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Shannara Chronicles (TV)

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OutHouse said:
read the series in jr high in the early 80's.

apparently i remember nothing of the series because i dont remember big ass oil tankers rotting in the wilderness.

and im surprised John Reys-Davis is in it. or actually would be allowed to be in a film so closely related to LOTR/Hobbit.
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The original Shannara series takes place in the far distance future of our time. Basically a cataclysmic event happened to wipe most of humanity off the face of the earth and magic has come back. His Knight of Th Word series is the story that tells that bit and bridges the gap between our time and the time his Shannara series takes place. Many of the "monsters" they fight in the Shannara series are remnants of science created things from our time frame in the near future of the current time. Where robots and other such things are used to fight wars and what not.

Some of the things Terry describes in his book are certainly decrepit relics of our time left dotting the landscape in the far future.
 
Paladin said:
Agree, I thought the series was pretty decent



Elfstones was my favorite. Looking forward to it.
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I agree it was what got me into reading for pleasure as a kid. First real novel I ever read on my own was the Elfstones of Shannara. I then went forward to Wishsong which was out at the time and loved that one too. After that I read the Sword of Shannara and wasn't nearly impressed with it as I was with the other two. Still I read everything else as it came out afterwards for a few years. To me the Shannara series was the Harry Potters series of it's time for me.

I will say that I couldn't get into the Demon/Knight series too much. I read Running with the Demons and it was decent. Knight of the Word was less so. Started on Angel Fire East and couldn't finish it. Just bleh for some reason to me.

I read the Jerle series and the High druid series, but the Genesis series again turned me off after the first book.

Basically I like the high action and fun stuff and the political leaning books of his bore me too much. Haven't read anything else since the Jerle series and I know a bunch has come out. It seemed like it was getting to be more about quantity over quality.
 
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In case you have on-demand with your cable provider, episodes 3 and 4 are online. Enjoying the show so far. I read these early shannara books a long time ago, which I really enjoyed. Glad to see they're finally making a series out of it.

Curious to see how the series is going to pan out. They seem to be going through Will Ohmsford's story pretty quick. With all the mini-previews they've been showing through each episode, it sounds like this entire arc will be done by the end of the season. Any idea how many shows are slotted for this season? Next season will be about the Wishsong of Shannara...if I remember the order of books correctly.

I'm really thinking Eretria is super hot for some reason...
 
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Bacstar said:
In case you have on-demand with your cable provider, episodes 3 and 4 are online. Enjoying the show so far. I read these early shannara books a long time ago, which I really enjoyed. Glad to see they're finally making a series out of it.

Curious to see how the series is going to pan out. They seem to be going through Will Ohmsford's story pretty quick. With all the mini-previews they've been showing through each episode, it sounds like this entire arc will be done by the end of the season. Any idea how many shows are slotted for this season? Next season will be about the Wishsong of Shannara...if I remember the order of books correctly.

I'm really thinking Eretria is super hot for some reason...
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They are trying to condense whole books into a few episodes? Ugh! I have only seen the trailer since I noticed this thread today at work. I saw the elfstones in Will's hands and was thinking the first season would basically start with book 2 as a whole. Then the next season would pick up another book. That would have been much better.
 
GagHalfrunt said:
I guess it was inevitable that someone would try to do a fantasy series. The LOTR/Hobbit movies kicked ass at the box office and GoT is big on TV. I just wish they had picked a different series. Eddings or Feist would have been a better choice.
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I would like to see someone do the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant:thumbsup:
 
*kjm said:
I would like to see someone do the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant:thumbsup:
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Now that definitely would have to be premium cable. I read the original series in high school and only last year found out more were written!
 
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Someone mentioned Legend of the Seeker earlier. Wasn't there also a parody show of that - or was Legend the parody. I can't find anything useful when I search "Legend of the Seeker" parody.
 
shut up i read the books 2 decades and someago. no spoilers ...refreshers please of the boks.
 
i've fast forwarded through a lot of it. I haven't read the books but I don't find the main 3 characters that appealing. They kinda just bumble their way around. Only the Druid is interesting.
 
Its an ok show. Kinda boring and predictable, the chicks are hot. I wish they would make "The Death Gate Cycle" by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman into a series. Was my favorite book series as a kid.
 
EliteRetard said:
Says New Zealand, but then there's the Seattle Space needle just laying around. 😕
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I'm going take a wild guess and suggest the Space Needle was CGI'd into the scene. Could be wrong, perhaps they build another one in the NZ wilderness.

For those that don't know, the Shannara series takes place 4000ish AD a couple of thousand years after a global nuclear war and the books take place in Oregon/Washington area from what i can tell.
 
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Just started watching this on Netflix. I didn't have high hopes for it, but it's actually turning out to be pretty fun! I never read the books, had a hard time getting into them, although I am a huge fan of the prequels (the Word & the Void series). This was next on my list of things to try watching when I was feeling bored because it looked interesting enough to give it a try, without having much in the way of high expectations for it. I am going to be a bit critical in this post, so don't take that as a completely negative rating of the show, just of what's bugging me at this point.

Two things that really turn me off in the show so far are the way they use plain English language & the crummy color grading. They use 2017 young adult American English...it doesn't really fit & feels really out of place at times. But I guess that's better than faking old-timey accents in a bad way. And so far I'm not a huge fan of the cinematography...the visuals are kind of all over the map. The biggest thing that stands out is how they handle the color editing...it looks like they're using something like Magic Bullet in 90% of the scenes; the shots are just over-saturated with a loss of picture detail. There's just no excuse for that these days, with amazing cameras like the Blackmagic 4K going for six grand and relatively cheap color grading software like daVinci being readily-available...you can take amazing images even on a budget with today's hardware & software offerings.

