"The Shannara Chronicles" and "Colony"

[Ryujin]

It was OK TV bubblegum. I'll likely keep watching it.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Regarding Shannara, I think they've done just what they intended to do and it couldn't have happened to a nicer IP. That is to say, they have a certain target audience at MTV (and associates) and this treatment might well be just the way to reach and keep them watching. It's tweeny and twilighty and all of the things that will get it clobbered in reviews by more serious fantasy fans.

It definitely felt like it was produced with a younger demographic in mind, which makes sense considering their audience. As a man in my 40s, it wasn't made for me, that's for sure. My biggest dissappointment was how they handled Paranor. That keep was pretty much as much of a character as any of the protagonists, so to complete change it bothered me.

So, too, if they had to do this with a popular bit of IP from the past, choosing Shannara gets them both name recognition and a bit of Teflon coating since it was always said to be a Tolkien ripoff. No one is ever seriously going to say that a great, original movie or series could have been made from this work.

This is hardly fair. Yeah, lots of people considered Sword of S to be a ripoff of Tolkien, but all Tolkien was, was a ripoff of existing myths and folklore. The whole Smiegle fighting with his brother over the ring is pretty much word for word taken from a Norse myth. You also forget that there are A LOT of other Shannara books after Sword that are completely as original as any other fantasy author has done. Also, while in Tolkien, there were clear good guys (humans, hobbits, dwarves, and elves) and clear bad guys (orcs and goblins), there is no such distinction in Shannara. The only really bad guys are demons. There aren't any orcs or goblins present. The humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, and trolls all have various attitudes with each other that shift depending on which book it is, and those relationships are more complex than Tolkien's.

 

[Mark CMG]

This is hardly fair.

I don't know. I think the impression one gets when reading Tolkien's work is that he borrowed liberally from history and mythology, and constructed languages, most of which had not been done before by anyone, thus creating something new in literature. The overwhelming impression one gets from reading The Sword of Shannara is that he read Tolkien. I do believe you that the subsequent Brooks work built on that and were better written as he became more seasoned as a writer. Make no mistake, I enjoyed The Sword of Shannara for what is was, nonetheless. I was an easy audience in the late 70s and still am, for the most part.

 

[Dog Moon]

Colony didn't interest me at all, but I did watch Shannara Chronicles

Overall, I think I liked it. The show wasn't quite what I was expecting and some of the dialogue and stuff just didn't quite sit right with me, though as I've seen other people comment, it could just be because of the target audience is a little different, and likely younger, than me. I think this might be why some of the actors/actresses didn't feel right, but it does have other actors that I like. It has Slade Wilson! Rawr! Plus the guy from Sliders and Dexter's dad!

I did like a lot of the imagery, though I don't remember things like rusted out planes and whatnot being quite so prevalent in the books. But still, some of the building and the ship looked neat. I felt kind of disappointed with the Druid's home though [it's been so long I barely remember these names, or not at all in this case; heck I can't even remember more recent actors' names, though admittedly a lot of them I just never learned] but I swore it was like a massive castle and if true that would have been a lot more grander and awesome than a big cylindrical stone.

So anyway, so far I like what I see well enough that I will continue watching and hope for the best.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I noticed today that "The Shannara Chronicles" is offered for Amazon Prime Instant Video in Germany. Too bad our free test drive for that service ended four days ago; I might actually have been able to watch it.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Ooh, I wonder if that's true stateside. I'll have to check when I get home.

I noticed today that "The Shannara Chronicles" is offered for Amazon Prime Instant Video in Germany. Too bad our free test drive for that service ended four days ago; I might actually have been able to watch it.

 

[Nellisir]

I saw a few promos for The Colony while watching The Expanse (which is REALLY grabbing me) but not enough to figure out what was going on or care. So, fail on the promo, people.

 

[Richards]

No interest in "Shannara," but I did watch the "Colony" premiere last night. I'm having a hard time seeing these as new characters, and not Sawyer from "Lost" suddenly married to Lori from "The Walking Dead" and working for one of Dr. House's doctor colleagues from "House." It's making it rather difficult for me to immerse myself in the story line.

Johnathan

 

[Dog Moon]

suddenly married to Lori from "The Walking Dead"

Which is funny, cause I always thought of her as "Sexy Doctor Lady" which is what my roommate at the time called her character from Prison Break [He had a thing for her]. And that is how I think of her now.

 

[horacethegrey]

Started watching Shannara recently. Now I'm going into this as a complete noob, as I never read the books it's based on. I've read how Terry Brooks plagiarized Tolkien heavily with Sword of Shannara so I never really bothered with them because of that.

Watching the series though, I have to say I'm into it despite the standard fantasy trappings. The locations are beautifully shot and the setting being a post apocalyptic Earth makes for a nice change from an mythical ancient land from long ago. Among the cast I liked Manu Bennet as the druid Alannon the best. Nice to see that the resident wizard instead of looking old and feeble is a big and intimidating guy who can kick your butt both with and without magic.

But Holy S**t did MTV overload on the pretty people on this show. Now the LOTR film trilogy wasn't lacking in the pretty department, but for every Orlando Bloom we had a rugged Viggo Mortensen or Sean Bean to balance everything out. Here it seems like a CW show on steroids.

I'm not really complaining though, only because Poppy Drayton as Amberle is cute as hell...