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Category:    Home > Reviews > Action TV > Highlander - The Raven (TV)

Highlander – The Raven

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C+     Episodes: C+

 

 

After overdoing it with several Highlander feature films, for which another has been greenlighted at the time of this posting, and a TV series that seemed to go on forever with no point, the franchise owners could not help themselves to try and find more ways to make money on the not-so-evergreen franchise.  Highlander – The Raven (1999) is the failed, belated, unrelated spin-off that offers the first female immortal lead with her own adventures.

 

Elizabeth Gracen is actually more pleasant and interesting than expected, though her look on the show should have the producers sending royalty checks to either Susan Powder or Annie Lennox.  Once you get used to that, give or take running out and buying the Eurythmics Greatest Hits DVD, the show very nearly becomes bad TV so bad you have to watch.  Instead, it never realizes its potential in being freed form the pretensions of being a direct part of the rest of the franchise.  As Amanda Derieux, because those French names always indicate secrets of sophisticated fighting and immortality, she meets the usual police dork who has no life and might make it fun.  Too bad she cannot save the show.

 

The episodes are as follows, with audio commentary track denoted by an *:

 

1)     Reborn*

2)     Full Disclosure

3)     Bloodlines

4)     Immunity

5)     So Shall Ye Reap

6)     Birthright

7)     Crime & Punishment

8)     The Unknown Solider

9)     Cloak & Dagger

10)  Passion Play

11)  The Devil You Know*

12)  A Matter Of Time

13)  The French Connection

14)  The Rogue

15)  Inferno

16)  The Frame*

17)  Love & Death

18)  Thick As Thieves

19)  The Manipulator

20)  The Ex-Files

21)  War & Peace

22)  Dead On Arrival*

 

 

I will not say the show lives up to its last episode’s title from the outset, but overall, this is the show that is the biggest missed opportunity of all the entire Highlander franchise.  If more care was taken, this could have been the most important work since Sean Connery himself was landed for the initial feature films.  Gracen could still surface somewhere else and be a big hit, which would show just how much of a mistaken miss the producers of this show turned up.  Maybe next time.

 

The letterboxed 16 X 9 image is a disappointment, not only for not being anamorphically enhanced, but also because of the haziness that makes it look like it was shot on video.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surrounds is the other highlight of the set, sounding good and outdoing the picture.  Extras include interview featurette on the first 8 DVDs, photo gallery on DVD 1, bloopers on DVD 8 and an all DVD-ROM in DVD 9, including scripts you can print out, trivia, biography information, production notes and storyboards.  If you like the show, you’ll get more than the episodes.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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