Holy crap. Elfstones of Shannara coming to TV. MTV that is.

cheeba · Post by **cheeba** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 9:40 am

I like how Jon Favreau says that the beautiful backdrop of New Zealand really separates this show from other genre tales. Since Lord of the Rings (omg, Fellowship came out in 2001) New Zealand has become the default backdrop for that genre

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JonathanStrange · Post by **JonathanStrange** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 11:37 am

cheeba wrote:I like how Jon Favreau says that the beautiful backdrop of New Zealand really separates this show from other genre tales. Since Lord of the Rings (omg, Fellowship came out in 2001) New Zealand has become the default backdrop for that genre .

And he says it with a straight face too! It's sort of in keeping with the derivative nature of the early Shannara novels with respect to Tolkien. I've never minded that aspect of Brook's books personally though - his later books made Shannara a world of its own.

The trailer I saw on YouTube looked good. Apparently the premiere is 2016 and not this month after all.

Still hoping for the best!

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 8:00 pm

JonathanStrange wrote:
cheeba wrote:I like how Jon Favreau says that the beautiful backdrop of New Zealand really separates this show from other genre tales. Since Lord of the Rings (omg, Fellowship came out in 2001) New Zealand has become the default backdrop for that genre .
And he says it with a straight face too! It's sort of in keeping with the derivative nature of the early Shannara novels with respect to Tolkien. I've never minded that aspect of Brook's books personally though - his later books made Shannara a world of its own.

I thought the same thing.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sun Jul 12, 2015 12:57 am

cheeba wrote:I like how Jon Favreau says that the beautiful backdrop of New Zealand really separates this show from other genre tales. Since Lord of the Rings (omg, Fellowship came out in 2001) New Zealand has become the default backdrop for that genre .

Since Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Oct 13, 2015 8:17 am

Two minute trailer from NY Comic Con.

Canuck · Post by **Canuck** » Tue Oct 13, 2015 10:21 pm

Looks good!

tru1cy · Post by **tru1cy** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 10:14 am

Part 1 & 2 airs tonight on MTV at 10 pm est. Early reviews seem to be positive

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 11:58 am

Wow, had not been following - that looks fantastic!

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:37 pm

Redfive wrote:I liked Sword even if it was a bit of a ripoff. Nothing was more of a LotR ripoff than the Silver Call duology by Dennis McTiernan.

I've often wondered how Dennis McTiernan managed to not be sued into oblivion due to those books.

$iljanus · Post by **$iljanus** » Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:49 pm

tru1cy wrote:Part 1 & 2 airs tonight on MTV at 10 pm est. Early reviews seem to be positive

Thanks for the heads up! Since it's on MTV I haven't really seen any ads for it. Hope it does well!

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed Jan 06, 2016 7:01 pm

Felt weird recording something on MTV with my TiVo -- like I was expecting a some type of check box to come up with a "Are you an old dude seriously trying to record a show on MTV?" message, but no problems there. The Onion AV club review seems solid. I only watched the first hour before getting too tired (SEE: Old) but I liked what I saw. It was rather jarring to see like 90% of the cast looked like they were 20 and then old man John Rhys Davies...as an elf. I guess the Druid too, but everyone else looked like a teenager (which I guess is the point). I'll also never be able to un-see Will as Jay (of Jay and Silent Bob) because of the hat he insisted on wearing for the first part of the show (to hide his heritage).

Regardless, I only ever read the original (The Sword...) and I remember being "blown away" when it was revealed that the world was really a post-apocalyptic Earth and not some alternative fantasy realm (I was also like 12 so forgive me) and I'm not really sure why they started with the second book in the original trilogy but alas I'm not a TV producer. Anyway, seeing the artifacts of "ancient civilizations" rusting or falling apart on the landscape was weird only because there was no context. In terms of establishing the world, it just seemed off.

Anyway, it was enjoyable. Would never have guessed it was on MTV if not for the annoying watermark.

TheMix · Post by **TheMix** » Wed Jan 06, 2016 7:14 pm

Remus West wrote:
Redfive wrote:I liked Sword even if it was a bit of a ripoff. Nothing was more of a LotR ripoff than the Silver Call duology by Dennis McTiernan.
I've often wondered how Dennis McTiernan managed to not be sued into oblivion due to those books.

To be fair, those are not really a ripoff. They are actually more of a homage. At least the copy that I have has a forward where he clearly states that he took the inspiration from Tolkein. He just wanted to flesh that section out more. But he didn't try to pretend that the material didn't come from LotR.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed Jan 06, 2016 7:19 pm

Maybe I should try to blow through the Shanarra books again before watching? I really cannot remember if I read all, some, or any of them, I read so much fantasy as a young 'un.

TheMix · Post by **TheMix** » Wed Jan 06, 2016 7:20 pm

I watched it. I'm still not sure.