Same with the compositing & camera work...they nail it sometimes (the graphics on things like the Furys & the henge of stone are great), but a lot of times it feels like it's being done by an advanced high-schooler. I thought that this show was produced by the SyFy channel because it looks like one of those bad SyFy-channel series, but it turns out MTV made it.

Not a super huge fan of the acting either, although I think part of that has to do with the camera work & the editing. Like, I love John Rhys-Davies, but they don't really take full advantage of doing stuff like lingering shots to let the full weight of certain scenes sink in. Then tension they try to build with Eretria & her dad feels like George Lucas wrote it. OTOH, the pacing is quite good, which is a big reason why I think I've enjoyed watching it so far...they keep the story moving & unfolding.

I also thought the opening foot race was the dumbest thing I've ever seen. It just looks super idiotic to someone like me who hasn't read the books. It came dangerously close to feeling like a College Humor spoof video.
 
Kaido said:
Just started watching this on Netflix. I didn't have high hopes for it, but it's actually turning out to be pretty fun! I never read the books, had a hard time getting into them, although I am a huge fan of the prequels (the Word & the Void series). This was next on my list of things to try watching when I was feeling bored because it looked interesting enough to give it a try, without having much in the way of high expectations for it. I am going to be a bit critical in this post, so don't take that as a completely negative rating of the show, just of what's bugging me at this point.

Two things that really turn me off in the show so far are the way they use plain English language & the crummy color grading. They use 2017 young adult American English...it doesn't really fit & feels really out of place at times. But I guess that's better than faking old-timey accents in a bad way. And so far I'm not a huge fan of the cinematography...the visuals are kind of all over the map. The biggest thing that stands out is how they handle the color editing...it looks like they're using something like Magic Bullet in 90% of the scenes; the shots are just over-saturated with a loss of picture detail. There's just no excuse for that these days, with amazing cameras like the Blackmagic 4K going for six grand and relatively cheap color grading software like daVinci being readily-available...you can take amazing images even on a budget with today's hardware & software offerings.

Same with the compositing & camera work...they nail it sometimes (the graphics on things like the Furys & the henge of stone are great), but a lot of times it feels like it's being done by an advanced high-schooler. I thought that this show was produced by the SyFy channel because it looks like one of those bad SyFy-channel series, but it turns out MTV made it.

Not a super huge fan of the acting either, although I think part of that has to do with the camera work & the editing. Like, I love John Rhys-Davies, but they don't really take full advantage of doing stuff like lingering shots to let the full weight of certain scenes sink in. Then tension they try to build with Eretria & her dad feels like George Lucas wrote it. OTOH, the pacing is quite good, which is a big reason why I think I've enjoyed watching it so far...they keep the story moving & unfolding.

I also thought the opening foot race was the dumbest thing I've ever seen. It just looks super idiotic to someone like me who hasn't read the books. It came dangerously close to feeling like a College Humor spoof video.
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There was no footrace in the books.

I watched the series, and have read all the books. This series is basically book 2 for this season. There are more than a few changes between the books and the show. It was designed for the MTV audience, so a lot of young adult stupidity stuff was added for the show. The teen angst, rave scenes, foot races, and other commonly associated strange scenes are not in the book at all. All there to draw in the MTV crowd and nothing more. Then again MTV fronted the money and they got to make those changes.

All in all, the show was alright. Nothing spectacular, but it got much of the major plot line of the book across.
 
HumblePie said:
There was no footrace in the books.

I watched the series, and have read all the books. This series is basically book 2 for this season. There are more than a few changes between the books and the show. It was designed for the MTV audience, so a lot of young adult stupidity stuff was added for the show. The teen angst, rave scenes, foot races, and other commonly associated strange scenes are not in the book at all. All there to draw in the MTV crowd and nothing more. Then again MTV fronted the money and they got to make those changes.

All in all, the show was alright. Nothing spectacular, but it got much of the major plot line of the book across.
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Wasn't a fan of some of the changes MTV made, so I'm hoping Spike does a better job.
 
I hated the series and barely made it through it. The book is a serious book - along the lines of Lord of the Rings / save the world type plot. The MTV version is exactly what others here have said. Raves, Teeny Angst.... just.... gawd.
 
HumblePie said:
There was no footrace in the books.
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That makes it even weirder then...I thought it was a really stupid visual that they kept in the show because it must have been a key point in the books or something lol.
 
Kaido said:
That makes it even weirder then...I thought it was a really stupid visual that they kept in the show because it must have been a key point in the books or something lol.
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Amberle was a chosen in the book, but she was a chosen who had left the job because the Ellcrys (the tree) showed her what was going to happen and she didn't understand it and was frightened. She was shunned because she left the from the 'chosen'.

They totally screwed the story.
 
Pulsar said:
Amberle was a chosen in the book, but she was a chosen who had left the job because the Ellcrys (the tree) showed her what was going to happen and she didn't understand it and was frightened. She was shunned because she left the from the 'chosen'.

They totally screwed the story.
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Did they explain how the Chosen were selected in the books? Because running around blindfolded & bonking head-on into trees was hilariously dumb in the TV show lol.
 
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