• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Legend ot Seeker - any good? what is it?

stueyross

Captain
Captain
Hi All,

have seen various threads for Legend of the Seeker and wrongly assumed it was a book of some sort and not a TV show. I've not seen anythjing of it at all, no trailers/adverts nothing.

Is it worth watching? is it like Xena? (gag)

basically, is it worth spending time on?
 
As someone who had not read the book before seeing the first episode, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I assumed it was going to be hammy as hell, but it turned out to be quite a lot of fun! The three leads have real charm together.
 
It's awful beyond belief, just like Eragon: a lot of elements from other, more original fantasy works jumbled together randomly without logic and rather shamelessly.

I still watch it. It's fun. :p
 
I thought it was connected to "Seeker: The Dark is Rising" and avoided it for its first few months.

But it aired before Star Trek remastered and I caught enough episodes to start liking it. I think it's one of the more enjoyable genre shows on t.v. right now.

Hot women running around killing people with swords, evil leather clad s&m chicks, Bruce Spence. What's not to love?It's a whole helluva lot better than Eragon or Xena (or Hercules, but televized golf was often better than Hercules). No bullshit mixing of ancient mythologies with excessive cheekiness. It mostly takes itself seriously, which some people were disappointed in from producers Raimi and Tapert. But why do another hokey fantasy show in a post-LotR movie world?

Yeah, there's little originality to it. But what's original anymore? At least it doesn't involve paranormal investigators, super heroes who don't wear costumes, aliens who look human or the FBI.
 
It's awful beyond belief, just like Eragon: a lot of elements from other, more original fantasy works jumbled together randomly without logic and rather shamelessly.

I still watch it. It's fun. :p

I hate to dis people and make them feel unintelligent... but in your case I will make a exception

Terry goodkind wrote eleven sword of truth books... the first one. Wizards first rule was wrote in 1994...
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/terry-goodkind/wizards-first-rule.htm

Christopher Paolini wrote Eragon in 2001....
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/p/christopher-paolini/eragon.htm

It's safe to say that Eragon is like (not) the sword of truth books and copied them... not the other way around.... you obviously not read either one...

But to go and answer the threads concerns...

The sword of truth books (all eleven of them) were and are about richard and Kailyn... it's a love story... but.. it's a expertly done story... with lots of sword... sorcerery, blood... killing... rape... and carnage... a lot of which is not going to be shown on a tv show...

yup... they toned down the tv show and it's changed from the books a bit... but it's a great story... I'm still waiting to see what direction the tv show go's... but so far... It's ok... I'm not saying it's terriffic... or wonderful or fantastic... but it is ok...

don't see the show and expect the books to be the same but I recommend both...
 
Hi All,

have seen various threads for Legend of the Seeker and wrongly assumed it was a book of some sort and not a TV show. I've not seen anythjing of it at all, no trailers/adverts nothing.

Is it worth watching? is it like Xena? (gag)

basically, is it worth spending time on?

When it was first announced on this board, one of the big points they mentioned was the involvement of writers from Enterprise. That told me the show was going to suck in a horribly bad fashion.

Then I caught an interview with one of the actors on the Slice of SciFi podcast and saw a few pictures of the lead, Craig, who plays the Seeker. :drool: So of course, I did tune in.

I have a co-worker who has read all the books this show is based on, and after every episode last season, he'd come to me and complain about how they aren't being true to the books. I haven't read them, so I can't judge.

What I can judge is on the content. It is mindless fun. It is filmed in the same area that Hercules and Xena were. The people behind the scenes are the same people, and a lot of the guests also appeared on Herc and/or Xena.

It has sort of the same feel, except ... darker. And there are no gods walking about.

My suggestion is to go to hulu.com and watch the pilot of the series. If you like it, then by all means, continue watching. If you don't, well, you haven't spent any money on it, and the most you've lost is 42 minutes.
 
I think CommanderRaytas was referring specifically to the show and not the books.

It took me a while to get over how much the show diverges from the books, but once I did I have been able to enjoy it.
 
I think CommanderRaytas was referring specifically to the show and not the books.

It took me a while to get over how much the show diverges from the books, but once I did I have been able to enjoy it.

me too.. both my wife and I enjoy the show... (I made her listen to the audiobooks too)
but, I do miss the surprise ending of the first book...
I think it was lame they didn't include that...
 
^Me too. I guess they want to keep the sexual tension between Kahlan and Richard going longer.
 
Just to answers the OP's question directly. LEGEND OF THE SEEKER is a tv series based on a series of books by Terry Goodkind. The first book in the series was titled WIZARD'S FIRST RULE. The tv show airs in syndication.
 
It's awful beyond belief, just like Eragon: a lot of elements from other, more original fantasy works jumbled together randomly without logic and rather shamelessly.

