The Legend of the Seeker

[Rsak]

This is a strange beast. It is based (loosely) on the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.

It is done by Sam Raimi of the Hercules/Xena model. It has the same production quality and has pretty landscapes as they go charting across the mountains.

So after 3 episodes it is functional, but just not good yet. The main character Richard just hasn't gotten his legs yet and walks around like a lost little child, instead of someone with an ability to lead to the truth. There is a scene in the 3rd episode where he makes a profound statement about tricks and there is the dramatic pause, but the character continues oblivious to the trick he has fell under. A reader of the books would have expected Richard to figure things out on his own, instead of having it explained to him.

The casting is pretty good. I like Bruce Spence as Zedd (Trainman from matrix, Mouth of Sauron) and think he has the range to be a decent first wizard.

If the series keeps any legs under it the later casting decisions will be pretty important.

[Ddrak]

Bruce Spence is a great supporting actor - I might have to check this series out.

Dd

[Sinaiel]

I'm watching it. I stopped reading the sword of truth series during the 4th book, because I felt like I was just reading the same story over again.

The show is mediocre/moderately good. It is a little too episodic for my tastes. I'd like more story arc and less wondering town to town where villagers have a problem for me to solve in one episode and then move on.

[Alluveal]

I just couldn't read the books because the author's writing seemed very poor in standard. That's not to say he doesn't have a great story, I just couldn't get over the dumbed-down sentence structure.

I have the pilot downloaded and will watch it here in a few days after I get some school stuff finished. I liked Xena/Herc, but the overly campy stuff got a bit old by season 6/7. Hoping this show doesn't do the same.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Wow, I didn't even know this series existed. Big big thanks Rsak. I'm a big fan of the series. I even have a copy of the last book (Confessor) signed and personalized by Goodkind, but I never unwrapped it to look, because I'm scared I'll damage it.

I do agree with the critics that some parts of the series aren't that good, but where it's good, it's really really good. Still trying to get the wife to read Wizard's First Rule - it's been in her "inbox" for a year.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

Fuckin' sweet. I've got episodes 1-4 on a flash drive, and the Tivo set to record episode 5 tomorrow. Looks like it's all in HD - score. It's being panned by the critics, but I've randomly peeked at the AVI's and it looks like the production is well done. I can already tell it's not even close to the books, but it still looks good, and it's the same characters. The wife's first comment was "ooohhhh let's get dinner and plug it into the TV".

So a cozy dinner and 4 hours of Goodkind's series. At my advanced age this is as good as sex.

[Alluveal]

I'm not too impressed so far, but I know it's a new show and it takes time for things to fall into place. The acting seems bleh (except for Zed and the confessor, though she's clunky at bit at times.)

The music is amazing and I imagine it's LoDuca (Xena/Herc.)

The story just feels rushed and like a rip off of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. It also seemed to be part of a bigger story with the pilot and now it's falling into "freak of the week" mode where they happily wrap up a nice little one-episode conflict and everyone lives happily ever after at the end.

I'm sure I'll continue to watch it, but it won't be an "OMG this is my favorite" type show. That may change, however.

Darken Ral (sp?) seems like a total cliche tool.

And I'm already over the slow motion fight scenes.

[Freecare Spiritwise]

It is based very loosely on the book, but it seems 100% true to the characters, which I read somewhere was Goodkind's main concern. Yeah, the acting is so-so, but the writing is good, the production is good, and Kahlan is smokin' hot. Though they need to tone down the cleavage a bit. In the books she's intensely beautiful, but she also has a great number of other qualities, which they're kinda taking away from by having her boobs spilling out in every episode.

I also noticed the parallels to Star Wars, but I think that's more Goodkind's creation than the writers of the series. Goodkind does follow the age old fantasy formula, which makes it predictable. George Martin would've killed off Richard after several chapters hehe.

All things considered, it's good enough to where I'm going to keep watching it. And also it piqued the wife's interest enough to where she's already 1/3 of the way through Wizard's First Rule so it's mission accomplished for me either way.

[Alluveal]

Kailyn is gorgeous and I was just thinking tonight how much her boobs are ready to burst.

The last episode was interesting--better than the others, imho. The kid was cute and not too annoying (which often happens when kids are involved in shows like this.)

It's growing on me, but I'm a big fan of huge, long term story arcs. It would be nice to see more of that in this.

[Rsak]

I can't get over the fact that Richard is a fucking moron in these shows. He has to have everything spelled out for him which is not staying true to the character. My only hope is that they are doing it to show character growth.

Zedd was funny with the dragon squad in his illusion.