all the twists in advance, but the fun is always in the getting there.
There's another Amanda? Why is there another Amanda?
I'd say compare/contrast, but by the end they're doing much the same things again.
Jade is Queen of Diamonds, and Amanda is Queen of... Spades? Oops, I've forgotten. I think it was a black one, for she has dark hair in the picture.
Mention of the Double Eagle - inventing Go Fish?
Liam is still a sweetheart.
"This isn't the confessional, so" he leaves before he hears anything he shouldn't.
and he knows everyone. How is it he knows everyone? It irritates me how the two shows have entirely seperate supporting casts EXCEPT Joe. Shouldn't there be a couple or three other people? You know, except for the little thing where almost all the other Immortals we've seen get killed...
It does jar just a teensy though, that they've put him in Darius' church.
I realise they're probably just recycling the footage, like they did with Tessa's art show from the one with the mad gasser, but it feels like replacing someone, and that isn't right.
Nick and Liam remain boyfriends (getting sweaty together!)(okay, through sports).
This episode was kind of lackluster, even with the pretty dresses... actually, correction, twice I spotted that the pretty dresses weren't the right size, and I'm not actually good at clothes. But breast bulges and straps that fall off even I can see. That really shouldn't happen on television.
I did like the matching costumes though. Shiny!
Basically this ep was okay. I'm liking the series fine now. It doesn't suck half as bad as I heard. The first few episodes did, but now it seems to have a groove on.
#xfingers#
Highlander: Raven: Love & Death
I seem to have less to say when I don't hate it.
Highlander story, of a sort. He is clearly a bad guy, but there were some choices there too. A bit of women's history, with the marrying her to keep her quiet. A nice feminist spin, when she chooses to talk anyway. A bit annoying she went along with the scheme in the first place, but we know she has a weakness for pretty boys and money, and the plan he told her had no deaths in it.
She's not the woman he married.
I like that.
And he gets trapped, yaays.
She tells Myers, and he doesn't believe her. Cool.
Duncan told how many people ever? Amanda seems to accumulat mortals more than he does.
Nick turning out pre-Immortal is looking more and more like the all along plan, the long term plan. Because here we have a random pre-Immortal and the mention of how they shouldn't know.
... if it was the plan from the start, then the anomalous Quickening goes from screw up to clue. Hmmm. But that would involve trusting the writers, and early on, that really weren't working.
I'm trying to figure how much of my annoyance is down to which departments.
Casting did strange things to perfectly good characters.
Wardrobe is getting a tad repetitive, with all the long brown coat baddies.
Music I still really hate.
This episode I don't hate. Is an Amanda story, clearly about her all the way through, with some Nick reaction. This is the shape the stories should be.
Now please get us some moral ambiguity and clear choices. I mean her choice here was run or stay, or maybe something to do with that whole marriage bit, but it didn't really come through as more than deciding not to run.
Liam's bit about finally rising to her nobility... patronising, a bit, but interesting.
Liam is still a sweetheart, but the longer he's around the more he does things not everyone can agree with.
I realise that focusing a show on an Immortal priest wouldn't carry the action parts long, but I find it an interesting point of view, and an interesting choice. Especially if its for life.
Amanda refusing to get married because it means forever. Means she was trying to take it seriously.
But at sword point she agreed, which means she took oaths she intended to break.
Also that Duncan has been committing adultery regularly for a long while.
Interesting story. I quite like the series lately.
Highlander: Raven: Thick as Thieves
Now this is Highlander.
Moral dilemma. Past colliding with present. Bits out of history - okay, TV version thereof, but snips of past to play with. Story with themes and layers.
This was actually good!
... Except for the picture quality. My new TV did miracles with it compared to my old one, but it was still a bit of a mess, and now I have a headache.
ANYways
flashbacks to Queen Mary, with the danger of beheading, and the false hope they offered her with their 'relics'
(Mary had a mini-me. I don't know why, or how accurate that was, but it was cool.)
Then forward - is that the same cop as in Valkyrie? Same actor I reckon, but on this series it don't follow :eyeroll: Adds layers if it was, but either way. He was a bit wordy, a bit roundabout, and yet interesting enough to keep listening to. He had reasons, he had emotions, he had a part in that story. He said the death of hope was murder.