I still watch it. It's fun. :p

I hate to dis people and make them feel unintelligent... but in your case I will make a exception

Terry goodkind wrote eleven sword of truth books... the first one. Wizards first rule was wrote in 1994...
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/terry-goodkind/wizards-first-rule.htm

Christopher Paolini wrote Eragon in 2001....
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/p/christopher-paolini/eragon.htm

It's safe to say that Eragon is like (not) the sword of truth books and copied them... not the other way around.... you obviously not read either one...

But to go and answer the threads concerns...

The sword of truth books (all eleven of them) were and are about richard and Kailyn... it's a love story... but.. it's a expertly done story... with lots of sword... sorcerery, blood... killing... rape... and carnage... a lot of which is not going to be shown on a tv show...

yup... they toned down the tv show and it's changed from the books a bit... but it's a great story... I'm still waiting to see what direction the tv show go's... but so far... It's ok... I'm not saying it's terriffic... or wonderful or fantastic... but it is ok...

don't see the show and expect the books to be the same but I recommend both...


Don't worry, it's hard to make me feel untintelligent.

First, I did not say the books' author stole anything, let alone from Pao-Pao.

Second, I was responding to the enquiry about the tv show and the impression I got from it.

Third, oh, never mind. Peace, bro. ;)

Ah, fuck peace. Third, you might wanna try spelling stuff right before lecturing people. It's "Kahlan", not whatever you typed in.
 
I got through the first four books, then they started to get preachy and redundant, so I stopped. I haven't seen the series, but I took a look at the actors, and for some reason they were nothing like what I envisioned the characters would act or look like, so that was a big barrier to me.
 
I got through the first four books, then they started to get preachy and redundant, so I stopped. I haven't seen the series, but I took a look at the actors, and for some reason they were nothing like what I envisioned the characters would act or look like, so that was a big barrier to me.
Ignore the connection to the books and then the show is just fine.
 
I dunno, I'm kinda split on the casting. Kahlan I like, and I can see that actress as the character in the book. Better, actually, because the on-screen version of her is a little stronger and less 'damsel in distress'. The version in the books is fine, and has penty of 'tough' moments, but defers far too much to Richard.

Zedd is a good casting, and there's honestly no problem IMO between the book and tv versions. At times serious, dangerous, charming, funny, the character comes across well.

Richard is the biggest problem. The TV version doesn't mesh well with the books. And that's probably a good thing, because for the most part, the books' Richard is a giant douche. Dangerous, arrogant, violent without cause at times, and yet is written as the 'perfect' character who can't do wrong, and is loved by all, etc. Constantly ignoring and doubting his closest friends, yet if Kahlan blinks the wrong way, he throws a fit or pouts for 50 pages, doubting her love. This isn't so bad in the first book, and just gets worse and worse as the series goes on. The TV version is truer to the 'Wizard's First Rule" version, where he's a kinder person, more concerned with doing the right thing, helping, etc, and only takes the mantle of power through circumstance, and to try to do good. A drastic difference, IMO, and I'm currently re-reading the series (almost finished Soul of the Fire).
 
Although it's great to see made-for-syndication dramas still exist (remember the days of Xena, Hercules, Farscape and Star Trek TNG?), this one's so out of the way I never even knew it existed until today. I took a look at my local listings and one of the cable channels I get here is showing it at 2 AM or something. Far cry from the days when shows like this used to air on Saturday afternoons, over the supper hour, or even in prime time.

The show looks intriguing, and the casting of Jolene Blalock got my attention, but I have a feeling it'll be yet another show I'll have to watch on DVD later. (Don't say Hulu - I'm in Canada so that's useless, and watching video on my computer screen for too long gives me a headache these days anyway - I'd rather watch it on my 42-inch plasma!)

Alex
 
It's enjoyable enough of a show, although depending on your market, on at odd times. I always let the DVR get it anyway, but think it's on Saturday nights at 8pm for me.

Having the background in the books, the series makes some odd choices and goes off the reservation sometimes, but that's not too bad, all in all. While I don't understand why they sometimes change things like they do, it seems that for the most part, they mirror things closely enough that it doesn't ruin anything.

And honestly, they had some work to do to fix the series for tv. If you look at the series as a whole, how often were the main characters kidnapped, injured, seperated, or battling explosive amnesia? Over the book series, and probably 10,000+ pages, the principle characters probably don't spend more than a few hundred pages together after the first book. Richard gets kidnapped more often than Captain Archer, Zedd wanders off, and then there's the bit with Kahlan. And in the in-universe timeframe, these disappearings are often in the 6 months/1 year timeframe.

Doesn't really work for tv that way, being unable to put the cast together, or having them make stupid decisions all the time, so tweaking things so that the characters can get these lessons and experiences without some of the dumber pitfalls of the book series is a good one.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top