I read the books a LONG time ago. LOOOOONNNNNGGGGG. Maybe I'll dig them out. I really don't remember the stories that well. I think they were referencing stuff from the first book. I'm not really sure what this story is following. It does say "inspired" (or was it "based"?) so it appears to not be a direct retelling of any of the books. I'll watch the next round. Not sure how long I'll keep with it.

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Wed Jan 06, 2016 7:20 pm

It was decent. Bennett is good as Allanon. The young actors are a mixed bag, though. The elven princess seemed to be the best of the lot, as far as acting goes but none of them blew me away.

Smooth B, you made me laugh at your "Jay" comment. I thought the same thing and was waiting for a young Silent Bob to make a cameo at any second.

I dont know if it was the stream ( I watched it on Amazon Prime ) but it seemed to me that they used a really soft lens when filming a lot of the scenery, as if they were trying to cover up any CGI issues. It gave things a bit of a fake feeling at times.

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Wed Jan 06, 2016 7:31 pm

Smoove_B wrote:I'm not really sure why they started with the second book in the original trilogy but alas I'm not a TV producer.

The first book was already done via a movie trilogy called the Lord of the Rings.

Haven't watched the show yet. Is it ok for a 12 year who can handle Arrow and Flash? I'm guessing the parts with the demons ripping people apart could be scary, but I'm less concerned with fantasy violence as I am with real life portrayals.

JCC · Post by **JCC** » Wed Jan 06, 2016 10:45 pm

I DVRed it but haven't yet watched. I assume they skipped the first book because there are almost ZERO female characters in it.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Jan 06, 2016 10:47 pm

I think it's great that teenage girls are getting their own version of Game of Thrones.

cheeba · Post by **cheeba** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 12:33 am

Never read the books (I've read very little fantasy), but I'd have to say it's - surprisingly - not bad. So far, to me, it's your basic generic fantasy that would seem to be more at home on CW than MTV, but then that's exactly what I'd expect. It's not exactly good, either. I'll give it a chance, I guess.

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 10:50 am

hepcat wrote:I think it's great that teenage girls are getting their own version of Game of Thrones.

Maybe, but the actress that plays Amberle is pretty easy on the eyes. Reminds me of a young version of Sloan from Ferris Bueller.

Watched it last night. I'm a huge fantasy reader and these were some of my first fantasy books, so it is really nice to see it on the screen. Manu did a great job as Allanon and Rhys Davies is always fantastic to watch (even as an Elf!) I'm not a huge fan of the character playing Wil, but I guess he's doing ok as the clueless protagonist.

Loved the exposition on the first book, Sword of Shannara. Pretty much anything they discussed about Wil's dad or the War of the Races was from the first book.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 10:56 am

I watched about 15 minutes of it last night. It probably doesn't help that I dislike most fantasy post Tolkien. But this one felt more derivative and adolescent than even a CW presentation. I remember reading the first book as a preteen, but I didn't get the feeling it was targeted at young girls as much as this adaptation seemed to be.

And that is my curmudgeonly, old man review of the show.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 11:14 am

Wow, lots of CW hate in here. Is the network really that bad?

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 11:16 am

Well, they DO have Supernatural, which manages to still be funny and entertaining in spite of the casting of mostly young, good looking people and questionable acting.

But the channel has made its name off shows that skew towards teens.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 11:23 am

I read Sword of Shanarra in high school and despised it with every fiber of my being. I think I read Elfstones out of boredom in college, but I don't remember anything about it.

I should think about recording these, my daughters would probably love them.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 11:34 am

hepcat wrote:Well, they DO have Supernatural, which manages to still be funny and entertaining in spite of the casting of mostly young, good looking people and questionable acting.

But the channel has made its name off shows that skew towards teens.

I'm working my way through the first season of Arrow, which my wife has been avoiding. I described the basic setup to her, and she said that it sounded like a soap opera. My response was, "Well, it IS on CW."

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 1:37 pm

hepcat wrote:Well, they DO have Supernatural, which manages to still be funny and entertaining in spite of the casting of mostly young, good looking people and questionable acting.

But the channel has made its name off shows that skew towards teens.

They also have The Arrow and The Flash along with the soon to premiere Legends of Tomorrow, so while they have definitely cut their teeth on series dripping with teen angst, they have branched out as of late.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 4:02 pm

No doubt the CW has a lot that caters to the teen market, but they have also put out a lot of really good imaginative shows lately. Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, iZombie, all are good shows (I'm not sure I can say the same about Supernatural anymore - or for a while), and while I'm sure that teens enjoy them, they aren't after school specials, either.

Scuzz · Post by **Scuzz** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 5:31 pm

hepcat wrote:Well, they DO have Supernatural, which manages to still be funny and entertaining in spite of the casting of mostly young, good looking people and questionable acting.

But the channel has made its name off shows that skew towards teens.

As an aside did you see that ABC Family is changing it's name to FreeForm.

Talk about a network geared towards teens.

