The Shannara Chronicles

Based upon the 1977 New York Times best selling book by Terry Brooks, this new series has been in development for 2 years by none other than MTV.

Part Lord of the Rings and part Game of Thrones, this epic television show premiered last night and it was great. Much much better than the bastard executioner, which also tried to cash in on this newfound demand for fantasy adventure television ushered in by GoT.

Humans, Elves, Druids and Demons, i find comfort in knowing this series is based off a successful series of novels. I read them in middle school, and although I don't remember much I do remember that I enjoyed them thoroughly and wasn't let down.

The leading lady - an elf princess by the name of Amberle - is fantastic.



The costume design is on point too! They spear a full year in preproduction just on developing the costumes and sets.

Sexy Elf Ear Jewelry!



Gimli (J-R-D) is playing the Elf King which is kind of funny considering how close this is to lord of the rings.

You can watch the first four hours of the series for free online or catch it tuesdays at 10/9c on MTV

http://www.mtv.com/shows/shannara

I read a few of these and really enjoyed them, as a fan of high fantasy Terry Brooks is definitely up there for quality of work. I will admit to being a bit skeptical about this show, especially since our friends at MTV usually cater to a certain demographic, I figured it would be like Shannara Valley High or something tbh. I don't expect it to have that HBO edge, but if you've seen it, is it better than Legend of the Seeker? (Based on books by Terry Goodkind). If it's solid fantasy I would watch it for sure, but suspension of belief might be easier said than done.

__________________

I haven't seen Legend of the Seeker unfortunately.
I can say the costumes, sets, and acting are great. And that I've never been into any show on MTV before.

It does open up with a "girl power" scene but there's nothing wrong with trying to show women that they're welcome in a show.. gotta grab that demographic.

I will for sure check it out then, never been opposed to sexy elven females.

Last night trying to sleep I remember there was ONE MTV show that I used to watch. Aeon Flux.
Although I was only like.. 8 or 9 years old.

I watched episode 3 and 4 of Shannara and I am officially hooked.

The pacing on this show is great! Perhaps because there are over 25 books in the series they don't feel like they need to move at a snails pace and spread that butter over too much toast.

It's not quite game of thrones - mostly because there is just one big elf city. There is no big human city like kings landing, no second continent with daenerys and no castle black. The scope feels smaller since we don't have all these other story lines and huge locations going at once. There are less stars.

But it's engaging and I'm disappointed I have to wait nearly 3 weeks for the next episode! (Since I skipped ahead via the mtv.com posting the next two episodes online)

I also realized the lead actress reminds me a little bit of Jessica Alba

Aeon Flux was deadly, I used to watch an MTV show called The Head back in the day too.

FYI: mark f's brother used to write for Aeon Flux (the TV show), and he talked about it a little here.

Hmmm, MTV. I might give an episode a try. Sounds interesting.

__________________
Letterboxd

I re-read the first three books in the Shannara series to get ready for the show. I remembered that I loved all of them, especially The Elfstones of Shannara, so I was really keyed up for this series. I don't know why they skipped the first book but it's nice to read it again and for the show to make references to it, and also make a few comments that touch on the third book. I hope they film the third book for next year. It's really fantastic (no pun intended). In fact, every Brooks book gets better. The fourth book is a prequel, which I typically hate, but I'm loving it also.

Back to the show! I'm with foster, the girl who plays Amberle, Poppy Drayton, is super. She's one of the best-looking young actresses I've seen in a movie or TV in a long time. I looked up her picture when I read a while back she'd been cast and couldn't wait to see how she acted. I thought if her acting could match up to her looks, we'd definitely have a winner and we do! I expect great things in the future for this lady.

I like Manu Bennett, who plays Allanon. He's been in a few things I've seen, like the "Hobbit" films, playing the albino orc, Azog. Usually, he's under a lot of makeup so I didn't put him and most of his work together. But he's doing a good job---a little different from the book but still a solid Druid.

John Rhys-Davies is super as always: just a little twitch of his mouth or a small gesture and he can steal a scene.

The girl who plays Eretria, Ivana Baquero, is the same actress who played the little girl lead in Pan's Labyrinth (2006). She really didn't look the same in the face, so I'd venture she's had some face work done. While not fantastic in her acting (just going by the first show), she's definitely solid. I'm putting her up against Poppy Drayton and sorry, when compared to her you're gonna lose. EDIT: upon looking at her younger pics from the "Labyrinth" days, I see she's had a major nose job and it's not a bad job at all.

I was a bit disappointed in Paranor, the Druid's Keep that Wil and Allanon visit. In all the books, it's practically a character itself, a huge tower with battlements, surrounded by forest, not desert. In the series, it's just a giant rock pillar, basically. But I'll get over it.

