Highlander: Season Two (1998)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Executive Producers Christian Charret and Denis Leroy
Starring Adrian Paul, Alexandra Vandernoot, Stan Kirsch

Features:

• All twenty-two second season episodes
  
• Running audio and video commentary on selected episodes with actor Paul
  
• Photo galleries
  
• Scripts
  
• Bios
  
• Lost scenes
  
• Watcher Chronicles feature
  

Released by: Anchor Bay
Region: 1
Rating: NR, safe for most ages
Anamorphic:

My Advice: Get it.

Season Two of the Highlander TV show is full of even more adventure and fun with history than the first. The idea of the Watchers organization comes to light in this season, as does the fallout from Darius' death at the end of Season One. We learn a great deal more about how the immortal and moral worlds collide, while also getting plenty of just plain action at the sword of our favorite immortal, his lovely human consort, and his scrappy sidekick. From medieval Scotland to Renaissance France, Duncan takes us all over Europe and shows us what it’s like to be immortal with a conscience.

The audio and video quality of this box set are both quite good. The show looks and sounds like what it is--a finely crafted TV show from the late 1990s, meaning that the digital transfer looks just shy of a theatrical release, as far as color, shadow, and sound go. The lush staging and fine camerawork make the most of the costumes and settings, as well.

This release, like Season One, is absolutely loaded with features. This is how a TV series should be released: we have audio and video commentaries with the star, Adrian Paul, additional scenes, interviews with the producer and the writers, character profiles, scripts, a photo gallery, and "the Watcher's Chronicles." Those Chronicles are basically a screen that accompanies each episode and lists the mortals, immortals, Watchers involved in each episode, as well as the main subject (usually "Duncan MacLeod") and the historical flashbacks we'll get in the episode. The trivia, director and actor bios, scripts, and shooting schedules are all found on disc eight of the set; the commentaries and Chronicles are found on each disc.

The only negative comment I have has nothing to do with the show or the features, but rather with the layout of the set itself. The fold-out wallet format just doesn't work conveniently with more than three discs or so. Trying to juggle this set while it's unfolding itself is maddening. A more book-like format would have been better.

If you're a fan of the show, you'll be well pleased with the treatment it has gotten here. If you are not yet a fan of the show, watch this set, and you soon will be. If you like action, adventure, historical pieces, from pirates to medieval costume dramas, then you'll find something to love in this show; no, every episode is not a history lesson, but that isn't why most of us watch TV--we watch it to be entertained and maybe inspired to learn more on our own. And Highlander definitely inspires viewers to do some research and reading on history on their own, which is worth its weight in gold, just like the heroism, depth of character, and simple kindness displayed at every turn by the hero of the show.