That’s good right?
If nothing else, this prompted me to see whether my cable package includes MTV in HD. It does.
Reviews are not completely awful, but basically say what you might expect. Occasional don’t-think-too-hard fun, with pretty actors saying goofy things in a story and setting that feels hackneyed.
Heh, same here.
I went to the channel to set up the DVR and caught it in the middle of a trailer for it and it looked decent enough. One thing that I noticed while watching it was that the one dude looked like Crixus from the Spartacus series. Turns out it really is the same guy it seems.
I hope to catch it tonight.
Manu Bennett, adding a welcome splash of (relative) old and ugly!
So, what’s the word?
Seems lightly positive, with high praise for the visuals going on in the show.
Definitely I am going to have to check this one out.
Also, reading those reviews… seeing some of those character names, took me straight back to the 12 year old me reading the brooks books under a cover with flashlight. I think “sword” was the first full length fantasy novel I read by myself. (The Hobbit may have been first)
Well, I just saw it. The CGI was rather poor - especially the opening shots, where the rendering was choppy and whatever they were using, clearly wasn’t doing its just. Later on, there are some other cringeworthy CGI in monsters, and obvious greenscreen backdrops.
The actors are clearly the MTV teen type, where the main girl probably is a small, extremely slightly built young woman in skimpy dresses. She’s one of the better actors though. There are some nice actors in it (John Rhys Davies, and the Spartacus guy whose name escapes me), but mainly its teens with little acting skills as far as I can tell.
I did see the entire two episodes, and was fairly entertained, despite the extremely corny 80’s type of story as well. Its CLEARLY based on a fantasy novel from the 80’s. We did kinda have different standards back then.
Its no Game of Thrones, and I am clearly not its intended target audience, which is a shame, but I’ll keep my eye on it, since hell, even Star Trek:The Next Generation was poor in the first few episodes.
edit: I do NOT understand though, why anyone would praise the visuals.
Spartacus guy is Manu Bennet. He was also a voice on the Hobbit. I thought he acted very well in the past and I like him as an actor a lot. Unfortunately, I don’ have access to MTV.
Manu Bennett was the white orc leader guy in the Hobbit trilogy…
and was Deathstroke in Arrow.
— Alan
Manu did some actual fucking magic in turning the second season of Arrow from the good-but-not-groundbreaking first into my favorite season of superhero TV, full-stop. I’ll watch this for him alone, esp. if MTV’s streaming it online somewhere.
Thanks, both of you (And you as well, Armando - your post showed up just as I posted this) - Thats exactly the guy, and he is clearly the best part of the series so far in my opinion :-)
Glad to hear it. I follow him on social media since Spartacus. He’s been very excited about this series so I hoped it would turn out well for him and maybe eventually i can find a way to legal stream it somewhere… eventually.
In Denmark, this is shown through HBO Nordic, so maybe HBO in the states have it as well?
I haven’t seen this yet, but I thought it was interesting (and worth sharing) that the little girl from Pan’s Labyrinth, Ivana Baquero, has a leading role in this as well. Since we’re talking about that sort of thing and all.
If you’ve got a cable sub, you can sign in at mtv.com to watch. It also appears to be releasing within a few hours on Amazon (and, I assume, iTunes): http://www.amazon.com/The-Shannara-Chronicles-Trailer/dp/B018D0O4O6
I think it might be free for Prime customers? Because Episode 1 “cost” me $0.00.
I don’t do cable. I use Hulu and Prime. I’ll check out Amazon if they’re really carrying it or if it’s a teaser episode. If it’s a teaser episode, maybe they’ll carry the whole thing next year. I do have HBO but I am pretty sure it’s not on there.
I’ll give a try if for no other reason that Poppy Drayton is in it. She was in the Downton Abbey Xmas special with Paul Giamati and she stood out.
I’ve never read the books. Kinda funny because Terry Brooks is a local author, and he was always (and I mean always) doing signings at the University Bookstore like he lived upstairs. Could never be bothered.
Just watched the first 1–2 episode on Amazon. Goddam cliffhanger endings.
I also didn’t bother with the books way back when, for some reason. Or at least, I don’t remember bothering with them. I will give them a shot on my Kindle as soon as I finish what I’m reading now, but now that I’m already invested in the show I’m uncertain. Did the same thing when Game of Thrones hit TV and abandoned the books after the first few episodes aired, which taught me that the “Read the damn books first!!!” advice I often hear in these situations isn’t always worth listening to.
So far I think the casting and plot/story are pretty well put together and I’m optimistic that it’s worth the season pass purchase.
My only negative is that, reading the comments above, I wish they’d chosen to hold off on the apocalyptic setting reveal until later. I’d have been jumping up and down in my seat if I’d only realized what was going on several episodes in. On the other hand, perhaps the writers were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to pull it off without it feeling too cheesy or forced.