The Ellcrys looks pretty terrific. I like the Dagda Mor...in the book he was just the most vicious of the demons, not a former Druid. I think they took the backstory of The Warlock Lord from the first book since they're not filming that one. So, I can deal. I think he looks pretty great---he reminds me of some the orcs from The Fellowship of the Ring. The Changeling started off looking somewhat sexy, although very briefly. I have a feeling that some nudity was blurred when she first arose. Still, when she showed her true faceless form, I got over her quickly.

One last disappointment: Allanon's ex-girlfriend was made up for the series and that didn't bother me a bit. It's that she lives in a place called Wing Hove: in the book, in the latter half, that

I could go on and on about differences between the book and the series, but they're really not that severe to change the overall arc of the story.

The action and look of the whole series is pretty dang great. I can't bring myself to look at the next few episodes on the MTV site. I'm making myself wait, although I'm not happy about it! I need some more Amberle.

__________________
"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

They skipped the first book because of all the criticism that it's a shameless rip off of The Lord of the Rings.
This way they can immediately jump into exploring the more original story ideas presented in the Shannara series.

Right now it's just the first 10 episodes that were created.. They are waiting to see how the ratings are before investing money in filming extra episodes.

It definitely gets you hooked as you watch more, now I need episode 5!
One of my favorite series to come along in a while.

They should do no more then 12 episodes as season anyways. Works fine for Game Of Thrones. I personally Think they should have had too the show an opening manolog of The Elves defeating and imprisoning the demons and maybe seen Wills father. That way Wills father only has too be mentioned once. I personally feel should have started with Sword Of Shannara.

Loving this show so far! I did not think I would, but the cast is fairly solid, and I loved the source material as a kid. Amberle is great, as is Alanon, while Wil and Eritrea are just decent actors. I also fell like Eritrea's dialogue is too anachronistic, and it pulls me out of the story frequently. Lines like "you are such and guy!" and the like just don't fit the material. It's not her fault, but the writers could tighten up a bit here and there, falling more in line with the themes of a show like this. The Dagda Mor is really well done! Great villain.

__________________

Kinda weird that the lead demon played one of the dwarvs in the hobbit.

This show is still kicking ass

Well it's not kicking quite as much ass now.. Gotta admit I'm really disappointed with the story arc across the last couple episodes. There have been like 5 deaths now without those characters actually dying.

everyone just keeps coming back and it's to the point now where I (accurately) don't even believe when anyone dies anymore. it's become a bad soap opera

But I'll still watch.

I'm still watching also (still need to watch last night's DVR'd episode) but must admit that I'm disappointed in some wholesale changes that seemingly have been made for no good reason. I mean, I even let "the DOOR in the Ellcrys!" have a pass. But some things I winced at, like .

Then, last week there was the appearance of

There there's Cephelo. I love the acting of James Remar as this Rover, but

That said, I love any extension of scenes for Poppy Drayton and Ivana Baquero. And I can't wait for the Demon Army invasion of Arborlon. I guess since they have 10 episodes to tell the story they decided to add things, but if you can do that, why delete things? Maybe it comes down to what they think would be cheaper to film: a new scene or a book scene? I have a feeling most of the budget is set aside towards the big battle/battles. I have to wait to the end, as I'm sufficiently interested enough to see how they tie things up.

My interest went way up in this episode. There was the surprise inclusion of

There were no Elf Hunters in the book, but I didn't mind them. The chase gave Eretria and Amberle time to bond in the old high school ruins (not in the book) and I admit I chuckled a bit when Amberle put on that letter jacket to warm up.

I was glad to see Allanon's mentor, Bremen, who is now a shade, appear. Although in the books, you cannot call forth your former mentor or any dead Druid unless you go to the lake in the Valley of Shale, I guess it would have been one trip and location too many to do it that way.

Pretty good episode. I'm hopeful for the rest.

You're not disappointed everyone keeps dying and coming back to life?
been a long time since i read the books

Well, I was fairly sure that Allanon was not dead. If that's the person you're talking about coming back. I hated that The Changeling came back after Allanon snapped its neck, then took over Eventine. I hope its gone for good now that the king's son used Allanon's sword on it. It completely dissolved so I think its gone, but then again Allanon completely dissolved and came back but who knows?

Where you referring to Allanon? Or someone else?

Foster, along with people coming back from the dead, one other thing I'm a bit sick of is that ever week, our heroes Wil, Amberle, and Eretria get captured every single week! Geez, haven't they learned anything yet? On the plus side, at least