Scuzz · Post by **Scuzz** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 5:33 pm

I thought I had posted about this but I guess not. I remember reading the first 3 books and thinking how much like Tolkien they were. Fellowship quests thru dangerous lands in search of something to save the world.

My daughter is DVRing this so I may watch it. I am really bad at watching stuff once recorded.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 5:38 pm

Actually, I really did like the Hildebrandt artwork in Sword of Shannara. And that was it.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 9:22 pm

I read the books years and years ago - early 90s, as I recall. I read all that were available at the time (up through Druid of Shannara, I believe), but it has been long enough that I don't remember much of anything about them save that I hated Sword and enjoyed the rest.

I just watched the first episode. I enjoyed it, but then again my standards are low, and I tend to enjoy any traditional fantasy as there is so little of it that I'm just happy to see swords and pointed ears.

The one thing that drove me nuts, though, was the dialogue. The writers need to pick a style and stick with it. One conversation would start stuffy medieval/fantasy stuff, then end with contemporary expressions. It stood out like a sore thumb.

"he's a big boy, he can handle it"
"...sensing a lot of elf-boy hate"
"sorry for the epic headache you're going to have"
"knocked up"

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 9:31 pm

Blackhawk wrote:No doubt the CW has a lot that caters to the teen market, but they have also put out a lot of really good imaginative shows lately. Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, iZombie, all are good shows (I'm not sure I can say the same about Supernatural anymore - or for a while), and while I'm sure that teens enjoy them, they aren't after school specials, either.

Can't argue with that. I love iZombie and Flash. Arrow I stopped watching a while back. Supernatural has always been more about the goofy leads and the sillier stories. The mythos they've tried to build up over the years has become stale.

hentzau wrote:Actually, I really did like the Hildebrandt artwork in Sword of Shannara. And that was it.

Ditto. Probably the only reason I even picked up the book all those years ago was the cover. I quickly returned to my first love though. I'm a horror nut, I must say.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 9:47 pm

hepcat wrote: Supernatural has always been more about the goofy leads and the sillier stories. The mythos they've tried to build up over the years has become stale.

It is at its best when it does the monster of the week. Any mytharc episode, or any episode with more than one angel in it is awful, though. This season I finally took it off of my watch list, just because I couldn't see myself sitting through the dull 'Crowley whining' episodes to get to the good ones anymore.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 10:15 pm

Crowley is awesome.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Thu Jan 07, 2016 11:10 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:Crowley is awesome.

Crowley is awesome. Mark Sheppard is awesome as Crowley. What isn't awesome is that they can't write a story for him that doesn't involve something other than shots of him moping and whining.

tru1cy · Post by **tru1cy** » Fri Jan 08, 2016 10:21 am

Watched it last night and if I had to sit through commercials I wouldn't have lasted long. Anyway, the editing of the show needs to get better cause the continuity of the show sucked ass.

Anyway, I don't think I can set through a season of this cause this show is definitely for the YA crowd

ydejin · Post by **ydejin** » Sun Jan 10, 2016 7:46 pm

The first three episodes are up on iTunes and I shot through them watching them all in one night. I really liked it. For me it kind of has a light-weight fantasy vibe of Xena and Hercules with similar levels of production values. It was fun and doesn't take itself too seriously.

I thought the two female leads did a decent job acting, I'm not sold on the male lead, but maybe he'll get better.

If anyone's looking to watch it but didn't record it, the first episode is up for free on iTunes. It's a double length 1 hour and 20 minute episode and will give you a pretty good idea of what the show is like, the other two episodes up on iTunes are very similar in tone and production values

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Mon Jan 11, 2016 9:44 am

tru1cy wrote: Anyway, I don't think I can set through a season of this cause this show is definitely for the YA crowd

I couldn't make it a full episode. I'm not suggesting it was bad in any way, but it utterly failed to grab me and when I realized I hadn't been paying attention for about 10 minutes, I just turned it off.

Fretmute · Post by **Fretmute** » Mon Jan 11, 2016 11:51 am

Smoove_B wrote: Regardless, I only ever read the original (The Sword...) and I remember being "blown away" when it was revealed that the world was really a post-apocalyptic Earth and not some alternative fantasy realm (I was also like 12 so forgive me) and I'm not really sure why they started with the second book in the original trilogy but alas I'm not a TV producer.

That was jarring for me as well. That revelation was a big deal for me, and here they go, putting grown over skyscrapers in the open. <shakes old man fist>

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Jan 30, 2016 1:05 pm

I'm trying really hard to understand the programming schedule at MTV. Apparently the Shannara episodes air a single time and then they're gone. For reasons I don't understand TiVo missed this last week's episode ("Reaper") and it's not being re-aired a single time. Ever. Meanwhile I can watch 37 episodes of Teen Mom or some other ridiculous show, so thanks for that. I tried watching it on MTV.com but they want me to sign in with my service provider and at that point, I'm rapidly losing interest.