See I'm looking back now at the clunky early eps that couldn't decide on a moral tone, and they seem appropriate to Amanda. She breezes through like theft isn't murder, like no lives were destroyed by what she did, and it is all a game. So, early eps, tone like a heist movie, all in fun. But then the consequences slap her up side the head - 120 men dead. And after that it keeps on coming. And the series picks a tone along with her, and a moral stance on theft, albeit a complicated one. It is complicated because it is the central conflict of the series. Like Duncan MacLeod spent 100+ episodes figuring out when it was and was not okay to kill (and the story always treated it like a debate, no preaching). Amanda is spending her time moving the line a little - is theft not murder? Is it fundamentally different? What are the moral issues that apply to each? Which are unique to theft?
Now it has a question, now it has a reason, now it has a heart. I *like* this series.
I barely got past the first couple of discs, but now its on the second half I honestly like it.
There was also moral ground for Nick, and that story I thought they *should* be telling from the start, the boy scout going grey, is what we're actually seeing at last. Can't let a thief go - unless it is Amanda. And he gets the stories, how theft ruins lives.
Amanda might have heard much of it from him, but she didn't get the whole impact.
What she did get was a very handsome man who she feels is a friend, however long it has been since she knew him.
So her problem is the one of going straight, or giving up any activity you used to do with friends - how does it impact on the people she cares about? All those 'brothers' (thematic connection in the *disguise* even!), will she have to give them up, or turn them in? If she decides it is wrong for her, is it wrong for everyone? And what does that do to her 'family'?
I *like* this. This is *Highlander*. Discussion with swords.
I watched a bunch of episodes and wrote a bunch of reviews on the laptop, for the weather here can't decide if it will storm or not and I've been keeping the computer off a lot.
Opinions evolve as I watch the Paris episodes.
Highlander: Raven: Rogue
Nick sans face fuzz looks awful.
I think his hair is flatter too.
His face looks peculiar.
The storyline, with partners, betrayal, all that twisty history stuff, I like that.
I do wonder how come Myers gets to be so very much the big deal when Amanda really isn't getting her flashbacks.
What has this story got to do with Amanda?
Solid Nick story, lacking Amanda story.
Holy ground and talking about being Immortal, suggests he found out the rules at some point in the last 4 years. Which makes him fair game, instead of a newbie needing a Teacher.
So he was lying to his partner and tells Amanda the truth? Weird.
Did she just punch him? Did she stand on holy ground and punch him? She bloody did!
I thought the prohibition was against violence, not just killing!
I'm typing this on the laptop because the first rumbles of storm happened outside, so the big computer is off. I've got nearly 4 hours left on this machine. I'm not looking forward to recharging when I'm not sure of the weather. I better remember to upload *everything* to the memory stick first.
My head hurts, but the temperature seems to be a lot more tolerable. This I can live with.
The chocolate probably didn't help. Chocolate mini rolls I think went a bit off in the heat.
Mortals and aging, 10 year difference making or breaking a career.
"I thought being a cop was who I was. It wasn't. It cost me my marriage, my partner, it almost cost me my life, but it wasn't who I was. It was just what I did."
oooh, the episode has a very pointy point! Nifty!
You know, lately, this series has not sucked. I no longer regret having spent money on it. Given that I don't like half the eps, maybe not so much money, but anyways.
Oh good, she tries to stop him. Partner betrayal sucks.
... where did that shot go?
Nick's clothes *suck*. I'm sorry, but that is really ugly.
Are they recycling Highlander's Paris wardrobe? Because the coat on the bad guy looks familiar, and that jumper on Duncan would look pretty familiar too.
Rooftop struggles! Yaay!
Why do they always go splat in Hanged Man position?
The TV has gone green and purple a lot. Last day of it! Ha!
"I paid good money for you"
"Your money's wasted"
Yaay! Myers fired them!
Well with the way they behave, about damn time.
Partners stuff again.
"They took away my life. I want it back. All of it."
Like she is part of 'his'.
Oh dear, she shot him.
So she's dead then.
eewm ogibe wure garritte
hah! now that's a kick ass chick! no victim here. Big fight!
But now she splats, oh dear.
