HIGHLA-L Digest - 3 Apr 2004 to 6 Apr 2004 (#2004-64)
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Tue, 6 Apr 2004 22:00:03 -0400
There are 2 messages totalling 128 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Season Three dvds: Blackmail
2. Season Three dvds: Vendetta
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Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 10:05:29 -0400
From: Wendy Tillis <immortals_incorporated@cox.net>
Subject: Re: Season Three dvds: Blackmail
MacGeorge says:
>COMMENTARY: Gillian tells us they were going for the "Strangers on a
>Train" storyline, where MacLeod is put into the position of being blackmailed into
>do a "favor" for a guy who has witnessed and filmed a fight and a
>Quickening, and the guy wants him to murder his wife. Gillian says she
>thought that concept lost focus because they had to incorporate an evil
>Immortal into the plot.
I always felt that this episode had a lot of potential that was squandered. I would have liked to see Duncan deal with the situation of someone witnessing a beheading, filmed it, and intended to go public with it - someone who didn't fall for Duncan's charms or turn out to be a cardboard bad guy who could be killed off to solve the problem. Would Duncan try to explain the Game and hope the person would relent? What if they still wanted to go public? Would he try to steal the tape? What if he couldn't? The tape isn't a threat to Immortals everywhere (as Salzer's CD would be later in the season), it is only a threat to Duncan and his current life (and freedom) in Seacouver. instead of dealing with any of this, we get this silly blackmail plot and no one mourns when the blackmailed ends up dead.
And *why* did they have to incorporate an evil Immortal into the plot? I understand that the non-KotW episodes were often weak... but they didn't *have* to be. There were opportunities to show an Immortal dealing with the mortal world (something Immortals do 99% of their time) that didn't require Duncan to be a crimesolver (Revenge of the Sword <blech>) or champion of the people ( The Zone <double blech>).
Wendy(This episode did feature one of the immortal houses that kept reappearing as different locations throughout the series)
Immortals Inc.
immortals_incorporated@cox.net
"Weasels for Eternity"
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Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2004 09:32:49 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Three dvds: Vendetta
COMMENTARY: AP notes that this episode wasn't his favorite show, but it was
fun to see a slightly lighter side to MacLeod. He loved the dancing in it,
and there were some good characters in it, but he didn't feel that the
episode had "the heart" that some of the other lighter episodes had (like
the Roger Daltrey episodes).
David Tynan once again addresses the Anne Lindsay issue and whether she was
going to learn who MacLeod really was. Anne tries to figure out MacLeod, and
MacLeod is trying to hide his immortality continuing the ongoing tension
between them. (This is the third or fourth time he's said almost exactly the
same thing in the commentary. Do we sense a theme here?)
Bill Panzer says the script could have gone in a couple of different
directions, either a comedy (which is where it went), or it could have been
played as a thirties melodrama. But the director's choice to use the comedic
talents of the main guest actor was probably the right call (even though AP
calls some of the scenes "cartoonish").
OUTTAKES: Gillian says that before he became an actor, Adrian Paul was a
dancer and a choreographer, and shows us the stylish dance scene in the
flashback in its entirety.
THE EPISODE: Benny, Benny, Benny. What a guy. I'm not going to describe this
episode in any detail. Suffice it to say that Benny Carbasa, a short, pudgy
hustler that Duncan met back in the 1930's is in trouble with a local mob
boss-turned-more-or-less-legit since his bootlegging days in the 1930's.
Benny connives to offer up Duncan's life instead of his own (Duncan had a
run-in with the mobster some 60 years before and Benny convinces the aging
mobster that Duncan's "grandson" knows all about the mobster's nefarious
past), and Duncan ultimately gets knocked on the head, handcuffed and dumped
overboard to drown in the harbor.
One of the better scenes is of Duncan, rising up out of what is obviously
freezing cold water, still handcuffed, murderously furious at Benny. But
Benny is such a harmless twit, Duncan can't bring himself to do what he
would obviously like to do, which is take his head - or at the least
strangle him to death temporarily.
The more serious subplot involves a beautiful, talented singer (Peggy
McCall) Duncan met back in the 30's, who is now the wife of the mob boss,
both in their declining years. Peggy had given up her singing career at the
behest of her husband, and when Duncan's "grandson" visits with her, he
reminds her of just how beautiful and talented he thought she still was.
In the end, the mob boss (who had killed Peggy's true love, unbeknownst to
her) is dead, Peggy is free to live her life, and Duncan gives Benny a bus
ticket to get him out of town and out of Duncan's life.
MY COMMENTS: Hmmm. Well, it's not awful. There are some smile-inducing
moments, the best of which is when Benny has just been rescued by Duncan
from some bat-wielding wiseguys, and tries to simultaneously compliment
Duncan's fighting prowess and explain why he just stood around and watched.
As a point of interest, (probably to no one but me) Duncan was also doing
something peculiar at the table in the scene in Joe's where Benny has said
he will pay for lunch (and mysteriously loses his wallet so that Duncan ends
up paying anyway). It took me a while to figure out what it was, but while
Benny is telling Richie his stories of being a mobster, I think Duncan is
carefully building little structures out of toothpicks.
The flashback to the 30's nightclub is done in soft focus and colored like
an old film. There is a dance sequence between Young!Peggy and Duncan that
Duncan (or more likely Adrian, in this instance) enjoys.
There is a bedroom scene between Duncan and Anne where they both look yummy
(although when Anne comes in during the first scene, she's wearing a leather
mini-skirt and a tight sweater, making her look like an overage cheerleader
instead of a professional woman. The costumers didn't do the actress or the
character of Anne Lindsay any favors, for sure.).
I'm trying to think of something else deep and relevant to say about this
episode, but I'm coming up short. Oops. That was cruel (sorry, Benny).
There are two canon-related mysteries that arise in this episode.
First, after being "drowned", Duncan arises out of the water as though he
had been walking along the bottom, even when it was deeper than his height.
This harks back to the original Highlander movie, when Ramirez demonstrated
to Connor that he could breathe under water. This is the only other
corroboration we have than Immortals have any special ability in this
regard, and - as always - is open to other interpretations.
Second, how (she asked) does an annoying, incompetent, non-swordsman like
Benny Carabasa manage to survive beyond a decade after his first death
(which took place in 1922 in Chicago when he cheated a mobster in a craps
game)? The implication is that Benny is a harmless weasel who has a knack
for wiggling out of dire situations into which he managed to get himself,
but Duncan nearly whacked him just for being annoying, and Duncan is one of
the good guys.
MacGeorge
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 3 Apr 2004 to 6 Apr 2004 (#2004-64)
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