... that sword really obviously didn't fit under that coat.
I have to say, what is with the scarves? I tried not to mention it but it makes her look like a drag queen.
Now *Nick* is all about restricting information on Immortals?
"I trust him with my life. I just don't trust him with yours."
huh.
That actress chick has really terrible hair.
Keeping this on my lap leads to increased warm. This is not of the good.
Is that guy Martin Hyde or is he just really similar?
The music on the Quickening is radically unmatching.
I quite like Myers.
"You cannot interfere"
"I'm never wrong"
yeah, Amanda giving it as orders doesn't really work. Nick isn't an orders kind of guy and she knows it. Plus *he* knows she isn't much for rules. He needs reasons, and there is no good reason either in or out of character to not be giving them. Most dissatisfying.
Oh joy, the air blower is totally working now. I think there are actual breaths of cool going on here.
3.30 on the laptop.
I want to write, but I also want to keep watching Raven. Huh. weird. I didn't want to watch Raven before.
Highlander Raven Inferno
this was an Immortal story, with Amanda involved, with flashbacks. It seems uncharitable to be annoyed that we flashbacked in the flashback and got, what, five minutes of reruns? Highlander footage, much of which had already been used in this series. But we got Rebecca this time. Trouble is, this time, she was entirely irrelevant. That whole flash was filler. Because it didn't relate to problem of the week.
Talia, and politics turning into capitalism.
Twice now, different teams.
Amanda is going the other way, from money to ethics.
Liam and Nick = boyfriends!
okay, okay, friends. but the way they were bumping into each other and so comfy physically, it just looked boyfriendly. you know, with slash goggles.
what do you mean catholic priests don't do that?
I liked that whole conversation. It was a bit like when Gregor and Richie talked about the same thing, before Richie knew he was Immortal, only a grown up conversation with philosophy in it.
Also, the actual reason Immortals don't do more is that they keep on not making famous people Immortal, so Immortals stay in the shadows.
Byron was famous, and he did tons, some of it while Immortal.
The ever so convenient oh didnt I mention I was in the bomb squad is somewhat balanced by it being the wrong wire.
The Quickening neutralising the nerve toxin was bloody cheating. I mean, okay, if the vial was death and the Q is life, cancelling out is poetry. But in science world, what happens when there is a Quickening is that glass things break. The nerve toxin would be released, death following death. But that would not fit the secret world thing, so that doesn't happen.
I quite liked this episode, enough that that bit of convenience jarred.
Amanda and Nick are characters now, and have been for a while. Liam is a sweetheart, already. There's some actual story happening. Is all good.
Highlander: Raven: The Frame
I saw all the twists in advance, but the fun is always in the getting there.
There's another Amanda? Why is there another Amanda?
I'd say compare/contrast, but by the end they're doing much the same things again.
Jade is Queen of Diamonds, and Amanda is Queen of... Spades? Oops, I've forgotten. I think it was a black one, for she has dark hair in the picture.
Mention of the Double Eagle - inventing Go Fish?
Liam is still a sweetheart.
"This isn't the confessional, so" he leaves before he hears anything he shouldn't.
and he knows everyone. How is it he knows everyone? It irritates me how the two shows have entirely seperate supporting casts EXCEPT Joe. Shouldn't there be a couple or three other people? You know, except for the little thing where almost all the other Immortals we've seen get killed...
It does jar just a teensy though, that they've put him in Darius' church.
I realise they're probably just recycling the footage, like they did with Tessa's art show from the one with the mad gasser, but it feels like replacing someone, and that isn't right.
Nick and Liam remain boyfriends (getting sweaty together!)(okay, through sports).
This episode was kind of lackluster, even with the pretty dresses... actually, correction, twice I spotted that the pretty dresses weren't the right size, and I'm not actually good at clothes. But breast bulges and straps that fall off even I can see. That really shouldn't happen on television.
I did like the matching costumes though. Shiny!
Basically this ep was okay. I'm liking the series fine now. It doesn't suck half as bad as I heard. The first few episodes did, but now it seems to have a groove on.
#xfingers#
Highlander: Raven: Love & Death
I seem to have less to say when I don't hate it.
Highlander story, of a sort. He is clearly a bad guy, but there were some choices there too. A bit of women's history, with the marrying her to keep her quiet. A nice feminist spin, when she chooses to talk anyway. A bit annoying she went along with the scheme in the first place, but we know she has a weakness for pretty boys and money, and the plan he told her had no deaths in it.
She's not the woman he married.
I like that.
And he gets trapped, yaays.
She tells Myers, and he doesn't believe her. Cool.
Duncan told how many people ever? Amanda seems to accumulat mortals more than he does.
Nick turning out pre-Immortal is looking more and more like the all along plan, the long term plan. Because here we have a random pre-Immortal and the mention of how they shouldn't know.
... if it was the plan from the start, then the anomalous Quickening goes from screw up to clue. Hmmm. But that would involve trusting the writers, and early on, that really weren't working.
I'm trying to figure how much of my annoyance is down to which departments.
Casting did strange things to perfectly good characters.
Wardrobe is getting a tad repetitive, with all the long brown coat baddies.
Music I still really hate.
This episode I don't hate. Is an Amanda story, clearly about her all the way through, with some Nick reaction. This is the shape the stories should be.
Now please get us some moral ambiguity and clear choices. I mean her choice here was run or stay, or maybe something to do with that whole marriage bit, but it didn't really come through as more than deciding not to run.
Liam's bit about finally rising to her nobility... patronising, a bit, but interesting.
Liam is still a sweetheart, but the longer he's around the more he does things not everyone can agree with.
I realise that focusing a show on an Immortal priest wouldn't carry the action parts long, but I find it an interesting point of view, and an interesting choice. Especially if its for life.
Amanda refusing to get married because it means forever. Means she was trying to take it seriously.
But at sword point she agreed, which means she took oaths she intended to break.
Also that Duncan has been committing adultery regularly for a long while.
Interesting story. I quite like the series lately.
Highlander: Raven: Thick as Thieves
Now this is Highlander.
Moral dilemma. Past colliding with present. Bits out of history - okay, TV version thereof, but snips of past to play with. Story with themes and layers.
This was actually good!
... Except for the picture quality. My new TV did miracles with it compared to my old one, but it was still a bit of a mess, and now I have a headache.
ANYways
flashbacks to Queen Mary, with the danger of beheading, and the false hope they offered her with their 'relics'
(Mary had a mini-me. I don't know why, or how accurate that was, but it was cool.)
Then forward - is that the same cop as in Valkyrie? Same actor I reckon, but on this series it don't follow :eyeroll: Adds layers if it was, but either way. He was a bit wordy, a bit roundabout, and yet interesting enough to keep listening to. He had reasons, he had emotions, he had a part in that story. He said the death of hope was murder.
See I'm looking back now at the clunky early eps that couldn't decide on a moral tone, and they seem appropriate to Amanda. She breezes through like theft isn't murder, like no lives were destroyed by what she did, and it is all a game. So, early eps, tone like a heist movie, all in fun. But then the consequences slap her up side the head - 120 men dead. And after that it keeps on coming. And the series picks a tone along with her, and a moral stance on theft, albeit a complicated one. It is complicated because it is the central conflict of the series. Like Duncan MacLeod spent 100+ episodes figuring out when it was and was not okay to kill (and the story always treated it like a debate, no preaching). Amanda is spending her time moving the line a little - is theft not murder? Is it fundamentally different? What are the moral issues that apply to each? Which are unique to theft?
Now it has a question, now it has a reason, now it has a heart. I *like* this series.
I barely got past the first couple of discs, but now its on the second half I honestly like it.
There was also moral ground for Nick, and that story I thought they *should* be telling from the start, the boy scout going grey, is what we're actually seeing at last. Can't let a thief go - unless it is Amanda. And he gets the stories, how theft ruins lives.
Amanda might have heard much of it from him, but she didn't get the whole impact.
What she did get was a very handsome man who she feels is a friend, however long it has been since she knew him.
So her problem is the one of going straight, or giving up any activity you used to do with friends - how does it impact on the people she cares about? All those 'brothers' (thematic connection in the *disguise* even!), will she have to give them up, or turn them in? If she decides it is wrong for her, is it wrong for everyone? And what does that do to her 'family'?
I *like* this. This is *Highlander*. Discussion with swords.